Private cloud
What is private cloud?
Private cloud is a type of on-site cloud computing architecture that is accessed, managed, and secured only by an independent enterprise or organization, providing additional virtual processing and storage resources.
Restricted Private Cloud Access
While it shares many benefits of cloud computing, such as scalability and flexibility, private cloud access is restricted to a single customer or organization, offering optimal security for specific industry or regulatory requirements or for those who work with sensitive data such as medical records or confidential documents.
No Limits Based on Third-Parties
With a private cloud architecture, end users are not beholden to third-party providers, giving them more controlled access to their data—and the ability to respond quickly in the case of component failures. And since all infrastructure is located on the premises and not shared with multiple tenants, private cloud models enable more opportunities for customized IT architectures.
How does private cloud work?
Before they begin IT infrastructure virtualization or container orchestration, administrators build their custom assemblage of servers, software, security, and other applications depending on their precise workload needs. This ability to customize—which isn’t offered through public cloud offerings—is one of the more attractive advantages of private cloud. However, greater customizability, access, and visibility often incur additional upfront expenses.
The private cloud can span multiple server, storage, and network systems. This enables IT administrators to create a pool of resources that can be partitioned for multiple workloads using virtual machines and/or containers. This partitioning or sharing of physical resources provides better efficiency and is easier to scale up or down. The process for provisioning new workloads for applications is automated and monitored through a central management including optimization, security, and business continuity.
Private cloud vs. public cloud vs. hybrid cloud
Private cloud is only one of several cloud options available for enterprises and organizations. Depending on their needs and who maintains it, a cloud can be classified into two additional categories, each with their own benefits.
Private Cloud
Because private clouds are often dedicated to one group or tenant, this method offers more opportunities for customization, access, and security—at a higher upfront cost. Additionally, compared to public cloud offerings, private cloud capacity can be much more or much less scalable, depending on the infrastructure and the predictability of the change in demand.
Public Cloud
Public cloud services are managed by a third-party provider at a remote location, offering highly flexible and scalable cloud resources for many enterprises and organizations. For an agreed-upon rate, the third-party provider manages and secures all resources or storage. The primary trade-off is visibility, access, and customization for enhanced, on-demand agility.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud infrastructures combine elements of public cloud and private cloud. Here, an enterprise or organization offloads certain resources to a third-party provider while keeping select infrastructure on site. Doing so increases a company’s ability to control, access, and manage its data and hardware, especially for varied workloads, and meet stringent security or privacy requirements.
Modern private cloud applications
Despite the rising popularity of public cloud, private cloud still remains a valuable and powerful infrastructure for many organizations and enterprises, especially ones with strict regulatory and security requirements.
Typically, private cloud is delivered as a virtual, hosted, or managed environment. With a virtual deployment, businesses and organizations isolate a private cloud within a public cloud. While this server space is technically shared by other groups and organizations, these resources are dedicated to certain workloads. Hosted private clouds environments, on the other hand, are not shared with other organizations. A third-party provider will maintain hardware and software, but only for one group. Managed private solutions are run by providers on behalf of another group, who either doesn’t have the IT personnel or needs to focus their energy outside of technology.
How a private cloud application works will vary from company to company, depending on their specific requirements. For instance, a financial services company can deploy a private cloud for additional on-premises security, such as storing and processing trade orders and other sensitive client information. Likewise, healthcare providers can use private and hybrid cloud to store medical information that adheres to The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other compliance laws.
HPE and private cloud
HPE provides the technology and expertise necessary to make private cloud solutions and strategies possible. Depending on a partner’s needs, HPE can deploy any number of components and services, including HPE GreenLake, HPE Synergy, and HPE ProLiant and Apollo servers. Combined, these solutions help organizations and enterprises simplify IT; achieve higher degrees of control, agility, and efficiency; reduce rising infrastructure costs; and accelerate business outcomes.
To help LAKE Solutions, a cloud service and IT consulting provider in Germany, deliver a new service offering called backup as a service, HPE integrated an infrastructure that let them offer hosted and on-site backup services for a vast array of customers, and so allow them to meet more specialized workload demands.
When working with Sopra Steria, another IT consulting and services company based in Paris, HPE used a flexible, agile model to help them accommodate their customers with a wide range of workloads, including a composable, hosted infrastructure with scalable storage.
And when telco giant Nokia Software needed to accelerate 5G software development and automate R&D workflows, HPE stepped in with a private cloud built on all-flash storage and HPE blades, helping maximize performance, lower capex, reduce energy demands, and decrease the amount of floor space needed for their data center.