Why Enterprises Are Choosing Private Cloud

Gartner’s latest IT spending forecast shows that spending on cloud system infrastructure services (IaaS) will grow from $39.5 billion in 2019 to $63 billion through 2021.

Our team has previously explored the many versions of cloud that can be implemented; the general advantages and challenges to each. Yet, private cloud remains the steady element in cloud computing.

Why Private Cloud?

Firstly, Private clouds certainly require more work to get up and running than simply pulling out the credit card and going to the shopping check-out with Microsoft Azure.

It’s a long and often arduous trip to the cloud, especially if your destination is Private Cloud. Yet, while the journey may be tedious, in return, you receive a cloud of your own that is highly-elastic, and most importantly, a cloud that offers you a dedicated infrastructure (IaaS) serving a single-tenant environment where the hardware, storage and network are owned solely by your business.

The major benefit here is there is a physical separation between customers with no shared components and it is customisable to meet the organisation’s requirements.

The new wave of informed cloud customer have become desensitised to the ‘wow’ factor. In its place, the stark reality that elements of cloud will need configuration or update up-keep.

Public cloud even had to admit that it did not spring out of the box as originally intended. It needed maintenance and a watchful professional eye during the configuration stages if organisations wanted to yield the maximum potential from the public platform.

What are the main benefits of enterprise private cloud computing?

• Bespoke Tools & Processes: Public clouds are built for the masses, and with that populous capability, comes standardised tools and processes. Yet what if your business does something a certain way that can’t be changed? For example, if you have a certain automated workflow you want to implement, public cloud features may need to be altered to fit the service. The agility of a private cloud allows the processes to fit the current workflow. This agility also comes with scalability as private cloud providers can call on virtualization resources to create multiple resource pools, configured specifically to enable hierarchical organisation.
• Compliance & Governance: Buyers of public cloud should always be aware of where your data will be stored. Many pure public cloud providers have global data centres, and often your organisation’s data may not be stored locally. Private cloud gives your company direct control over where data sits and most importantly, the ability to govern who accesses that data; with customisable conditional access groups.
• Cost-effective Scaling: ‘Private cloud’ and ‘cost-effective’ may be terms you won’t hear often in the same breath. On paper, the cost-per-user public cloud will easily undercut a private enterprise cloud provider’s bill. Yet, in terms of scaling long-term, which should be one of your key motivators for moving to cloud, the tables shift. If your user capacity balloons, or your network bandwidth begins to stutter under the weight of your growing apps and systems, cost-per-user does exactly what it says on the tin. Meaning: that cost goes up as the user goes up. Make sure you map out your user trajectory. This will save you a nasty shock down the road where an astronomical public cloud bill could lie in wait.
• Security & System Autonomy: The levels of security around private and public are similar; it’s not the quality of security that we can debate here, it’s whether organisations implement the controls correctly. The obvious security advantage to private cloud is its single-tenant status allows your company full control and delegation of its hardware, network and data centre. And to reiterate a previous point, you know exactly where your data is stored, making your systems more visible.
• Hybrid-first Systems: All roads seem to be leading to hybrid cloud as the inevitability that some data just won’t ever be able to leave the ground. Others will understand that various needs will only be met with a medley of cloud variations. Going from private to hybrid may prove to be an easier task than going from public to hybrid. Once the private cloud is built, the company can choose a public cloud service that inter operates with the private cloud ‘stack’. Choosing the public cloud first may limit infrastructure choices.

At the core of all innovation, the ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstance is crucial. If this move to the cloud is part of your over-arching Digital Transformation strategy, ensure you understand the strengths and weaknesses of public, private, and hybrid models. You might find private cloud is a better starting point. Or perhaps public cloud is the viable option.

If you want to know more about how your organisation will benefit from Private Cloud, talk to the Digital Planet team, Ireland’s ‘Cloud Partner of the Year 2018’.