Private Cloud Spending is Increasing not Decreasing
There has been a lot of debate in the IT world and even among some of my own colleagues about where things are heading. I think some of that comes down to “what is Cloud” because it could mean a multitude of things. But NetworkWorld did a nice article citing data from IDC confirming that “Private Cloud” spending is increasing. I believe this is where things will continue to go, as Private Cloud which we have provided for ages offers significant advantages and the best of both worlds to the enterprise.
A lot of people believe that everything is headed to the Public Cloud but I believe this is largely done in ignorance or without understanding the cost-benefit ratios. I don’t want to get too much into it but it is fairly clear that Public Cloud’s benefits are that you don’t need to buy or maintain any hardware and you can deploy Cloud servers and applications with a single click. The downside is that often Public Cloud services will cost you more, especially when they bill by the minute or by the hour (it may look cheap until you actually do the math). On top of that with the large Public Cloud providers there are significant and tangible privacy issues that many enterprises are finally becoming aware of.
So the best of both worlds is to go “Private Cloud off-Premise” where you either own the hardware or rent the hardware but not the datacenter. This, in my opinion is a much better investment model, ROI and “best bang for your computing cycles”. That’s because you have the benefit of a proper datacenter without paying for it, while you have control over your data, hardware and ultimately a lot more privacy vs Public Cloud. On top of that as I’ve mentioned there are numerous levels of savings to be had with this model. For companies who have sufficient bandwidth and multiple locations it often makes sense to have your Private Cloud on-premise and keep one secondary Cloud off-premise for security and redundancy.
I believe the primary reason a lot of companies are not running their own private Cloud are mainly in cases where they lack the expertise and/or budget to purchase their own hardware. However, in my opinion you pay one way or another, up front costs of Public Cloud may appear low and are very flexible in terms of deployment but ultimately in most use-cases owning or leasing your own hardware gives you more computing power for your money vs the utility-based Public Cloud.
Cheers,
A.Yasir
