As IT becomes less about infrastructure and more about services, discussions have focused on the cloud. Public cloud services from Salesforce.com to Amazon Web Services are at the forefront of most conversations, and for network teams this raises serious questions of security, privacy, and control over externally-hosted data and applications. These concerns have caused many IT shops to consider pursuing private cloud strategies.

The concept of a private cloud has also created confusion over definitions and presents its own set of configuration and management challenges. In this article, we’ll cut through the confusion providing:

• Clear definition of private cloud computing
• Top 5 benefits of migrating to private cloud
• Additional resources for developing private cloud strategies

What is Private Cloud?

Many experienced network professionals think of private cloud as a marketing term that can be used interchangeably with virtualized servers or running applications over a WAN. While these are two aspects of a private cloud, the term actually takes a broader view. Private cloud computing turns IT into a service, which can be provisioned and scaled by both network managers and non-IT people to support business processes on an “as needed” basis. It goes beyond virtualization by delivering all infrastructure as a fluid pool of resources that can be continuously allocated to support business needs.

 

The following matrix outlines five key attributes of a private cloud not found in the typical data center:

Attribute	Description	Benefit
Scalability	Amount of available resources dedicated to a process or service can quickly increase or decrease to correspond with demand	More efficient use of fewer IT resources
High Availability	Uptime is critical with cloud service success, and the key is to minimize and quickly spring back from unplanned outages	Virtual environment and flexibility of resource allocation saves significant time in disaster recovery
Self-Service	Users should be able to request and provision resources as needed in whatever way they see fit	Resources can be quickly deployed, rather than having to wait for weeks for physical server setup
Automation	New software designed for the private cloud has streamlined the provisioning and deployment of resources, allowing engineers from a single console to provision resources and set parameters	Fewer IT staff hours are needed to physically set up and maintain infrastructure
Hybrid Future	Ultimately, rather than being dependent solely upon internally-hosted solutions, networks will be configured to seamlessly integrate with public cloud providers when logical	Achieve maximum economies of scale and virtually unlimited capacity

 

For more in-depth information on developing private cloud strategies, rolling out private cloud initiatives, and key management challenges, check out the following resources:

 

• Building a Private Cloud (How to Get Started)
• Calculating the Costs of Private Cloud
• Cloud Technology Choices and Management Challenges
• Is Your Data Center Ready for Private Cloud?
• Private Cloud Strategy: 4 Step Plan for Success

We Thanks Network Instruments for suppling this article