Private Cloud Guide

Private cloud is a single-tenant cloud environment where resources are dedicated to one organisation.  Private cloud combines all the benefits of cloud infrastructure such as scalability and cost-efficiency, with the security, performance and control of an on-premise solution.   But what exactly is private cloud infrastructure and how does it differ from public or hybrid cloud?

Here’s Luke White, one of our cloud experts, to explain the topic.

A private cloud model is, by design, solely dedicated to a single organisation, meaning that it does not share resources with other businesses or organisations. Rolled out in a number of different ways, the private cloud can be tailored to meet the primary needs of a  specific business.

Private cloud is one of the three most common forms of cloud deployments – public, private and hybrid. While all three forms of cloud models share some common elements, private clouds differ on some key characteristics. So what are they?

Single-tenant architecture

A single organisation (a tenant) has computing resources exclusive to them, providing improved security and performance.

Dedicated hardware

With a private cloud, the underlying infrastructure of the solution is dedicated to a single organisation, therefore the hardware, including physical servers, is not shared by other organisations.

Direct control of your underlying infrastructure

With complete control over the infrastructure, private cloud allows you to customise your solution for specific services and applications to suit your business needs. 

It is important to note there is no universal type of private cloud that is applied across businesses. Naturally, as needs vary across industries, private cloud takes shape in several forms:

Virtual private cloud

A virtual private cloud is a sealed-off environment ‘within’ a public cloud that allows a business to undertake work on a tool, platform, or workload in isolation from other users of the public cloud platform. You may be questioning why is this a form of private cloud? Even though the basis of the platform is shared, the walled-off environment ensures that a user’s resources are private.

Managed private cloud

A managed private cloud is relatively self-explanatory. A managed private cloud is a cloud environment in which the cloud hosting provider manages every aspect of a cloud system on behalf of a business or organisation. This could include deploying additional services, scaling to meet growing needs and general day-to-day maintenance.

Hosted private cloud

In a similar nature to a managed private cloud, a hosted private cloud is relatively simple. A hosted private cloud is a model of cloud computing where the servers are solely dedicated to a business or organisation. The cloud service provider will configure and maintain the network and will undertake any relevant maintenance when needed.

Due to the personalised nature of private cloud solutions, they provide users with a unique set of benefits.

Compared to its public and hybrid cloud counterparts, private cloud solutions offer businesses a great opportunity to scale up or down to meet their needs at that current time. This ensures that the business has an environment to always have the resources at their disposal when needed. Private cloud solutions provide businesses with the confidence that as their business grows or demand grows, they can operate at optimal efficiency.

For businesses or organisations who are conscious of their security due to the nature of their data or workflow, a private cloud environment is a more secure environment than a public or hybrid cloud environment. As private clouds are designed and built to the needs of the specific user, they allow for more control over the security of their environment. This is often aided by the managed nature of private clouds, so a business can be confident their cloud environment is up to date with the latest security updates and patching.

As private cloud setups are achieved using dedicated hardware, a dedicated setup allows the user to benefit from a tailored setup that specifically meets the needs of the user. With a dedicated private cloud environment, there is no ‘hard limit’ to your cloud, so the hardware can cope with the continued scaling.

Businesses will usually adopt a private cloud when they require high levels of security. For example, a private cloud would be well suited to industries such as finance or government, with complex computing needs that require direct control over their environments, typically to meet security or regulatory compliance requirements.

With private cloud, you have complete control over your data and applications. Hyve’s private cloud keeps sensitive information locked down, ensuring that your data is secure. You get full control of every aspect of your infrastructure, and we’re here to help if needed.

According to an article by Earthweb, 94% of all companies use cloud computing in their operations. Despite the benefits of private cloud infrastructure ranging from cost optimisation to security and scalability, some businesses still find the migration process to the cloud daunting and complicated.

Migrating from on premise infrastructure to private cloud can be seamless with a professional and knowledgeable provider, with no need to worry about downtime or disruption to business operations. But why should you move away from on-premise hosting?

