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The Public Perception of Private Cloud Solutions

Posted by QuoteColo on August 21, 2013 - Updated on August 21, 2013

private cloud solutions

There is something funny happening in the tech community. As the Cloud gains greater public acceptance via the influence of popular solutions like Netflix, Spotify and Dropbox, tech insiders are beginning to see a lack of public knowledge concerning what the Cloud actually is. More specifically, it turns out the public has a hard time telling the difference between private Cloud computing, public Cloud computing and hybrid Cloud solutions. Due to growing ignorance of private Cloud solutions and the like, we are going to take a small amount of time to breakdown the differences between the aforementioned Cloud services.

Dispelling Public vs. Private

The biggest misconception of public vs. private Cloud solutions is found in the notion that the public Cloud belongs to everyone while the private Cloud belongs to individuals. The truth of the matter is the public Cloud refers to a Cloud accessible by the general public however within that public Cloud, personal information, profiles and data can be stored/accessed. On the other hand private Cloud solutions are internal Cloud infrastructures deployed for corporate use. Held behind an internal firewall with gated key access, private Cloud solutions are meant to store corporate data, only accessible by proper authentication access keys.

Common examples of the public deployment are GMail, Spotify and Netflix.

Which is Better, Public or Private?

Ah the debate. When it comes to deciding what is best for your needs, a determination needs to be made between public vs. private cloud service providers. To answer the question, let’s take a look at some of the key factors of both hosting infrastructures.

Deployment: The beauty of a public Cloud deployment is in the pay-as-you-go model. You need more resources? No problem, pay more to meet your needs. The same goes for downsizing. When it comes to private Cloud Computing, companies can also utilize the pay-as-you-go model however instead of provisioning a small VM with higher resources (Public), Cloud providers would provision a few more servers (this costs a bit more).

Elasticity: This one is simple – you will never, we mean never, fully consume and use up the resources provided to you by a public Cloud infrastructure. When it comes to private Cloud deployments, elasticity takes a back seat to security.

Security: By their nature, the public Cloud is more prone to hacking attempts. It only makes sense. Due to this, the public option has become hardened, powerfully firewalled and damn near unbreakable. The same cannot be said for the private option.

Internal Infrastructure: So, maybe you are the type to handle your tech solutions on your own. This means, when it comes to private Cloud deployments, your internal team is A) going to manage all your servers/IT gear internally or B) work with a team of outsourced experts running said servers and IT equipment. All of this means lots of money. On the other hand, the public Cloud is public. You are not going to deal with internal infrastructure and the costs associated with it.

This all being said, Private Cloud solutions have their uses for companies in need of keeping data secured in a centralized location accessibly only by high level access keys. For companies in need of data security, global data access, pay-as-you-go pricing, cutting the internal IT budget and bolstering company mobile app utilization, the Private Cloud is a great option. However, if you are a private consumer, the public Cloud is going to be for you.

With that out of the way, the next thing we need to chat about is cloud security. In our next article, “Really, How Safe is the Cloud?” we will cover a range of Cloud security issues.

What Do You Think?