In certain instances, we may earn revenue when a reader makes a purchase or completes a form through our pages or on a partner’s website. We adhere to a strict In the old days we used to talk about the benefits of a private intranet vs. the public internet. Now the language used is “private cloud vs. public cloud.” The underlying principle is the same. If a company really wants to protect its data and IT infrastructure, an on-premises private cloud is the way to go. But unlike the old intranet days, setting up and managing a private cloud is getting easier, and the space required to host it is getting smaller.
The most important advantage of a private cloud is that you own it. If your private cloud architecture is within the secure walls of your campus, then you have complete physical control of it. If it is behind your firewall, then you have some protection against hacking, phishing and malware. You can limit remote access to trusted users via secure connections. Not only security, but matters of configuration, storage, resource management and scalability are firmly within your hands. You can better supervise who touches or uses your IT devices and applications.
And unlike the public cloud, inquiring IT professionals within your organization (with requisite permissions) have unlimited visibility to every component of your IT architecture. That matters when deeper analysis of usage or performance issues become necessary. In a private cloud, you call the shots.
The same benefits of cloud computing in general are present in a private cloud computing environment. IBM references The Gartner Group when discussing advantages of private cloud computing. Among the key attributes of the private cloud per Gartner are flexibility and scalability, the ability to offer resources as services, and resource sharing. Cost savings are realized through standardization and automation. Activities that may have taken weeks can be reduced to hours or minutes through automated processes. The innovation of cloud computing is transforming the IT industry.
But some companies have been so eager to jump on the new technology bandwagon that they have ignored the drawbacks of the public cloud. Not so fast. The flexibility and protected environment of the private cloud make it easier to customize applications to meet local and national regulations. Security and compliance issues are better handled by the private cloud. Organizations with critical data – especially financial institutions – will find it more amenable to their purposes.
Reliability of services is another good reason to go with the private cloud. The risks can be high for customers on the public cloud. And although providers may guarantee uptime for IT infrastructure, the health and viability of the application services themselves may be another matter.
Fortunately it’s becoming easier to adopt private cloud technology for both the enterprise and smaller businesses. The advent of a superconverged IT infrastructure, with reliable “data center in a box” devices, will have a significant influence on the industry. IT infrastructure is becoming smaller and much more manageable. With the private cloud, you can save time and money and rest easy knowing that your environment is secure. With the right solution, you can have your cloud and control it too. It’s your infrastructure.
