Oh the Cloud. Unless you have been living on Mars or have had you head buried in the sand for the past few years, you have undoubtedly heard of the Cloud. In all likely hood, you’re probably using the Cloud right now. Do you have Twitter open? Do you have Facebook open on your browser? Are you streaming music via Spotify or video content via Netflix? If you answered yes, you’re in the Cloud. But this Cloud, the Spotify Cloud, is the public Cloud. That’s right, there is a difference between the Public Cloud and the Private Cloud. We’re going to explain it.
The Public Cloud
The Public Cloud or Public Cloud Computing, is Facebook. The Public Cloud is Google +. The Public Cloud is Spotify, Twitter, Google Docs (Drive), Dropbox and Box.net. This is to say the Public Cloud is an open Cloud environment anyone can access with a stable Internet connection. The Public Cloud is a Cloud available to the public in which the provider makes storage, applications (resources) easily available via an Internet connection. In most cases, the public Cloud is free to use (think Gmail) however there are cases where the Public Cloud is deployed on a pay per access model (think the pay for version of Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync).
The main factors of Public Cloud Computing are:
- Scalability to meet customer demand and growing needs
- Low overhead and easy set-up due to all the IT equipment, bandwidth usage and application development/maintenance being handled by the provider
- Pay for only what you use (or pay nothing at all).
It should be noted: the main benefit of a Public Cloud deployment is scalability and pay for what you use. With the ability to grow or shrink to match demand and the ability for the user to only pay for what he/she uses, Public Cloud infrastructures are great for businesses and private consumers to meet their needs without paying an arm and a leg for reliable solutions.
The Private Cloud
Unlike the Public Cloud, the private Cloud is well, private. Whereas anyone from the general public can access and utilize a Public Cloud application, only a select few can access and utilize a Private Cloud deployment. This is because a Private Cloud, is a Cloud deployment deployed and secured behind a corporate firewall. The Private Cloud, while having many of the same characteristics of the Public Cloud, is accessible only to those individuals who are securely behind the corporate firewall in question and have the right access credentials to gain entry. In most cases, a Private Cloud is deployed by either an internal IT team (and it is thus maintained by the internal team) or, more often then not, deployed by a third party Cloud Computing company and maintained by that company.
The point of a Private Cloud is simple: Whereas the Public Cloud is out in the open, the Private Cloud houses storage, applications and solutions which company employees need regardless of location in the world however which the company wants to keep private. That’s it. The Private Cloud is, let us steal a line from Dropbox, “a place for my stuff” yet more secured. Being behind a corporate firewall means the data stored in the Private Cloud maintains a higher level of security and confidentiality. That’s it. The Private Cloud is a more secure Public Cloud accessible only behind a corporate firewall.
Private Cloud Computing Providers
For those of you looking into deploying your own corporate Private Cloud, take a look at the usual suspects. RackSpace, SUSE, Dell, Amazon, Google, Citrix, CloudStack, GoGrid, IBM and Microsoft just to name a few. Like any hosting solution, Private Cloud providers will vary in price depending on the services offered.