Cloud Computing can be split into two main categories – Public Cloud and Private Cloud. If you would like to know more on the Cloud, please take a look at our earlier blog What are cloud-hosted applications and what do they mean for my business?
This blog explains the difference between the Public and Private Cloud, and identifies the pros and cons of each:
Public Cloud
A public cloud uses the Internet to access computer services e.g. applications, data or email. The Cloud provider bears the entire cost of the infrastructure, and the equipment is stored in secure data centres. A public cloud provider will charge on a monthly basis according to the volume of data transmitted and the bandwidth used.
Pros – cost efficiency, short-term commitment, faster to deploy, top providers include support
Cons – one size fits all approach, relinquish control
Private Cloud
A private cloud uses virtualisation technology to provide a similar function to a public cloud. The main difference is that a private cloud is owned and managed in-house. Suppliers of hardware to create a private cloud include Dell, HP, IBM & NetApp.
Pros – ease of customisation
Cons – expensive to deploy and maintain, hardware will have a maximum five-year life cycle.
Any cloud based system needs to have redundancy built into it in order to maintain business continuity. A public cloud provider will use multiple servers/hardware to allow fail-over in the case of any issues and replication of the data to a second data centre to allow for any catastrophic disaster recovery. Anyone thinking of installing their own private cloud needs to build in redundancy and business continuity.
For more advice on using Public Cloud or setting up your own Private Cloud, please contact us at contact@hduk.co.uk or call our friendly team on 01883 582381.
Behind the technology and security that customers have come to know and trust with HDUK, it's our people that make the real difference. We take great pride in offering dedicated IT support for our customers by investing in specialists, that are experts in the tools you use every day. Our team are very important to us and we know that you feel the same way about your employees. It's why we put people at the heart of our business.
We are dedicated to providing reliable, secure, industry-leading IT solutions to elevate your business and maximise your potential. Working remotely has never been so important, so join the 15,000 users who already trust HDUK with their hosted services.
