Public vs Private vs Hybrid Cloud: Unraveling the Cloud War

Hats off to those early adopters of the cloud who could foresee the future and took the risk of letting cloud service providers control their processes, operations, and data. This is why the cloud computing market is booming, and we expect it to have a value of around USD 1.44 trillion by 2029. Fascinating, isn't it?

Today, having a portion of or even the entire organizational infrastructure on the cloud has become de regueur.

So, if everyone is following the latest cloud computing trends and opportunities, how will we make the right room? How can company X offer a different service from company Y when both of them are running on the same technology?

Enter the cloud avatars – public private and hybrid cloud.

In simple words, the basic difference is that:

• Public cloud delivers resources to many companies via the internet
• Private cloud serves only a single company
• Hybrid cloud is a mix of public and private cloud

Together, these avatars make up, for example, an amusement park that has something for everyone. And the choice of picking one depends on a combination of your requirements and budget.

Ready to find the best cloud solution for your business? Let's start the pep talk on public vs private vs hybrid cloud!

What is Public Cloud?

This is the largest cloud solution today. In this model, cloud service providers allow organizations to leverage a range of services, including computing power, marketing applications, data storage, networking components, etc., over the internet.

This is a multi-tenant model where you share the resources with other firms, but you can keep your data and workloads separated in a secure virtual space. A public cloud does not mean anyone can just log in; it's a lot more accessible than other kinds.

Approximately 96% of businesses use at least one public cloud; half of an organization's workload is maintained on public clouds.

There is usually a hot debate regarding the three big public cloud providers – Amazon Web Services vs Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud Platform – who have the lion's share of the market. Businesses of all sizes like this cloud computing service because it provides high scalability and a subscription-based pricing model without making a hole in their budgets.

Benefits of Public Cloud

Public cloud comes with a plethora of benefits, making it the most popular cloud model among organizations.

• Drastically reduced costs as you pay for only what you use with zero to low investment in buying, configuring, and maintaining your infrastructure on the cloud.
• A pool of flexible resources to scale up during the seasons of high demand and scale down again later on.
• With sufficient geographically distributed servers, the public cloud provides high reliability through failover strategies and sophisticated redundancy.
• Lower complexity because there is a relatively smaller team of IT professionals who focus on creating quality services and products.
• The public cloud saves organizational data from getting into the wrong hands. With controlled access, it reduces the risk by bringing down the scope of human intervention.

Drawbacks of Public Cloud

Every technology has some downsides to consider, and so does the public cloud. Check out the following disadvantages of this cloud solution for better visibility:

• Public cloud offers shared security, and hence, it comes with shared security threats as well.
• If your cloud usage increases, costs can accordingly add up, leading to higher expenses.
• You get low visibility and control over where and how your data gets stored and managed.

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What is Private Cloud?

Next in our public private hybrid cloud discussion comes the private model. The private cloud infrastructure refers to a dedicated service for a single company where you do not have to share your computing resources with anyone else. The data centers and servers get typically located on premises and on a remote lotion managed by third-party vendors.

If your company needs strict data compliance standards or high data security, the private cloud is the perfect choice for you. It offers you the privilege to access valuable computing resources through a secure private network. You can also customize the service as per your business and security requirements.

Private cloud providers offer better control and visibility into the infrastructure. It reiterates the importance of cloud computing in business growth by enabling businesses to meet all regulations and perform sensitive IT tasks without comprising the security which was previously impossible without on-premise data centers.

Benefits of Private Cloud

Some of the most obvious advantages of the private cloud that has propelled organizations toward its adoption are:

• Private cloud comes with solely dedicated infrastructure for your use only. No other organization will be able to access it, and hence, it is highly secure.
• Private cloud environments are moderately scalable without tradeoffs from a technical point of view. It's capable of efficiently meeting unanticipated demands.
• Decent flexibility as it is able to modify the infrastructure in accordance with the changing and increasing organizational needs.
• A cloud infrastructure dedicated to a single user offers maximum security measures to safeguard your business against unauthorized access and security vulnerabilities.
• You can customize the private cloud model as per regulatory compliance to manage confidential data and workloads.

Drawbacks of Private Cloud

As useful and productive as the private cloud might be, there are some serious disadvantages to look out for:

• Higher total cost of ownership (TCO) as private cloud models needs up-front investments in infrastructure for its deployment.
• Scaling up/down your infrastructure can be time and resource-consuming as you need to buy and set up both software and hardware.
• Private cloud comes with high-security protocols, and thus, it has limited mobile usage.

What is Hybrid Cloud?

The hybrid cloud model is the best choice if you want the best of both public and private clouds. It's a computing system that connects the power of the public cloud with an on-site data center, aka the private cloud. This enables the two infrastructures to share apps and data as required.

