A Private Cloud is a model of cloud computing where the infrastructure is dedicated to a single user organization. It can be hosted either at an organization’s own data center, at a third party colocation facility, or via a provider who offers hosting services and may or may not also offer traditional public shared multi-tenant cloud infrastructure.
Typically, the end-user organization is responsible for the operation of a private cloud as if it were a traditional on-premises infrastructure, which includes ongoing maintenance, upgrades, OS patches, middleware, and application software management.
Private Cloud Solutions offer organizations more control over and better security of servers, although it does require a much higher level of IT expertise than utilizing a public cloud.
Private Clouds offer the same control and security as traditional on-premises infrastructure. Here are some reasons why organizations opt for this kind of computing:
Security: Private cloud security is enhanced since traffic to it is typically limited to the organization’s own transactions. Public cloud providers must handle traffic from millions of users and transactions simultaneously, thus opening a greater chance for malicious traffic. Since they consist of dedicated physical infrastructure, the organization has better control over server, network, and application security.
Predictable performance: Because the hardware is dedicated rather than multi-tenant, workload performance is predictable and unaffected by other organizations sharing infrastructure or bandwidth.
Long-term savings: While it can be expensive to set up the infrastructure to support a private cloud, it can pay off in the long term. If an organization already has the hardware and network required for hosting, this can be much more cost-effective over time compared to paying monthly fees to use someone else’s servers on the public cloud.
Predictable costs: Public cloud costs can be very unpredictable based on usage, storage charges and data egress charges. Private cloud costs are the same each month, regardless of the workloads an organization is running or how much data is moved.
Regulatory governance: Regulations such as the EU’s GDPR may dictate where data resides and where computing occurs. In those regions where public cloud providers cannot offer service, a private cloud may be required. Additionally, organizations with sensitive data such as financial or legal firms may opt for storage to ensure they have complete control over personally identifiable or sensitive information
