Private cloud computing grants you most of the benefits of public clouds with severely reduced security risks for your data. The idea of private cloud computing is creating a cloud within the parameters of your own Firewall. This creates a lot of work (to say the least) for the IT department because they have to create and maintain it, but it also makes the transport of information and data exchange between users in the system much easier.
This doesn’t mean that private cloud is without its shortcomings, though but even so, many new companies are adopting the technologies and it seems this tendency will continue for at least the next several years.
Most of these internal clouds don’t use all of the available functions of such systems, though. This is a natural consequence of IT departments aiming at the highest level of productivity while at the same time cutting man-hours. Why would they need to spend more work on something they don’t really need in the system? There are currently four main approaches to private cloud computing systems.
Enhanced Virtualization
Although not technically a private cloud, this is a great solution for improving your existing system. Every company that needs some level of data transfer between different computers has at least some crude network levels and a virtual environment to enable those transfers. Enhanced virtualization builds up on this premise and improves every aspect of the already existing system. It makes it faster, more secure and less resource intensive. The downside is that the new system requires more maintenance but that’s a price most companies would readily pay because of the convenience these systems create.
Developer and Test Clouds
Closing the loop between developers and testers is essential for production and these private cloud options provide the perfect tool to make it happen. Things used to be much more complicated in the past but with the development of cloud computing the cycle is shrinking ever more. Basically using these systems, developers and testers can have a much better communication among themselves and coordinate much better, not to mention the fact that they can have access to the same resources, making removing minor bugs a breeze. Not only that, but the effectiveness is improved, as well, because fragments of information are no longer lost along the way, which used to sometimes happen in the past. The result is a better working machine that delivers you higher quality products faster.
Public-Cloud-Lite
More or less (more “less” than “more”) this is the internal version of a public cloud within the system. This is what you picture when someone uses the words “private cloud”. The private cloud of this sort uses the same basic functions as a public cloud, but does so within the security parameters of the company’s firewall.
This is a great method, especially for bigger companies because it enables adequate access to the data while in the same time providing ample security. The data is protected within the system so if there are any problems, you immediately know they are probably internal.
The downside is that this method requires a high level of maintenance in order to work properly, making it more resource intensive but if it’s absolutely worth it if your company needs the data transfer in its day-to-day business.
Final Words
Companies usually choose an approach based on the needs – since of these methods are more resource intensive than others, it would be absurd to use them if you don’t really need it. The solution is there if you need. Furthermore, the system is ever-evolving so who knows what the future will bring next?
