Cloud computing has many advantages for different businesses across industries, but like with many other new and powerful technologies there are business impacts to consider. Organizations must make several key decisions in order to effectively benefit from cloud migration. First, they must choose the type of cloud environment they want to use. While several well-known corporations with well-known brands are among the hyper-scalable public cloud providers, a private cloud is a better fit for many organizations. Let’s look at why.

What is a public cloud?

Public cloud is defined as, “Computing, where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are supplied as a service to external consumers using Internet technologies,” according to Gartner. It’s usually available on a pay-per-use basis and in a multi-tenant environment, which means data from multiple companies can be stored on the same physical server. With a public cloud infrastructure, a cloud service provider usually hosts the servers that store the data and run the applications.

This is the most commonly used cloud computing infrastructure globally due to its flexible usage and pricing models. Companies can scale their cloud computing and storage systems up or down as and when required to meet business requirements, based on an operational expenditure, or OpEx, model with varying costs as opposed to a fixed billing model.

What is a private cloud?

A private cloud server is a safe and isolated environment created by virtualizing resources from many servers. This form of cloud is only available to a few enterprises rather than the public, ensuring that those organizations are suitably insulated from one another. A private cloud server is usually rented on a monthly basis.

Flexibility, cost savings, security, and control are all advantages of a private cloud, which are especially crucial to firms with predictable workloads or customization requirements, as well as those in regulated industries. If you want to build a private cloud in your own data center rather than using a cloud service provider, you’ll have to develop a lot of software, buy and install hardware, and make provisions for many architectural considerations. Not to mention the resources, various skill sets, and identifying the right approaches to IT service delivery.

When to use private cloud?

After determining a company’s cloud goals and priorities, it can assess whether private cloud computing is the proper IT environment for them. Some of the key factors that influence their choice are:

Industrial compliance

For some businesses, the private cloud will be the only way to ensure compliance with regulations in their respective industries. In the healthcare sector, for example, HIPAA mandates that electronically protected health information (ePHI) be created, received, stored, and transmitted securely. Although HIPAA is the compliance certification for the US healthcare industry, any partners or subsidiaries that work with US-based companies or handle data of US nationals must be compliant with it. In India, the introduction of DISHA, a HIPAA equivalent certification, will require healthcare companies to receive, store, and transmit data in a similar way for consumer security.

Similarly, in the banking sector, regulations such as PSD2 and GDPR for open banking and data storage, respectively, have made a strong case for companies to move to the private cloud for better security of data and systems. Banking and financial services organizations that are lagging behind in moving to the cloud stand to be at a disadvantage, and the best way to tackle evolving regulations and compliance requirements is to migrate to the private cloud.

Predictable server usage

Organizations with somewhat predictable and consistent resource demands might consider adopting a private cloud, besides those with PSD2, HIPAA, or other compliance concerns. Such firms are more likely to maximize their resources, and hence see their cloud spends increase, while also being less likely to fully utilize the elasticity that is one of the public cloud’s key features.

Need for flexibility

Organizations that may profit from the enhanced flexibility of a virtualized environment should also consider the benefits of private cloud. Many firms, especially medium-sized and large businesses, operate several applications and often simultaneously, each of which is housed on its own hardware.

Virtualizing a server that runs a specific application, such as email, enables a company to scale up or down its resources. As servers running more resource-intensive applications are provisioned with greater computational power or storage, performance improves and service delivery is faster. It also saves money because the additional resources are taken from underutilized servers rather than being leased or purchased individually.

Given these benefits, an organization should assess the following factors to determine which cloud deployment works best for them:

Security

Compliance requirements

Scale of application workloads

Cost-efficiency

Business processes and need for interoperability

A good cloud service provider that offers hosted private cloud solutions can assist with these assessments and make recommendations tailored to the company’s needs.

Conclusion

Whether you should use a public cloud or a private cloud entirely depends on your requirements. For many businesses, private cloud deployments can be more beneficial as it offers a closed, secure network. For others, a hybrid network implemented through a cloud service provider can offer the best of both worlds with both unlimited scalability, seamless data management, and heightened security.

Scale rapidly with seamless agility and robust control with fully customizable ZeaCloud® Private Cloud Solutions. Get in touch with us to know more.

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