Conceptually, the cloud is like a serviced condotel, and cloud storage and other services are like the rooms, amenities, cleaning and maintenance services, front desk, and security services provided to tenants. A public cloud serves “multiple tenants,” whereas a private cloud only has a “single tenant.”

Does my business need a private cloud?

Only a few businesses ever need to use a private cloud. The criteria for going for one are as follows: 

• Security: You want to limit access to the cloud and thereby minimize your exposure to external factors. With access points reduced, the majority of the cloud’s security detail can be shifted toward monitoring the interior and resolving issues as these arise. You also want to comply with stringent data regulations such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and/or Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
• Scalability: Your business has dynamic and unpredictable IT resource requirements and needs the scalability and flexibility that a private cloud can provide.
• Control: You need complete control over the hardware and virtual servers you use for developing, deploying, controlling, and managing your apps. You also need failover control — the ability to keep cloud services running by shifting workloads to healthy servers when others falter or lose their connections.
• Budget: You either can afford the private cloud services of a third-party cloud service provider (CSP), or you can or already have invested in hardware and software for building your own private cloud on-premises.

Meeting the criteria above means that using a private cloud is a viable and good option for your business.

What should I look for in a private cloud service provider?

Here are the three things you should consider:

1. Integration and interoperability: Just like with any CSP, you must check if the services they provide can be smoothly integrated with your technology stack and processes. Also, have your IT technicians confirm with the provider’s admins that your internal data center setup will work with the latter’s data exchange protocol. To maintain the flexibility, scalability, and overall performance of your system, you’ll most likely want to choose a CSP that uses a well-established protocol, such as a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI).
 
2. Tech familiarity and reliability: If you’re going for a private cloud, it’s most likely that you already have the hardware (e.g., servers and switches) and software resources (e.g., databases and network management apps) that comprise your IT infrastructure. With this in mind, you’ll want a private cloud that you can deploy quickly.
   You don’t want new tech that will needlessly increase your capital expenditures and/or steepen the learning curve so much as to cause downtime. However, what you do want is to implement hardware and software upgrades to optimize your system. Therefore, it’s important to choose a private cloud provider that can formulate an IT strategy that prioritizes reliability and also eases your IT staff into anything that’s new or unfamiliar.
 
3. Location: The farther apart data centers are from one another, the longer data exchanges and processes take. Beyond performance considerations are data regulations: a private cloud can be expansive and has to comply with the different regulations of the states or regions it is in. This means that the CSP you choose must be adept at handling both the technical and legal complexities that being in different locations bring.
 

Learn more about private clouds and how one can cost-effectively support your business processes, contact SimplyClouds today.