Head in the clouds

While cloud computing is certainly not a new technology in the IT sector, over the last couple of years it has been exerting its influence on businesses of all sizes. This comes as no surprise as the cloud is having a transformational effect on IT, allowing for desktop virtualisation, remote working and the seamless sharing of mission critical data.

Numerous advantages can be harnessed by businesses who adopt cloud solutions for part or all of their IT infrastructures. For such benefits to be realised, companies must choose between public or private cloud solutions or a hybrid of the two.

While public clouds offer cost-effective solutions for SMBs on tight-budgets, it is the private cloud model that is dominating the adoption of cloud within wider businesses. Whether this involves using an internal cloud set-up or external hosted services, the security and customisable aspects of a private cloud platform makes it desirable for companies who need to store and manage sensitive data and digital assets. As such, cloud adoption has a two to one ratio in favour of private models.

Secure services
A requirement for rigorous security protocols, such as encrypted connections and corporate firewalls, has pushed businesses to utilise private cloud solutions over their public counterparts. The ability to limit corporate cloud access to select devices with certain IP addresses, gives companies better control over the security and privacy of their cloud infrastructure, therefore ensuring that sensitive data and applications are fully protected. In an economy where data is a valuable commodity, such security is of paramount concern for companies that deal with copious amounts of information transfer.

Adding a third path
The prohibitive costs of running an entire in-house private cloud infrastructure has led to many businesses sourcing their private cloud services from third-party suppliers. A trend that is likely to continue as energy prices rise and the land space required for building a data centre continues to dwindle.

As increasing numbers of businesses are migrating their IT systems and applications to the cloud, the need for robust connectivity and continuous levels of high performance has become a principal concern for the companies spearheading cloud adoption. While public cloud offers a cost-effective solution, the shared hardware resources means that some businesses may find the performance of their cloud-hosted applications is eroded during times of high usage. Especially as cloud adoption continues to accelerate with a proliferation of cloud applications. This means the need for a private cloud with dedicated client-only computing resources, becomes vital for companies wishing to maintain continuous fast and efficient cloud utilisation.

The net result of this involves multiple private cloud models that can involve a company installing its hardware into allocated rack-space inside a colocation centre, where the centre’s owners will take care of facility maintenance and ensure servers stay cool and secure. Other solutions involve renting out both server space and the hardware – essentially a complete private cloud solution – from a third-party supplier. All of which help provide affordable cloud and secure solutions to businesses that cannot afford the financial or resource outlay that is required when setting up a private cloud infrastructure.

Controlled cloud computing
Businesses that harness the power of cloud computing will often make use of software as service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to virtualise their IT systems. This trend is picking up pace as we see more vendors launch cloud-based software. In order to get the most performance and value from such cloud-powered services, businesses require a cloud solution that can be quickly and easily configured to add or subtract additional software services. Such adaptability is enabled by third-party vendors and suppliers of public cloud services cost-effectively; in contrast private clouds have much less scope for being able to scale up or down quickly. However, private cloud provides a service that can be tailored to suit a businesses’ changing demands.

Hybrid approach
While private cloud services, both in-house and third party, remain the most popular choice for businesses, and public cloud offers more value for money for start-ups and individuals, a third model is emerging that could change the way cloud is supplied and adopted.

Hybrid cloud merges the performance and security of private solutions with the value and ad-hoc scalability of public services, to create a solution that offers businesses a cloud service that is robust enough to support their IT infrastructure without requiring a significant monetary outlay.

Despite having a dedicated pool of computing resources to cope with business applications and rapid data transfer, at times spikes in demand within a private cloud infrastructure can still blunt operating performance; this can be very detrimental for a business relying on swift performance at all times.

To combat this problem, hybrid cloud services can offer a technique called ‘cloud bursting’. By switching non-sensitive applications, functions and data to a public cloud, processing power and storage space is freed-up, allowing for more mission-critical applications to be run at optimum speeds and valuable data safely accessed and archived.

When the peak in demand slopes off, the pushed applications and data are returned within the virtual ring fence of the private cloud. Such a technique means a company’s cloud services are virtually always running at optimal speeds, augmenting the benefits in revenue and cost-savings that cloud computing as a whole can deliver to businesses.

The adoption of cloud computing in business is likely to continue to become more prolific, and in turn cloud services will evolve their offerings. It can be predicted that the hybrid cloud model will continue to develop and present small businesses and start-ups with a cloud solution that balances cost-effective flexibility and secure protocols. For companies that have the resources, private cloud presents the best option for businesses that wish to benefit from a fully configurable service that keeps sensitive data within in virtual corporate walls.