Private cloud
  1. Cloud Computing - Introduction
  2. Cloud Deployment Models
  3. Private cloud

 General description

Private cloud definition
A private cloud is a cloud computing infrastructure created by an organization for its own internal use, rather than using someone else’s infrastructure.
The main difference between a private cloud and a commercially-used public cloud is where the hardware is located and how it is supported and maintained. A private cloud is typically hosted on the company’s own servers, within their own network infrastructure and their own support and maintenance
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Private cloud advantages
  • Consequently, the main advantage with a privately managed cloud is for the company to have control of every aspect of the Cloud’s implementation: the hardware, the network and communication, the operating system, the middleware, and all the other software used to create the cloud itself. Also, the way the security is implemented.
  • Another advantage of a private cloud is that it can generally be built from reasonably current commodity hardware. The most stringent requirements, apart from disk space and memory, are processors that support virtualization. Today, most server architectures (mainframe, UNIX, and Intel) and even mainly all desktops are supporting such features. If the hardware is available or partially available (not fully used), it can be shared and be part of the private cloud. It will then be provisioned and de-provisioned from different tasks.
  • The location of the cloud is also considered as a main advantage. A cloud hosted in your own data center, or on your own property, is far easier to move data into (and out of) than a cloud hosting elsewhere.
  • A fourth advantage is the security. If you are hosting your own cloud infrastructure on a private LAN, with no connections to the outside world, it is theoretically easier to secure. Since it is your network and your IT resources, you can implement good security protocols to begin with.
Private cloud disadvantages
  • One major disadvantage of a private cloud is the work and team involved in creating and maintaining the cloud. The interesting point of using someone else’s cloud infrastructure is to save you the effort, which is not trivial, to build it yourself.
  • An other disadvantage is the security implementation if you want to securely access the cloud from outside your corporate LAN.

Virtual private cloud (VPC)

A virtual private cloud is a private cloud existing within a shared or public cloud (that is, the InterCloud). This is a good intermediate step as this is a portion of a public cloud infrastructure that has been set aside for use by an organization. This VPC will be only accessible through an IPsec virtual private network connection.