Private cloud computing provides the benefits of cloud computing while maintaining control over physical computing resources, addressing privacy and security concerns. It can be built on a corporate network or use software for higher security. A hybrid cloud combines aspects of public and private clouds and may be the future.
Private cloud computing is an attempt to preserve many of the benefits of cloud computing, including lower hardware costs and dynamic scalability, while maintaining some level of control over physical computing resources. Tackle the privacy and security that have kept many companies from investing in cloud computing. A cloud-like infrastructure could be built on top of a corporate network, or software can be used to build higher security in an internet-based cloud. It is also possible to use a mix of public and private resources and some believe that the market will slowly move towards public cloud computing.
Many organizations have been reluctant to embrace public cloud computing because it means outsourcing internal data to third parties who manage resources for many other users. While users in a cloud may be separated from each other via software, the cloud as a whole relies on shared resources—that is, the data of many different users may be on the same physical hard drives. Private cloud computing has emerged as an answer to many companies’ privacy and security concerns; seeks to provide many of the same benefits of regular cloud computing while preserving a greater level of isolation from the public.
There are many different approaches to private cloud computing, but they all involve greater security and control than more traditional public offerings. In some cases, a cloud-like infrastructure might be built within the confines of a corporate network, with perhaps a few trusted business partners able to access this internal cloud. External vendors can build and maintain the cloud infrastructure, but the resources themselves are almost completely isolated from the outside world. For organizations like hospitals that deal with sensitive or confidential data, an internal private cloud is often the preferred choice.
For Internet-accessible clouds, technologies such as Virtual Private Networking (VPN) can create a level of virtual isolation while retaining all the benefits of a public cloud. Many public cloud providers have also established more private setups for enterprise customers. This can reduce the burden on an organization’s internal IT staff because the provider is responsible for setting up and maintaining the physical IT resources.
Some industry observers have predicted that private cloud computing is a temporary phenomenon that will gradually be replaced by a hybrid cloud. As the name suggests, a hybrid cloud combines some aspects of public and private clouds. A large enterprise might, for example, use a public cloud for non-sensitive data while maintaining its own internal IT services for more private matters. Special software that can move applications on demand between an external cloud and internal infrastructure could be used to deal with spikes in demand or equipment outages. As more and more applications and services are built with cloud computing in mind, some believe the line between public and private cloud computing will one day be blurred.
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