Deciding to opt for a public or private cloud? It can be a big decision and there is a lot of confusing information out there. My goal is to help clarify these differences and offer some questions about your business needs that may help you resolve them.

Private cloud. Cloud infrastructure that is operated solely for one organization. It can be hosted and managed on the property of the organization (enterprise private cloud). However, it can be located off-site and managed by the organization (hosted private cloud) or managed by a third party (managed private cloud).

Public cloud. A cloud infrastructure that is multi-tenant and available to the general public or to a large industrial group. It is owned by an organization that sells cloud services.

Questions to ask yourself when weighing public and private cloud options:

1. What are your security needs? It is important to identify the level of security or compliance requirements for your business or organization. Although public clouds offer a very secure environment, private clouds offer an inherent level of security that meets even the highest standards. Additionally, you can add security services such as intrusion detection systems and dedicated firewalls.

2. What are your scalability speed requirements? One downside to private clouds is that their performance is limited to the number of machines in your cloud cluster. If you maximize your computing power, you will need to add another physical server. In a multi-tenant cloud environment, this is not a problem as there are other server resources available.

3. What is your knowledge of virtualization? We see companies interested in converting their current servers to a private cloud, but they do not have the necessary virtualization knowledge. If this is the case, a quality data center will have certified engineers on staff who can provide the consultations necessary for a company to create its own personal cloud environment using its existing hardware.

4. What applications should run on a private cloud? The most ideal candidate for private cloud deployments are large business applications. Systems designed to support very large databases for ERP or CRM deployments are suitable for private cloud infrastructures. However, the expense may not be justified for data storage, file servers, or even an email exchange server. In some cases, a hybrid option may make more sense.

5. What is your budget? The truth is, a private cloud can cost a lot more. However, do not transport! Public clouds, while multi-tenant, can provide a robust and secure environment for your critical data at a fraction of the cost of a private cloud.

6. Are you worried about cloud blocking? There is growing concern regarding cloud provider “lockdown”, which can cause a business to bypass a public cloud solution. There are providers that provide public clouds developed with proprietary APIs or other methods that make migration or integration with another cloud platform significantly difficult. This scenario can be overcome by choosing a cloud provider that offers a cloud platform that adheres to cloud industry business standards, such as OVF (Open Virtualization Format). This standard enables our customers to import and export virtual machines from a wide spectrum of cloud infrastructures such as Hyper V, Xen, and VMware. Be sure to ask your potential vendors whether or not their platform adheres to this industry standard.

There is a great deal of technical and marketing jargon about cloud computing, and it can be difficult to navigate the murky waters. I hope this information on public and private clouds has been helpful. My goal is to be a great resource for companies trying to determine the best solution for their IT infrastructure needs.