What Is Private Cloud Storage? Definition, Types, Examples, and Best Practices

A private cloud is defined as an on-demand cloud deployment model in which the cloud computing services and infrastructure are hosted privately within a company’s own intranet or data center using proprietary resources. This article explains the basics of private cloud storage and lists some best practices for private cloud implementation in 2021.

- What Is Private Cloud Storage?
- Types of Private Cloud With Examples
- Advantages and Challenges of Private Cloud
- Top 8 Best Practices for Implementing Private Cloud Storage in 2021

What Is Private Cloud Storage?

A private cloud is an on-demand cloud deployment model in which the cloud computing services and infrastructure are hosted privately within a company’s own intranet or data center using proprietary resources.

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How Private Cloud Works

Today, businesses are moving to cloud for their most critical business applications. It is an excellent way to deliver IT services more quickly and cost-effectively. When looking for a secure cloud option, organizations often choose private clouds. Although businesses were a little reluctant to migrate to private cloud earlier, it quickly emerged as the most secure cloud model.

Among the three types of cloud computing, private cloud is the most preferred option for organizations due to the additional security it offers. In a private cloud, the cloud computing services and infrastructure are hosted privately within a company’s own data center. These services are accessible to the personnel of a single organization. This type of cloud is managed by internal resources and is not accessible to those outside the organization. Private clouds are also referred to as enterprise clouds.

Also Read: What Is Cloud Computing? Definition, Benefits, Types and Trends

Types of Private Cloud

Depending on who manages the private cloud environment and where the cloud solution is hosted, a private cloud can be classified into four major types – virtual private cloud, managed private cloud, hosted private cloud, and on-premise private cloud. Let’s look at each one in detail.

1. Virtual private cloud

A virtual private cloud (VPC) is a type of cloud model that offers the benefits of a private cloud (more control and an isolated environment) with the help of public cloud resourcesOpens a new window . Although private cloud and virtual private cloud are often used interchangeably, there are many points of difference between the two.

In a traditional private cloud, a company’s internal IT department acts as the service provider, and the individual business units act as tenants. In a virtual private cloud model, a public cloud provider acts as the service provider, and the cloud users act as its tenants. Simply put, a virtual private cloud is a hybrid model of cloud computing in which a private cloud solution is provided within a public cloud provider’s infrastructure.

2. Managed private cloud

A managed private cloud is a type of private cloud model in which the infrastructure is not shared. It is also referred to as a dedicated or single-tenant cloud. This type of private cloud is managed by a third-party vendor. The vendor provides support, maintenance, upgrades, and even remote management of the private cloud. In some cases, vendors also manage the software applications in cloud.

3. Hosted private cloud

Hosted private cloud vendors offer cloud servers in their own data centers and are also responsible for security management. In a hosted private cloud model, users get access to additional resources, a support team, high-demand scalability options, as well as a user-friendly dashboard to assist in server management.

4. On-Premise private cloud

Unlike hosted private clouds, on-premise cloud solutions allow users to host a cloud environment internally. For such a cloud model, it is necessary to have an internal data center to host the cloud server. This type of private cloud model is very secure as they are internally hosted and managed by an organization’s internal IT department. The organization, therefore, has complete control over the security, configurations, and scalability of its servers.

Also Read: What Is Cloud Storage? Definition, Types, Benefits, and Best Practices

Examples of Private Cloud Providers

Let’s glance at the services provided by some leading private cloud vendors.

1. HPE

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has been a leader in the private cloud computingOpens a new window market for many years. The private cloud service provider offers customizable private cloud software and infrastructure. The HPE private cloud can be used along with a public cloud to provide a faster connection with the same security protections as a private cloud. HPE’s private cloud offerings include services, hardware, and software. Its private cloud solutions include the Helion CloudSystem hardware, Helion Cloud Suite software, Helion Managed Private Cloud, and Managed Virtual Private Cloud services, among others.

2. VMware

VMware offers two types of private cloud solutions. While one solution is completely private, the other is a hybrid solution that offers an integrated stack as well as automated lifecycle management. Although VMware is best known for its virtualization software that runs many private cloud environments, it also offers a variety of other services. VMWare’s vRealize Suite Cloud Management Platform offers private as well as hybrid cloud management. The VMWare Cloud Foundation, on the other hand, is a data center platform for private clouds.

