Types of Cloud Computing Explained

There are four main types of cloud computing: private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, and multi-clouds. So, what are each of these clouds, and how will they help you?

Choosing a cloud type or cloud service for your business is a unique decision. No two clouds are the same (even if they’re the same type), and no two cloud services are used to solve the same problem. But by understanding the similarities, you’ll be more informed on the caveats of each cloud computing type, and how each cloud service could potentially impact your business.

Public Cloud
While private clouds just provide computing services to a single organization, public clouds are managed by third-party vendors that offer on-demand cloud services to multiple different organizations. Some examples of public clouds are Google, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Traditional public clouds always ran off-premises, but today’s public cloud providers have started offering cloud services on clients’ on-premise data centers. This has made location and ownership distinctions obsolete. The major benefit of public clouds is that they’re cost effective, low maintenance, and provide significant scalability.

Private Cloud
Private clouds are loosely defined as cloud environments solely dedicated to a single end user or group, where the environment usually runs behind that user or group’s firewall. Dedicated IaaS is an example. All clouds become private clouds when the underlying IT infrastructure is dedicated to a single customer with completely isolated access. This is a huge plus when it comes to data security.

Further, private clouds no longer have to be sourced from on-premise IT infrastructure. Organizations are now building private clouds on rented, vendor-owned data centers located off-premises, which makes typical location and ownership rules obsolete. This has also led to a number of private cloud subtypes, including:

Hybrid Clouds
This type of cloud combines the advantages of both public and private clouds. With this so-called “best of both worlds” cloud model, workloads can be shifted between public and private clouds depending on the computing requirements and costs of the workload.

Hybrid clouds allow businesses to scale their on-premises infrastructure up to the public cloud when the demand for computing and processing fluctuates, enabling them to handle any overflow without worrying about their data being accessible to third parties and ensuring that their data is protected from third parties.

As a result of this hybrid approach to cloud computing, companies don’t have to purchase and maintain resources that they might not be able to use for an extended period of time. It saves resources and provides optimum security comparable to private cloud models.

Multi-Cloud
Unlike hybrid clouds, which use numerous deployment options (public and private), multi-cloud strategies are associated with numerous cloud services in a separate heterogeneous system. This allows for greater productivity, scalability, and flexibility across vendors.

For example, your company can use different infrastructure service providers for different computing tasks. But instead of completely relying on one vendor, the business can either undertake a single task across many providers or implement some work on one provider but back it up with another. This workflow is unique to multi-cloud systems, and allows businesses to prioritize speed, performance, security, and more — depending on the specific application you’re running.

No matter what cloud hosting format you need, our team is here to help you find the best data solution for your business. Whether your priority is security, cost, scalability, or swift recovery time, we want to understand the issue and narrow in on a resolution.

At Opus Interactive, we specialize in understanding your company’s processes in order to identify the right storage system — and we’d be thrilled to jump into your next project! If you’re ready to get the conversation started, don’t hesitate to contact us.