Going public

As the name suggests, public clouds are based on a shared hardware infrastructure, which is accessed by a community of subscribers over the internet. Because resources are shared across many users, public clouds can save companies money by offering economies of scale in a convenient, pay-as-you-go model. Examples of well-known public cloud platforms include Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure and Google App Engine.

The downside of public clouds is that users have less control over data security and no control over where their data is located, making it potentially more vulnerable to threats. Nevertheless, public clouds can be a good choice for businesses looking for a highly scalable and relatively low-cost hosting solution.

Maintaining your privacy

Private clouds are hosting solutions dedicated to a single organisation. Like public clouds, private clouds allow users to access resources via the internet, but with the added advantage of giving companies full control over their data’s location and security – often a requirement in highly regulated industries.

Private clouds can be hosted either internally on the premises or externally at a third-party facility. Internal hosting is recommended for companies that need to personally control and configure their data. External private hosting can be used by companies that wish to benefit from the support of a managed solution while avoiding the risks of sharing physical resources with other parties.

The best of both worlds

Hybrid clouds are a mix of both public and private clouds, making use of both on-site and off-site resources to satisfy various business requirements. 

For instance, a business may wish to host confidential data in-house using a private cloud, while allowing employees to access commonly used applications in a public cloud. As such, hybrid clouds can be a good solution for businesses that require different levels of data scalability and security for different areas of their operations.

With each cloud model offering different benefits, choosing the right hosting solution for your business depends on how users access data, as well as the level of security, configuration and control over data that you require. By fully understanding your options, you will be better equipped to find the right solution to meet your needs.