3. Dell

Dell EMC offers two private cloud products. While one is meant for Microsoft Azure Stack, the other is a turnkey developer platform. Dell, who was always a leader in the private cloud market, became an even stronger player after its merger with EMC. The company’s cloud offerings include cloud management and cloud security software, virtual private cloud services, and various cloud consulting services.

4. Oracle

Oracle’s Private Cloud Appliance is a scalable data center that is capable of processing mixed workloads. The company’s private cloud solutions include its cloud platform, infrastructure, applications, lifecycle management tools, as well as integration services, along with managed cloud services.

5. IBM

The design of the IBM private cloud is based on open source frameworks, including Kubernetes and Cloud Foundry. The company’s private cloud solutions include IBM Systems and IBM Storage, IBM Cloud Managed Services, Cloud Manager, and Cloud Orchestrator. Apart from the private cloud vendors mentioned above, Microsoft, Cisco, NetApp, Red Hat, and AWS are also major players in the private cloud race.

Also Read: What Is Cloud Computing Security? Definition, Risks, and Security Best Practices

Advantages and Challenges of Private Cloud

Although a private cloud is quite expensive, it comes with its share of advantages. Let’s look at the various benefits that a private cloud offers:

- Robust security: Private cloud is known for enhanced security and control. Since a private cloud can be operated in a completely isolated environment, it offers an additional layer of security.
- Enhanced performance: A private cloud is only accessible to one organization. This results in lesser competition for capacity, and therefore, improved performance. Therefore, the workload performance for private cloud is never affected by another organization running resource-intensive workloads on a shared server.
- Complete control over resources: When using a private cloud, an organization is free to build and configure cloud services in a way that’s most suitable to the company’s needs. Not only can you use the applications of your choice, but you may also allocate resources as per business needs.

Also Read: Top 10 Cloud Data Protection Companies in 2021

A private cloud is very secure, no doubt. However, managing a cloud internally can prove to be quite challenging. Here are some other challenges organizations face with private clouds:

- Added cost: Private clouds are more expensive than public and hybrid clouds because they require the organization to pay for private cloud server hardware as well as maintenance. Buying the operating systems and licenses for software applications further increases the cost.
- More support requirements: Setting up a private cloud is a lot more expensive and time-consuming than a hybrid or public cloud. It also needs continuous maintenance. A private cloud service requires an in-house IT setup. Moreover, if your server crashes, your internal IT department will have to spend more time and resources to fix the issue.
- Limited scalability: The private cloud is not as scalable as the public cloud. If the need arises, an organization may not be able to handle higher workloads when using a private cloud.

Further talking about the challenges of private cloud, Brian Kelly, CEO, CloudBolt, says, “When businesses invest in private cloud technologies, they’re responsible for the infrastructure that runs the virtualized environments. They must size and configure an environment that can handle anticipated workloads effectively. The challenge is to configure an environment without over- or under-provisioning the necessary capacity, which can become a goose chase and tough to predict. Meanwhile, you are accountable to the critical corporate mandate of securing that networking environment, mitigating vulnerabilities and malicious attacks while enforcing smart, reasonable end-user behavior. It’s a lot, but when executed thoughtfully, it’s a beautiful thing.

Top 8 Best Practices for Implementing Private Cloud Storage in 2021

Private cloud occupies a sizable share of the global cloud market. According to the fourth annual cloud usage survey by Denodo, a data virtualization company, nearly a quarter of all workloads among 150 global businesses were hosted on a private cloud. As enterprises look beyond one-size-fits-all public cloud solutions towards something that is tailored and more secure, private cloud implementation is essential for your IT strategy.

Here are the top 8 best practices for getting started.

What Is Private Cloud Storage? Definition, Types, Examples, and Best Practices - Spiceworks (2)

Private Cloud Storage Best Practices

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1. Choose a hyperscale private cloud provider

One key drawback deterring widespread private cloud implementation is the lack of scalability. As private cloud relies on a pre-specified set of resources owned by the enterprise or its cloud partner, it has been traditionally difficult to scale. Partnering with a hyperscale company like IBM or Equinix could address this problem.

Hyperscale essentially means that the cloud architecture is purpose-built to expand based on new demand. Hyperscale-compatible private clouds effectively bring together the benefits of public and private cloud environments.

2. Ensure that your private cloud partner offers managed services

Private cloud environments typically require more IT efforts and more frequent intervention than public clouds, which can be set-and-forget in nature. An enterprise will require a large in-house IT team, sophisticated tools, constant training, and significant efforts to keep an end-to-end private cloud running with external support.

