Many CIOs struggle with maximizing the efficiency of their IT team. They want a streamlined approach to tech project management, an easier way to keep up with the increasing complexity of cybersecurity threats, and more budget-friendly, sustainable solutions to protecting data and infrastructure.
In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the basics of private clouds and how your IT team can harness them to address these pain points to increase security and cut some of your budget costs.
What is a private cloud?
A private cloud (sometimes referred to as a corporate cloud or internal cloud) is a type of cloud computing through proprietary architecture over the internet or a private network.
Like a public cloud, internal cloud solutions have the advantages of scalability, self-service, and more flexible access to data and storage. However, internal clouds differ from public ones because the solution is only accessible to a single company, referred to as the tenant.
In a single-tenant environment, there are various ways to host or manage a cloud’s resources. For example, the cloud might be configured in an existing infrastructure on a tenant’s on-premises data center, or a third-party provider can host the cloud as part of their infrastructure. There is also the possibility to spin up private clouds exclusively using virtualization software. Regardless of how the cloud is hosted or managed, the main point is only the tenant can access the cloud’s resources and functionality.
Types of private clouds
A virtual private cloud is a closed-off environment within a public cloud where a company can run their workloads isolated from the public cloud users. In this instance, other companies and users within the public cloud share the server, but with virtual logic, the private cloud user can keep their computing resources private.
Organizations often employ virtual private cloud solutions when they have enough IT specialists on staff who can maintain their configurations, software, and security.
A hosted private cloud refers to a cloud environment where only one organization accesses the server. A cloud service provider builds the network and maintains the software and hardware with relevant updates on behalf of an organization, and only that organization occupies the server.
Hosted private cloud solutions usually work best for companies with smaller IT teams. Often smaller IT teams are stretched thin and need additional support, so having hosted solutions with a cloud provider helps alleviate some of their workloads.
A managed private cloud is similar to a hosted cloud in that only one organization occupies the server. But in a managed cloud environment, the managed service provider handles every aspect of the cloud, including hosting, maintaining, updating the cloud and server, and deploying any additional services (like identity management, storage, etc.).
Typically, organizations that don’t have dedicated IT specialists on staff to manage their cloud for them use managed cloud service solutions.
Common IT problems private clouds can solve
Long lead times for IT requests
If your IT team is stretched thin, you likely deal with long lead times to address requests for new services, application upgrades or additional processing power.
An article from Network Computing discusses how IT specialists use private clouds to automate common requests and free up more of their time.
As a team, they would define the most common requests, automate them, and put them in your organization’s self-service catalogue to encourage users to use more standardized systems.
Poor server utilization
Underused servers can negatively impact your budget when you consider the costs of maintaining and powering multiple machines that could be consolidated.
Private clouds solve this problem with improved resource utilization since you can deploy workloads to a different physical server as resource demands change. The workload deployment is possible because of the flexible nature of virtualization (the tech that underlies every type of cloud computing), i.e., consolidating multiple instances of applications and operating systems on the same machine.
Trouble managing demand spikes
IT teams everywhere will experience detrimental demand spikes at some point. For example, if your finance department needs additional processing power to get their year-end bookkeeping done.
In addition to using virtualization as mentioned above, difficulties coping with demand spikes can also be addressed with elastic cloud computing solutions like dynamic provisioning. Dynamic provisioning and elasticity allow your servers to scale processing power (and other IT resources) quickly and efficiently to meet demand spikes.
Issues with cloud security
Generally, private clouds tend to outperform public clouds from a security standpoint.
Of course, every organization should protect any cloud environment they have with potent anti-virus, malware, and firewall protection. However, private clouds have the advantage of running on physical machines, making their physical security more assured. They are also more secure because users access private clouds on private network links rather than through the internet.
Ready to let cloud solutions drive your business?
At Vigilant Technologies, our cloud engineers and cybersecurity specialists leverage their expertise to enable 50% (or more) in cost savings for all our clients. Learn more about our cloud engineering and IaaS solutions, and see how they can increase your IT agility and proactivity and, ultimately, save your money.
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