For example, the hybrid cloud will allow you to run less sensitive, temporary workloads like testing and email marketing on the public system and manage confidential tasks like financial reports on the private system. The primary goal is to have the flexibility to move workloads on the cloud as needed and be capable of choosing the best cloud service for each task.

Successful enterprise cloud migration with a hybrid approach can help you meet your business and technical objectives in a more cost-effective way that neither public nor private cloud could provide. You can also get the resources you need without the need to invest money or time in buying, setting up, and maintaining new servers that are only occasionally helpful.

Benefits of Hybrid Cloud

Running your business on the hybrid cloud has an array of benefits like:

• Hybrid cloud is a perfect balance between scalability and security. You can rapidly scale your cloud services and maintain high-end security at the same time.
• As you can move your resources from private to public cloud and vice versa, low downtime is another great advantage of the hybrid cloud.
• This cloud model comes with resource optimization capabilities as you can utilize both public cloud services and on-premise infrastructure.
• The centralized management system of the hybrid cloud leads to the implementation of strong security measures like access control, encryption, and orchestration.
• In case of a disaster or failure, you can backup important data with business continuity without the risk of overcrowding the private servers.

Drawbacks of Hybrid Cloud

Even with a win-win proposition, there are some major cloud computing challenges in the hybrid cloud computing model.

• Companies have to bear the on-premise hardware costs for running and maintaining private cloud services.
• You need to manage multiple servers and vendors at the same time to ensure nothing falls through the crack.
• Breaking down your computing infrastructure into two clouds may result in a lack of visibility and complicated business operations.

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Difference Between Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud

Let's understand the critical difference between public vs private vs hybrid cloud by considering certain parameters and where they fit in these cloud contexts.

1. Data Tenancy in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

Public cloud has multi-tenancy where the data of multiple firms gets stored in a shared space, private cloud has single tenancy where the data of a single firm gets stored in the cloud, and hybrid cloud has a mixed approach where the shared data gets stored in public cloud and private cloud contains the confidential data.

2. Connectivity in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

Public cloud establishes connectivity in the internet, private cloud does it over a company’s personal network, and hybrid cloud connects through both the internet and private network.

3. Cloud Services in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

Public cloud services are open, private cloud services are accessible to a single firm, and hybrid cloud services can be available to everyone as well as to that particular firm.

4. Management Method in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

The management of public cloud belongs to the service provider, private cloud is managed by the organization's administrators, and hybrid cloud is run by both parties.

5. Costs in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

Public cloud comes with cloud cost optimization features provided by the service providers, private cloud is comparatively expensive as businesses have to invest in the resources, and hybrid cloud is more costly for the private model and less expensive in the public model.

6. Software and Hardware Components in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

Public cloud service providers manage the software and hardware components for their clients, private cloud components are in the hands of a specific enterprise, and hybrid cloud components are managed by both sides.

7. Scalability and Flexibility in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

All three cloud computing models provide a high scope of scalability and flexibility to help you meet changing business demands and customize the range of services for your organization.

8. Security in Public Private Hybrid Cloud

The public cloud model comes with low-security measures, whereas private cloud offers high-security initiatives, and hybrid cloud gets a perfect combination of high and low-security systems.

Which One to Choose from Public vs Private vs Hybrid Cloud Model?

When it comes to picking the most suitable type of cloud computing model for your business, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The decision comes from a wide array of factors, including use cases, technical and infrastructure capabilities, budget, etc.

With that being said, each cloud has its own advantages and disadvantages, as we have seen, and thus, has its appropriate place and time in organizations. For example:

Opt for the public cloud when:

• You have predictable computing requirements for a certain number of end-users.
• You need critical cloud-native application development services and high-functional servers
• You must reserve resources in a development and testing environment to address demanding usage situations.

Opt for the private cloud when:

• You run a government agency or a highly-regulated organization.
• You need robust control and security over your IT infrastructure and workload.
• You have the resources to invest in a modern tech stack for improved performance and availability.

Opt for the hybrid cloud when:

• You have multiple business verticals with strict IT regulatory and security compliances.
• You need secure private networks to leverage SaaS (Software as a Service) benefits.
• You require an agile cloud strategy combining the best approaches of performance and price.

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What's Next?

Cloud Computing and Radixweb

For the last 25 years, Radixweb has been a pioneer of cloud computing services, helping clients harness the power of an inclusive cloud strategy for fostering growth. Meanwhile, the underlying challenges have drastically declined around the globe, encouraging business leaders to adopt and use this revolutionary practice in an easier way than ever.

So, what we say is don’t wait. Save yourself resources, money, and time by placing your enterprise on the cloud. Radixweb can help make the most of your cloud infrastructure and build a more resilient business. Explore our services as an industry-leading cloud-based application development company and implement the silver lining of today's business environment!