Cloud computing started to become popular in the late 1990s but has proliferated exponentially in the 21rst century. What was once solely the domain of highly advanced tech companies has now become accessible to mom-and-pop businesses. But with at least a few different iterations of cloud computing services available and the likelihood of more to come, how do you know how to choose the right cloud type for your business? In this post, we’ll compare the various types of cloud computing scenarios and explain what types work best for what businesses.
The short answer is that it will reduce costs and increase agility. If you’re already using enough computing power that you rely on a bank of servers, there’s no reason why you couldn’t eliminate that and transition to the cloud. Not only does it cost money to purchase those servers, but it also requires resources (money, labour and physical space) to maintain those servers. Physical servers can also reduce agility as the time and energy required to replace or update them can often be onerous and require the approval of several different company departments. Updates to cloud computing, on the other hand, can be as fast and simple as a few clicks of a mouse. There’s no delivery time, no reason to hire new expertise and no need to clear out more space while finding ways to dispose of the old equipment. And if the new system isn’t what’s required, another few clicks can return everything to original.
Generally speaking, there are currently four major types of cloud computing: private, public, hybrid and multi. How to choose the right cloud type for your business will largely depend on the type and amount of data you deal with. Smaller organizations generally go with public clouds, while companies with more resources or deal in sensitive data often opt for private or hybrid clouds. Organizations that prefer not to rely on a single cloud service provider may opt for multi-cloud setups.
Although the name suggests that anyone has access to data on a public cloud, the fact is that no unauthorized users will have access. The term “public” refers to the fact that the hardware that powers the public cloud, which is owned by the cloud provider, is used by several different organizations or tenants. However, each tenant’s data is housed separately which means the data is only accessible only to the rightful owner. Some common uses of the public cloud include web-based email systems, online apps or data storage. The advantages of using a public cloud are the cost (it’s usually a pay-as-you-go system,) ease of scalability and a significant reduction in maintenance procedures.
Private clouds are used by a single customer but can be hosted on hardware owned by the customer or a cloud service provider. All applications and services are kept on a private network that’s only accessible to one customer. This provides the highest levels of security and data privacy which is why private clouds are most often used by institutions that deal in sensitive data or are regulated by strict data protection laws. A private cloud offers more control, greater security and stricter privacy.
As the name suggests, hybrid clouds combine both private and public cloud computing services. They are most often used by organizations that deal with both sensitive and anonymized data. This allows the organization to save money by keeping its anonymous data on a cheaper public cloud platform while still protecting its sensitive data on a private cloud.
Multi-cloud computing has only come into vogue as more and more cloud providers have come into existence. This has allowed organizations to use multiple cloud providers and spread their resources (and risk) among them. An organization utilizing a multi-cloud situation would require the resources to manage the resulting infrastructure itself or hire another company to do so on its behalf.
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