Cloud hosting, as you may have heard us say here on the Superb Cloud blog once or twice, is a beautiful thing. It gives you a way to store all of your data on top-of-the-line servers without buying, storing or managing them. It houses them in state-of-the-art data centers (DCs) without you having to build and manage them. It also gives you a whole host of failover benefits that ensure that your cloud instance is automatically restarted in another part of the cloud with almost no downtime in the event of any server issues. There are high levels of security and management in place, ensuring that whatever you’re storing is always safe and sound and available. Perhaps best of all, everything is scalable, so you pay for only what you need and get more or less storage capacity when and only when you have to have it.

Still, some organizations are resistant to putting everything they have up into a cloud service provider’s DC. Instead, these firms choose to maintain their own facilities and partner with cloud service providers simultaneously, creating a hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud is a computing scenario in which an organization handles some of its resources in-house while allowing others to be managed at an external DC. The hybrid approach allows companies to enjoy the cloud benefits of scalability and cost-effectiveness without forcing them to expose mission-critical applications and content to anyone outside of their own facilities.

This model is extremely popular among large and midsized organizations because it keeps larger amounts of control in their hands. Of course, non-hybrid Superb cloud services give their users a wide array of control options, but large-scale enterprises with sensitive information often have a need for even more control, and that’s where the private cloud comes in at for those looking to work with a provider.

Private cloud means a cloud computing environment that is used only by a single business customer. Public clouds, on the other hand, use a multi-tenant approach, with each tenant being a different organization entirely. Private clouds can still have tenants, but each one is a unit of the same organization rather than being different organizations.

Public clouds have many great uses, but they are sometimes not as ideal as private ones. For instance, if a client is in need of a virtual infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), then it needs to make sure it will run at the best performance rates possible. Private clouds can guarantee that will happen.

Growing Private Cloud Opportunities

Tech Target identifies application incompatibilities, the need to have as much control as possible and data management policy compliance as probably the three most important reasons why many larger organizations are veering away from public clouds and towards private ones. Many managed service providers (third-party contractors that deliver network-based services, applications and/or equipment to customers) are thusly focusing on creating hosted private cloud services on top of integration skills for helping firms bring together private-cloud-hosted applications with other elements of their business infrastructure.

Providers that are doing so can offer robust, secure services. The underlying infrastructure can be more closely managed than if the servers and storage were part of another provider’s public cloud offering. True, MSPs can actually monitor public cloud infrastructure, but addressing problems sometimes means getting the public-cloud service provider involved. That can be a great thing for most small organizations, but larger ones, as mentioned, often want full control. In addition, this approach allows for securing the network tying the hosted private cloud with the customer’s on-premises information technology infrastructure.

Providers taking this route can avoid going head-to-head with mega providers like Amazon, which can sometimes feel like absentee providers because of how enormous their public clouds are. Instead, they can offer a completely monitored and managed cloud environment, like those run by Superb.

What’s Needed to Run a Successful Private Cloud Service?

Offering private cloud services makes a lot of sense for some providers, but bringing the type of support that Superb does means having an incredible amount of skill and experience in the realm of data center virtualization and virtual infrastructure management, to name just a few requirements.

At the same time, there is a huge amount of demand for assessment services that will assist businesses in figuring out what applications are right for hosting within private cloud environments. As was previously explained, moving from public to private brings with it tighter controls for the customer over its own data. It can also give a more comprehensive look at precisely what services are being utilized and what departments are taking advantage of them.

When Is Private Needed and When Is Public Needed?

Of course, we wouldn’t want to leave public out in the cold. Those assessment services we mentioned can sometimes help very big organizations see why they need to have private and/or hybrid services. They can also show many that public is the way to go for them. Customers that are looking for new applications; firms thinking about shifting tech expenses out of their capital budget; and anyone that needs to temporarily find extra space for brief periods of time are just a few examples of those in need of public services.

Meanwhile, a private infrastructure is a good choice for cutting back on operations expense for applications that are already in place by rolling out new provisioning methodology and alternatives for more detailed chargeback. And, once again, those looking for the highest level of security possible may want to go with private.

Every business is unique, so no single cloud solution is right for each and every one of them. That’s why Superb has a host of flexible options in place and a full staff of knowledgeable professionals ready to listen to your needs and help you decide upon which of our many options is going to be most ideal for you. Call us today – we’re ready to help!

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