That’s why it is recommended to partner with a private cloud company that also offers managed services and remotely looks after the implementation, usage, and maintenance. A new solution has also emerged called managed private cloud as a service (currently offered through a Cisco-IBM partnership), where an external partner manages your private servers (in this case, VMware and IBM) on a subscription model.

3. Carefully assess the front end for ease of use

Even with managed services, enterprises need a powerful front end interface that can help to monitor ongoing private cloud activities. What is the storage status? How are virtual machines and network resources being provisioned? Can automated workflows be defined for issue resolution?

The front end user interface (UI) enables all of this and more. It reduces the manual efforts of the internal IT team and helps enterprises stay on the same page with their managed services provider. Your private cloud partner should also be able to deliver custom automation frameworks in tune with your business requirements.

4. Make private cloud storage interoperable with other environments

While private clouds are technically designed as segregated infrastructure chunks with minimal interactions with external resources, this could get in the way of performance and productivity. That’s why some level of interoperability is essential, even if that makes an environment slightly akin to a hybrid cloud.

In fact, the 2020 IDC Survey Spotlight on on-premise private cloud solutions mentions hybrid cloud-enabling interoperability as an essential parameter for private cloud implementation, which can help deliver a strategic and competitive advantage. Interoperability will also allow the use of similar management tools, server images, frameworks, and other cloud components across multiple environments for a simpler, more cost-efficient infrastructure stack.

Also Read: Top 10 Best Practices to Manage Hybrid Cloud Security Challenges in 2021

5. Bring uniformity into your application and hardware stack

One of the risks of implementing a fully private cloud environment is that it might lead to gradual sprawl and fragmentation. For example, consider a scenario where two servers from different vendors operate on different configurations, and IT starts provisioning .NET apps for Windows servers while providing Java apps for Linux.

Over time, this adds to your maintenance overheads, confuses the process map, and increases costs. Therefore, as you scale your private cloud landscape, it is best to standardize hardware configurations as legacy equipment is retired. The enterprise application policy should make room for exceptions to document all apps across operating systems and configurations.

6. Leverage PaaS to accelerate your cloud application roadmap

Platform as a service (PaaS) allows developers to create and host applications with a cloud-native approach. PaaS solutions include standardized software components, necessary middleware, dev tools, automaton scripts, and relevant web services to dramatically shrink your time to go live.

Given that private cloud involves a sizable investment, PaaS could speed up ROI generation. Further, PaaS solutions are self-service and easy-to-use, ready to be implemented with minimal intervention from a third-party vendor. PaaS, along with a private cloud, can enable more efficient utilization of the available resources and power business processes.

7. Monitor CPU, memory, and storage issues on a per-application basis

These are the three key parameters that need to be monitored on a real-time basis. A business intelligence dashboard can inform your IT team about the current state of private cloud utilization, which apps are the most resource-intensive if an app is exceeding the expected threshold, and whether the resource availability is keeping up with demand.

If utilization is almost always close to 100% or thereabouts, you might need to invest in additional private cloud resources. A dashboard that monitors CPU, memory, and storage utilization can contribute to long-term value generation as well. Historical data plotted as time-bound trends tell you exactly when demand is the highest and when your resources are sitting idle. This helps to plan for peak demand periods more effectively so you can automate resource provisioning to prevent outages.

8. Establish policies for backup and disaster recovery

The private cloud is central to your IT infrastructure since it may be used as a production environment and for hosting highly sensitive data. A private cloud downtime can cause serious damage not only to your business process but also to your customers. That’s why a robust backup and disaster recovery blueprint must be in place, defining failover policies where critical functions are transferred to a secondary component in your cloud environment.

There are several ways to go about this – for example, you might want to use multiple data centers to host a private cloud instead of using just one, avoiding a scenario where you “put all your eggs in one basket” as the adage goes. Or, you might want to partner with a managed service provider that can switch critical functions to a remote location in case of an emergency.

Also Read: Cloud vs On-premise Comparison: Key Differences and Similarities

Closing thoughts

If you’re considering a private cloud deployment, you have more choices today than ever before. However, a comprehensive and considered strategy is vital to make the most of private cloud. Organizations need to examine their business processes and then decide which type of private cloud suits them the best. The right cloud solution helps an organization succeed in a competitive market by increasing its business growth, helping in faster innovationOpens a new window , and enhancing performance.

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What Is Private Cloud Storage? Definition, Types, Examples, and Best Practices - Spiceworks (2024)

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