What makes private cloud computing different than public cloud computing?
With a daunting dose of jargon and acronyms, the world of cloud computing can seem intimidating at first glance. If you’re wondering what the difference is between public cloud vs private cloud, you’re not alone. And you’re in the right place! Show
In this post, we’ll break down some of the basics of public cloud vs private cloud in a way that anyone can understand. We’ll cover what public cloud is, what private cloud is, and the cloud architecture basics around both you need to know.
Public cloud and private cloudTo start with, let’s give a quick definition of public and private cloud — a little TL;DR on the difference between public cloud vs private cloud.
Ready to get a little deeper on public and private cloud? Read on as we take you from the basics up to… well, still the basics. (This is just a blog post after all.) If you’re looking to go beyond the basics, browse our hands-on learning library. From manager to engineer and all roles in between, we have learning paths and IT skills assessments that can help you and your team get the cloud know-how needed to succeed. Check out ACG’s free cloud fundamentals coursesPrefer to look at magical moving images rather than read words? For a solid (and totally free) primer on the basics of cloud computing, check out ACG’s Cloud Computing Foundations course. It’s one of the many courses free this month on ACG. Table of Contents
ELI5: What is the cloud?Completely clueless as to this “cloud” word that gets tossed around all the time? Let’s start with an ELI5 (“explain it like I’m five”) primer on what the cloud is. Think of cloud computing like a utilityYou can think of the cloud like electricity. Imagine you and your neighbors need electricity. (Hopefully not too hard to imagine given you’re reading this on something that runs on electricity.) You could produce your own electricity. But you might find it easier to outsource the setup and operation of energy production to a third party that specializes in electricity production. By doing this, you and your neighbors can get easy, instant access to electricity with the flip of a switch. With this setup, you pay for what you use. Use more? Pay more. And vice versa. The electricity company focuses on what it does well — getting you electricity quickly and efficiently and with minimal interruption — and you get to focus on doing your own thing. Need that analogy decoded?
Lift your teams to a common level of cloud knowledge! Scale your digital transformation learning faster with our accelerated Cloud Enablement Program. What is public cloud?When you hear people talking about cloud and cloud migration, it’s usually a safe bet they’re talking about public cloud. Public cloud deployments are the most common — not surprising given the many advantages of public cloud. Public cloud is where services are offered over the public internet to anyone who wants to rent them. In a public cloud deployment, services and resources (like servers or storage) are owned and run by a third-party vendor over the public internet. Some of these services are free and others are pay-per-use. These services are hosted by cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. These are called “public” clouds because they are open to the public. Anyone with an internet connection and a credit card can use their services. Some large traditional IT companies like IBM, SAP, and Oracle have created public cloud businesses to complement their traditional business. Microsoft Azure is a good example of this. What is private cloud?Private cloud is where computing resources are used exclusively by users from one business or organization. Companies may set up private clouds in their own data centers or with a hosting provider. With private cloud, cloud resources are used and owned solely by one organization. That makes this approach often desirable by governmental and financial industries that seek maximum control or customization Private cloud providers include Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Dell, IBM, Oracle, and some familiar names from the public cloud provider space, including AWS, Google, and Microsoft. Private cloud deployments can also sometimes be called on-premises deployments. Often, the private cloud deployment model is very similar to legacy IT approach, but it uses virtualization and application management to better utilize resources. What is the difference between public cloud vs private cloud?For another analogy to help drive the point home, consider how Nitya Narasimhan puts it in her Visual Introduction to Azure Fundamentals.
But back up a second. (Pun 100% intended.) What motivates businesses to adopt cloud technologies anyways? Get the Cloud Dictionary of Pain Why do companies pursue cloud adoption?What are the benefits for businesses adopting cloud? Businesses have been running like business as usual for decades. And much of what the cloud can do can be accomplished without the cloud. But the cloud introduces some new business capabilities and benefits. Here are some motivations and benefits that lead many businesses to invest in cloud transformation.