On-premise infrastructure may seem appealing to companies who like to feel more in control of their infrastructure, but this small gain comes with great responsibility. High levels of security expertise to meet stringent requirements comes hand-in-hand with high time and monetary costs due to constant monitoring and maintenance of physical assets and networks.

Private cloud provides IT teams a more complete security platform for  day-to-day management of their infrastructure, resources and applications. Private cloud offers single-tenant access, which enables organisations to have full control of all operations in a protected environment. The managed nature of private clouds means businesses can be confident their cloud environment is up to date with the latest security updates and patching.

House-keeping is enhanced when working directly with a managed hosting provider as they can offer additional services that an in-house team may not be able to thoroughly manage. Although security breaches can happen, the likelihood of a breach when using a trusted cloud provider is outweighed by the benefits the service offers. Migrating to the cloud also allows you to backup data to multiple data centres, removing the possibility of downtime.

A large investment is required to get started with on-premise hosting to cover the costs of hardware, installation, software licensing fees, data backup, IT support and more. Along with technical equipment, on-premise hosting requires office space, energy, maintenance, physical security and software updates.

There are no significant upfront expenses when migrating to a private cloud, which is one of the biggest advantages. A monthly subscription fee based on your chosen configuration means the cloud provider will be responsible for maintenance, software updates, security, and support, allowing employees to allocate their time more efficiently.  This cost-effective model is an attractive benefit, particularly for startups.

Private cloud accommodates growing businesses by allowing quick and effortless scaling and evolving infrastructure and software needs. Utilising cloud built-in features, businesses can quickly and effortlessly scale resources to specific metrics as required. Racking and stacking computers is unnecessary with cloud storage.This flexibility significantly lowers your overhead expenses related to directly monitoring and scaling resources.

It is important to consider goals, timelines, costs and possible challenges before committing to a migration strategy from on-premise to the cloud. Risk assessments, security checks and data back-up strategies should also be in place before beginning the migration. Companies can choose between online and offline cloud migration methods:

Online cloud migration

Data and applications are transferred to the cloud through a network connection. Online migration is more simple, fast and cheap than offline migration.

Offline cloud migration

Portable storage media transfers data and applications. This method is necessary for large data volumes, unstable or unsecure network connection, or in an instance where the cloud provider does not accommodate online migration for certain tasks.  Reputable cloud providers offer a variety of tools to aid your cloud migration process. These providers have expert technicians to improve security and performance whilst catering for the company needs.

Related Content: Cloud Migration Content Hub

You are probably already using the cloud to improve the performance of your business operations, or you’ve at least heard of it. Many businesses have migrated from on-premise to cloud hosting as a result of digital transformation, but how do you know which cloud solution is best for your needs?

The amount of information available about the differences between cloud services can be overwhelming, but selecting the right service can make a significant difference in your business’s outcomes. We’ve already talked a lot about private cloud, but what about public cloud?

Public cloud computing is currently the most common and widely available cloud solution for businesses of all sizes. In a nutshell, the public cloud is an IT model in which on-demand computing services and infrastructure are managed by a third-party provider and shared with multiple organisations/users via the public internet.

Resources

A public cloud is a type of cloud environment in which an independent third party, often a hyperscaler, owns and manages computing resources that consumers can readily access through the internet. Users can share these resources using this paradigm in a model or environment known as multi-tenant computing. This might happen, for example, if many virtual machine instances created by public cloud customers share the same physical server.

Private cloud solutions, on the other hand, eliminate the sharing component, instead, devoting infrastructure to unique users or organisations. Organisations benefit from the specialised flexibility, scalability, and customisation that the public cloud may give while guaranteeing that only one business or user has access to the platform.

Security

Private cloud computing offers consumers with a level of trust in the security of their platform that public clouds cannot, with private clouds used when public clouds cannot fulfill a business’s security requirements.

If your organisation has particular computing demands or requires greater levels of security to satisfy compliance standards, your cloud option may be influenced by regulations. Private Cloud solutions are popular in industries such as banking and government because you have total control over your data and apps, who can access it, and what they can do with it. Offering a more comprehensive and better degree of data security.

