This is Part III in a three-part series about Public versus Private Cloud Services

An alternative type of Cloud offering is the Private Cloud. Most of the time the Private Cloud consists of both infrastructure and services operated for a single organization. It can be managed internally by a customers’ own operational staff or the management can be outsourced to the Cloud Services Provider with either internal or external hosting. As such, all applications, servers, operating systems, network infrastructure, and the storage behind the data repositories exist with in that Cloud.

This requires the customer to re-evaluate whether they want to use their existing technology or the Cloud Provider’s technology. This could be a significant cost-improvement or a challenge for cost-management. The options come down to customer buying, building and managing the technology or packaging that into a service offering or choosing a per-use model that most Cloud Providers seem to prefer.

Comparisons between the Public and the Private Clouds

We talked about all the different items that can be hosted inside of a Public Cloud that can also be done on-premise in a customer facility with the same build-out of infrastructure and applications and services. Let’s talk about what stands out when looking at the differences.

The initial cost, most of the time, in a Public Cloud does not require any capital expenditures upfront, because the infrastructure has already been built. Since it has been purpose-built to house specific requirements the customer can start deploying on an as-needed or per-usage basis right away. When deploying a Private Cloud, that provider needs to build-out the solution at the customer’s facility as if building any other data center.

The running cost or the on-going total cost of ownership of a Private Cloud is a little more predictable than with the Public Cloud because the cloud provider already knows the typical cost per processor in a system or per gigabyte of data storage. In most cases, the customer doesn’’t understand this model, especially if the Private Cloud solution contains components the customer is not familiar with.

Customization is almost impossible in a Public Cloud environment because of the cookie-cutter solution that the Public Cloud provider typically uses and adapts to the customer’s own solution requirements. But in a Private Cloud, it’s scalable because that scalability is actually part of what’s being delivered for a premium cost.

Is the security better in a Private Cloud?

Of course! In a Public Cloud, the data can be secured at rest on a storage platform or in flight with the proper encryption. In a Private Cloud, it is not just about addressing the data security; It’s also about addressing the transport of that data, the archive of that data, as well as the ability to access that data. There is also a consideration to address a shared environment, with Public Cloud, versus a dedicated environment at the customer’s facility, as in a Private Cloud.

The facility that hosts the Private Cloud provides a higher level of privacy because it’s already leveraging a secure infrastructure for physical data center access. There are obviously a lot of things to consider regarding security when using this type of facility. But once determined as secure, it’s just a matter of utilizing a Private Cloud infrastructure that’s already made and is sold as a service per month.

The ability to scale is easy within a Public Cloud but is a little more labor intensive in a Private Cloud, but it can be scaled, at a cost, though, because that is basically how the Cloud Providers grow. Customers rely on the ability for the Private Cloud to scale compute and data storage services as needed, quickly and simply.