What does a cloud provider data center look like?From the outside, cloud provider data centers look like big warehouses. Unless you look really closely, you probably couldn’t tell a data center from any other logistics warehouse. They’re usually heavily secured and have extra power and cooling equipment around them. Inside there are rows and rows of racks holding physical computers. Each of these computers host several virtual systems (more on this below when we talk about virtualization) that get rented out to customers as they need them. These data centers usually only have a small handful of people working there. Much of the maintenance is automated, and people are only needed when something needs a set of physical hands. Also, data centers are really, really loud. This is due to lots of cooling equipment running at full blast trying to keep everything from overheating. Cloud ROI: How cloud skills generate real returns Other key cloud concepts to understandThere’s so much more to cloud than public and private cloud. And while the focus of this post is public vs private cloud, we should also touch on a few other concepts: multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, virtualization, and containerization. What is multi-cloud?Multi-cloud is the use of multiple cloud services in a single environment. This can mean a mix of public and private clouds or using multiple public cloud providers. Many established companies will use a multi-cloud approach referred to as hybrid cloud. What is hybrid cloud?Hybrid cloud environments are the chocolate-vanilla swirl soft-serve combo of public and private cloud, combining aspects of both private and public cloud and sharing data and applications between them. Why do companies take a hybrid or multi-cloud approach?Many companies opt for a hybrid cloud approach. And some companies also adopt a multi-cloud approach that involves using multiple public clouds. But why? With hybrid cloud, it’s common for companies to use as much of their own computing resources as possible and then use public cloud resources to handle temporary exceptions. Hybrid cloud can also be attractive to organizations that need to have some element of private cloud in place (for sensitive data or legacy IT infrastructure, for example) but still want to tap into the benefits of public cloud. The downsides? A hybrid cloud model can be more costly and complex, with the possible need for IT skills and on-premises hardware. Some companies may opt for a multi-cloud strategy (like using AWS and Azure) to reduce reliance on a single provider, tap into benefits of more than one provider, or due to customer needs. (For example, imagine your business typically runs on AWS but you have Walmart as a customer, and they aren’t super keen to give business to AWS because, you know, Amazon. You might need to be able to do work for them on Azure or GCP.) Other people argue in favor of multi-cloud and using multiple public cloud to avoid vendor lock-in. Vendor lock-in is when you become so entrenched with a single vendor that you may lose flexibility or negotiating position. However, with the current crop of public cloud providers, there’s not too much concern with vendor lock-in. There are ways to mitigate that risk. And, from a skillset standpoint, having to constantly pivot among multiple public clouds tends to create more challenges than it really helps. What is virtualization?Two other concepts you hear frequently around cloud computing are virtualization and containerization. We talked earlier about how cloud providers have massive amounts of computing power available for you to use in seconds. Well, they don’t have people running around plugging in and unplugging cables whenever you request a new system. Cloud providers make use of virtual systems, or virtualization. Virtualization means they have the ability to create software-based computer systems on top of physical computer hardware. When you request a system, it can be set up — or “provisioned” — in a matter of seconds. When you’re done with it, it disappears, and the physical system resources can be reallocated to other customers. What is containerization?An evolution of virtualization is containerization. To explain containerization, let’s look at the problem that containers are trying to solve. Let’s say we have a brand-new computer system. Then, we start loading software on it. Sometimes one software package might create a conflict with another software package. This results in errors. Now let’s say we get a new computer system and we need to move over some software from that old system to the new system. And we accidentally leave out part of that software. This could result in problems too. You may have experienced these problems on your own home computers, tablets, or mobile phones as you try to upgrade them. Imagine that problem across hundreds or thousands of systems and picture what kind of headache that would cause. Enter: containers. Think of containers like a little backpack that holds everything you might need to travel anything you’d need to travel anywhere you want. Containers are like virtualized systems but more lightweight. You can think of it as a nice, neat little box designed to keep things organized. Containers rely on something called a container engine that manages resources and allows the container to share those resources across themselves. So if one container isn’t working too hard, another container can take advantage of that. One of the most popular container engines is called Docker. Now, because containers are compartmentalized, they’re very portable. Since most major cloud providers also support containers, we can pretty seamlessly move those containers to a cloud provider and it will run just the same as it did originally elsewhere. Plus, we can use any one of those major cloud providers to host these applications. If we wanted to move the containers back on-site in a hybrid cloud model, we could do that too without much trouble. The portability of containers is one way companies are mitigating the vendor lock-in concerns we touched on above. Moving beyond the cloud basicsWe’ve really just scratched the surface here in public cloud vs private cloud. Cloud architecture is a whole discipline that people spend years learning, so if you or your organization doesn’t have access to cloud architecture experts, seek the help of one before you design your cloud-based architecture. If you’re not careful, you can end up with quite a mess. Or, if you’re curious about how to become a cloud architect, check out this post. Transforming careers, transforming businessesLearn faster. Move faster. Transform now with courses and real hands-on labs in AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and beyond with our tech and IT development plans. What is the difference between public and private cloud Mcq?A public cloud is like a multi-tenant in which the network is managed by your service provider. A private cloud is like a single-tenant in which the network is handled by the in-house team.
Why private cloud is better than public cloud?More flexibility—your organization can customize its cloud environment to meet specific business needs. More control—resources are not shared with others, so higher levels of control and privacy are possible. More scalability—private clouds often offer more scalability compared to on-premises infrastructure.
What is cloud computing explain private cloud and public cloud?Public cloud is cloud computing that's delivered via the internet and shared across organizations. Private cloud is cloud computing that is dedicated solely to your organization. Hybrid cloud is any environment that uses both public and private clouds.
What is the prime difference between public and private cloud?The main differentiator between public and private clouds is that you aren't responsible for any of the management of a public cloud hosting solution. Your data is stored in the provider's data center and the provider is responsible for the management and maintenance of the data center.
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