Scalability and Flexibility

In comparison to its public cloud cousin, private cloud solutions offer businesses a great opportunity to scale their requirements up or down in line with the current demands on their organisation. This ensures organisations always have the environment and control of resources at their disposal, running at optimal efficiency. This can be coupled with the confidence bills will remain stable at the end of the month.

Although this appears to be an attractive option, it might have a considerable influence on your monthly expenses. While public cloud providers promise the capacity to grow your resources with ease, the real cost of this is frequently concealed. Instead of just paying for service upgrades or downgrades, companies will often be charged based on their total usage at the end of the month, leaving organisations to pay for unanticipated expenditures that may have occurred.

At the end of 2021, more than two-thirds of all enterprise infrastructure was cloud-based. What’s more, 81% of business leaders reported that they had a multi-cloud strategy in place or in the works. Many of these opt to use the private cloud for more sensitive workloads rather than solely relying on the public cloud. This is because a private cloud can be tailored to the goals and needs of a single organisation, as opposed to the off-the-shelf public cloud which is used by many different organisations on a pay-as-you-go basis.

One of the main benefits of the private cloud is that only the organisation has access to their data, as it is encrypted and much more secure. This means more control, security and greater performance, along with the ability to comply with local business and government regulations.

When considering the security advantages of the private cloud, it’s important to remember that there are three different types of private clouds, each with different capabilities:

• There is the virtual private cloud, a confined environment which is located within a public cloud – although the server is shared, the virtual logic ensures everything remains private.
• The second is the hosted private cloud, where servers are not shared – instead, the provider configures the network and it is owned by a single organisation.
• The third is the managed private cloud – where the provider manages all aspects of the cloud for an organisation.

Despite the security advantages of private cloud being common knowledge in the technology industry, there are still some myths lingering – in particular around its security capabilities – and it’s time these myths were debunked.

Find out more about private cloud security myths in our in-depth insight published in PCR magazine.

Private cloud computing has gained significant popularity in recent years, offering numerous benefits to organisations across different industries. In this article, we will delve into the various advantages of private cloud infrastructure, as well as the factors to consider when selecting a private cloud solution.

Private cloud offers enhanced security and privacy

One of the advantages of private cloud computing is the enhanced security and privacy it provides. Organisations can implement robust security measures and access controls, ensuring that sensitive data and applications are protected from unauthorised access. Private clouds also offer isolation from other users, reducing the risk of potential security breaches and allowing organisations to meet stringent compliance requirements.

Private cloud allows greater control and customisation

Private clouds give organisations greater control over their infrastructure and applications. With a dedicated cloud environment, users can customise their IT architecture to align with their specific requirements and business goals.

Moreover, IT teams have complete visibility and control over the allocation of resources, enabling them to efficiently manage workloads, scale resources as needed, and prioritise business-critical applications.

Private cloud ensures improved reliability and performance

Private cloud computing offers improved reliability compared to both traditional on-premise or multi-tenant infrastructure. By utilising backup mechanisms, and disaster recovery capabilities, private clouds ensure high availability and minimise downtime.

In addition to reliability, private clouds provide enhanced performance by leveraging dedicated resources. Organisations can allocate resources based on application requirements, ensuring consistent high performance for critical workloads.

Selecting the right cloud computing solution for your business can be a stressful and complicated process. In today’s digital economy, your business must have the right IT infrastructure to meet the specific needs of your organisation and customer base. So what should you consider?

Scalability and Flexibility: Ensure that your private cloud solution can scale according to your evolving needs. It should provide the flexibility to add or remove resources as required.

Compatibility and Integration: Consider the compatibility of the private cloud solution with your existing IT infrastructure and applications. Seamless integration is crucial to maximise productivity and efficiency.

Vendor experience and support: Evaluate the experience and reputation of the private cloud provider. Look for a provider that offers comprehensive support and maintenance services to ensure smooth operations.

Security and Compliance: Ensure that your private cloud solution meets the security and compliance requirements specific to your business and industry.