One of the biggest IT buzz words of the
few years, ‘cloud computing’ has brought incredible promise to the world
of information technology. Cloud computing interest has lead to
widespread curiosity and awareness of public cloud services.
Pooled computing resources, divided and
allocated to different users, have been proven in the development and
testing realm of IT to have tremendous benefits. Those benefits however
have been overshadowed by concerns of a lack of security and uptime
assurances among Enterprise IT executives.
The private cloud aims to lessen, if not
eliminate, those concerns by dedicating exclusive hardware to each
user. Instead of your data being stored off “in the cloud” somewhere,
one can point to a group of servers in a data center and say, “that is
your data, and only your data, on those servers,” alleviating security
concerns. It is a “best of both worlds” solution that can bring
important benefits like improved uptime and reliability at a lower cost
than on traditional IT infrastructure.
In fact, according to Yankee Group’s recent survey on Cloud
Computing, private cloud computing is preferred 2:1 over fully managed
public cloud solutions. 67% of respondents preferred the private cloud,
whereas only 28% preferred a fully managed public cloud, 21% preferred
an unmanaged public cloud, and 8% were looking to a hybrid cloud
solution.
That is why we compiled the top 5 reasons why your company should
rethink your IT infrastructure and look into the benefits of private
cloud computing.
5. Dedicated hardware means increased security. Much
like a dedicated or colocated server, the security of your private
cloud depends on a variety of factors. However, if you have the proper
physical security, anti-virus software, and firewall rules in place, you
can rest assured your data as safe as if it were sitting right next to
your desk. With a private cloud, you know where your servers are located
and that the proper physical and network security is in place. You can
meet and talk to those in charge of providing support for your hardware
and come visit it if you like.
4. The transition from physical to virtual servers leads to better flexibility.
This is one of the most alluring benefits of cloud computing. The
ability to spin up and tear down a server in a matter of minutes is
incredibly powerful and useful. No longer is there any wasted effort in
trying to size a server beforehand when you can create a server on the
fly. Need more disk space? More RAM? More CPU? No problem. With private
cloud computing, you can reallocate resources in moments without
worrying about finding a physical server that will have the resources
your new server needs.
3. Fully utilize your hardware with better resource management.
Virtualization significantly increases the value of your physical
server hardware. Instead of having 5 servers that average 10% CPU
utilization, you can virtualize the 5 servers on one physical server,
sharing the resources. This decreases rack space, power usage, and is
easier to manage. This also allows you to create copies of your servers
and have them up and running very quickly, now that they have been
virtualized. If you have the proper resource management tools installed
on your server, you can automatically allocate the appropriate resources
to a server when it needs it or turn off unused servers during low
usage; an extraordinarily powerful and efficient way to manage your
servers.
2. Virtual servers combined with a SAN allow for improved protection against disasters.
When you connect a SAN to your private cloud, incredible redundancy can
be achieved. Not only can you load balance between servers,
automatically shifting server resources between servers on the fly, but
in an N+1 environment (having at least 1 extra server than absolutely
necessary), you can shut down one server without causing downtime.
Imagine performing maintenance on your server like adding more RAM,
replacing a hard drive, or upgrading software, without experiencing any
downtime. When configured correctly you could power off one server and
it would automatically shift the virtual servers over to an available
server in your cloud. Taking your disaster protection up one level, you
could have another SAN in another data center and perform SAN to SAN
replication for a hot site DR environment capable of full recovery in
less than an hour.
1. Switching to private cloud computing will save you time and money.
The best part about a private cloud is that not only do you get all of
the great benefits of virtualization and security, but it can be cheaper
and less of a hassle then hosting your own servers or buying dedicated
servers. If your company has more than 2 servers, it could benefit from
virtualization. If your company has more than 10 servers, it could
benefit from private cloud computing with a dedicated SAN and multiple
physical host servers. The public cloud revolutionized Information
Technology forever; the private cloud brings the benefits to the masses.
Conclusion: Save Money, Save Time, Sleep Easy: Transition to Private Cloud Computing.
The private cloud is still a relatively new concept, but is based on some technology that has been around for a while and has proven itself for years. Besides providing some tremendous benefits of pooled computing resources and virtualization, it maintains the security and reliability of a normal dedicated server. The private cloud is not for everyone but a managed data center operator can make the transition to private cloud computing an affordable process and enable you to fully experience all of the great benefits of the private cloud.
The private cloud is still a relatively new concept, but is based on some technology that has been around for a while and has proven itself for years. Besides providing some tremendous benefits of pooled computing resources and virtualization, it maintains the security and reliability of a normal dedicated server. The private cloud is not for everyone but a managed data center operator can make the transition to private cloud computing an affordable process and enable you to fully experience all of the great benefits of the private cloud.
