Deciding on the Right Cloud for Your Organization
The OpenStack cloud computing platform will usher in a lot of enterprise spending over the next few years, according to 451 Research's recent Open Stack Pulse 2014 report. The report notes that much of the spending (roughly 70 per cent) will be centered on public cloud providers like Rackspace and HP, but quite a bit will come from private clouds being deployed.
In fact, a separate report from 451 Research notes that "internal private cloud is the preferred execution venue for many enterprise workload types currently, with control/management issues, data sensitivity/IP risk, security and compliance/governance being among the most frequently cited reasons." Here are some of the issues involved in deciding on whether a public cloud service or a private cloud will serve an organization best.
"External ublic cloud offerings are primarily considered when there is limited data sensitivity or IP risk, with cost and functionality/ease of use frequently cited as reasons for adoption," notes the 451 report, which adds:
"Hybrid cloud deployments are primarily a future choice for most respondents, with cost being an additional reason for extending beyond internal private cloud implementations."
Akamai has a good, basic primer on things to consider when looking into public or private clouds, and it notes this:
"Both public and private clouds have management implications. However, by choosing a public cloud solution, an organization can offload much of the management responsibility to its cloud vendor. In a private cloud scenario, there is significant demand on resources to specify, purchase, house, update, maintain, and safeguard the physical infrastructure. Financially, deploying a private cloud can also create a large initial capital expense, with subsequent investment required as new equipment and capacity is added."
"In a public cloud scenario, capital expense is virtually eliminated; the financial burden is shifted to a fee-for-service, often based on utilization and data volume. Maintaining and securing public cloud infrastructure is the responsibility of the vendor, enabling the customer organization to streamline IT operations and minimize time and money spent on system upkeep."
For many organizations, deciding on a public or private cloud will come down to whether a pay-as-you-go cost structure is preferable to one that includes substantial up-front costs.
OStatic has done a series of interviews with movers and shakers on the cloud computing scene, and these interviews can provide much more insight into open source cloud platforms, public, private and hybrid clouds. A good sample of the interviews, and related posts from OStatic, can be found here:
Eucalyptus' CEO Cozies Up to OpenStack
SUSE's Latest OpenStack Distribution
CloudSwitch's Founder on What's in His Cloud Stack
CloudBees' Founder Discusses What's in His Stack
myClin Founder Discusses What's in His Stack
The Man Behind Swiss Federal Mapping Discusses His Stack
Lucas Carlson, Founder of PHP Fog, Discusses What's in His Stack
Standing Cloud's CEO: What in His Stack?
OStatic has also collected many good guest posts on cloud computing from people in the open source community, with good examples found here:
How the Cloud is Changing the Way Developers Work
Finding the Right Cloud for Your Business
How the Cloud is Driving Application Integration Up the Stack
How the Cloud is Impacting Open VoIP Services