There are 3 different types of cloud computing: public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud. This article will explore the different types, and help you decide which one would be most beneficial to your business.

Public or external clouds offer virtualized resources as a service, allowing for the deployment of an entire IT infrastructure without the capital costs, paying only for usage.

The benefits of using a public cloud are:

• Easy and inexpensive set-up
• Pay-per-use model
• Scalability
  

Private or internal clouds are virtualized resources created within a company’s own data center.

The benefits of utilizing a private cloud are:

• More secure infrastructure than a public cloud
• Full control of who has access to company data
• Software is available which will maintain and monitor the cloud for energy savings
  

Hybrid cloud computing is a combination of both the public and private models. It involves having your own internal cloud, and also outsourcing some of your resources to an external provider.

The advantages of using a hybrid system are:

• More flexibility
• Easily scalable
• More control and security of those resources you want to keep secure
  

Typically, smaller businesses will use a public cloud computing model, as they do not normally have the technical capital available to create their own IT infrastructure. Small businesses also enjoy the financial advantages  available when using a pay-per-use model.

Larger enterprises, like government organizations or large corporations will often start out using an internal cloud model, as they do have the large capital necessary to build their own infrastructure and are typically more concerned with security and data management issues.

Many larger enterprises however, end up switching to a hybrid model, as they grow, outsourcing the cloud computing that doesn’t require security and control to a service provider, while maintaining their secure data on their internal clouds.

Whatever the size of your business, virtualization is a key part of cloud computing.  Virtualization allows your company to use economies of scale to cut costs. With virtualization, IT is responsible for implementation, rather than end-users. Virtualization, through cloud computing, lowers licensing costs and pricing of software, as it’s accessed through the cloud. In addition, early virtualization will increase the speed, and agility of your cloud computing deployment.

Virtualization of resources and particularly cloud computing cuts costs, cuts energy use, and enables you to have better control over managing your IT resources. Whichever type of cloud computing your company chooses, you’ll reap immediate rewards for your business.

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Jason Dick,

Northwest Computer Support