The public cloud is where the cloud resources, like servers and storage, are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider and delivered over the internet, like for e.g. Microsoft Azure. As it is owned by a third-party, with the public cloud, you share the storage, hardware and network devices with other companies that are subscribed to the same cloud service provider.
Public cloud is best suited for –
- Data storage and archival
- Application hosting and on-demand hosting for microsite and application
- Latency intolerant or mission critical web tiers
- Auto-scaling environment for large applications.
- Companies that need an infrastructure to support large number of customers
- Those working on projects that encompass many separate entities, like for e.g. research institutions, NGOs.
Meanwhile, the private cloud is an infrastructure that is used exclusively by a single organization. It can be physically located at a company’s on-site datacentre or hosted by a third party provider. In a private cloud, however, the infrastructure and services are maintained on a private network; hardware and software are dedicated solely to your company.
Private Cloud is best suited for –
- Companies that require high data privacy, security, latency and are highly regulated and need advanced private and secure data hosting
- Companies that need high-performance access to file-system
- Those that can support the expenditure associated with running next-gen cloud data-center
- Hosting business critical data and applications
- Organizations that need advanced configurability, adaptability and flexibility
Hybrid Cloud combines both private and public cloud- leveraging the cloud platform for its cost-saving and efficiency while maintaining security, privacy and control. Data and applications can transfer between private and public clouds for superior flexibility and more deployment options. Plus, there is “cloud bursting” option with hybrid, wherein an application running on private cloud can ‘burst’ through to the public one in case of demand spike to use the additional computing resources.
Hybrid Cloud is best suited for –
- Companies that want increased scalability and flexibility, where mission-critical data can be hosted on private cloud and application deployment/testing can be on the public cloud
- Those offering services to vertical markets- customer interactions can be hosted on the public cloud and company data on the private cloud.