Public vs private vs hybrid cloud: what’s the best blend for your organisation?

[DaveKeigher]

Public vs private vs hybrid cloud: what’s the best blend for your organisation?

One-size-fits-all cloud solutions often fail to cover the specific needs of each organisation, limiting the opportunities for truly innovative citizen services. Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud – each solution has different strengths and so suits different needs.

Let’s unpack the options to shed light on which cloud environment will give your organisation the room to evolve and grow.

Public cloud – what is it and what workloads does it suit?

With all the hardware and software in the hands of cloud providers, you have less control over the underlying infrastructure with the public cloud. However, low costs and high scalability makes the public cloud a strong option for many workloads.

Organisations working with big data will be eager to take advantage of the scalability provided by the public cloud. And those looking for lower initial costs will be happy to shift operational workloads such as email, CRM, and web applications into the cloud.

The public cloud is best-suited for organisations looking to reduce costs, offload management of their IT infrastructure, and enjoy instant scalability.

Private cloud – what is it and what workloads does it suit?

In the private cloud, you’ll use software and hardware dedicated to your organisation and no other. Since no one is sharing your resources, you reduce the chances of data security issues. This means you can take advantage of many public cloud benefits but with greater control.

For example, HR applications and organisation analytics sit well in the private cloud, as they take advantage of cloud scalability, whilst ensuring that sensitive data is secure. Organisations that are heavily regulated, such as financial and legal services, use the private cloud to ensure they remain compliant with regulations.

The private cloud isn’t all upside however, as there is slightly diminished scalability and higher upfront costs compared to the public cloud.

Hybrid cloud – what is it and what workloads does it suit?

The hybrid cloud combines onsite infrastructure with public and/or private cloud environments.

Using a hybrid solution means you can fine-tune your cloud environment to match your organisation, and precisely deliver the benefits you need the most.

For example, all organisations produce data, but only some of that data is sensitive – this can go to onsite servers or to a private cloud to maximise security. Other data that is less sensitive can go into the public cloud at a lower cost. This simple strategy reduces both cost and risk.

Of course, with hybrid cloud, there will always be a certain level of complexity that you’ll need to overcome to prevent the IT Monster from getting out of control. Following expert best practices is the best way to handle your specific organisational requirements, with a Hybrid IT roadmap the ideal field guide.

Consultancy and migration services such as HPE PointNext enable you to build a plan that aligns with your unique goals and outcomes, so that all your workloads are running in the optimal environment. Since your organisation might have thousands of active workloads running in its datacentre, having the right management tools at your disposal can make all the difference to performance and portability.

For example, HPE Greenlake provides a consumption based, pay-per-use model, for hybrid cloud, private cloud, and traditional IT – bringing cloud-like benefits to a wide spectrum of IT environments.

What’s best for my organisation? Well, it depends.

With the average cloud waste for a business running at 35 percent, it’s important to optimise your cloud experience.

This is especially true for the public sector where the drive to become cloud-first, has led to the selection of sub-optimal cloud environments. Unfortunately, many organisations have failed to establish the ‘Right Mix’ of IT services and choose wisely between public, private, and hybrid cloud.

Mapping your applications to the most suitable IT environment can be tricky without the right strategy. But, by reviewing each individual workload, you can deliver an application plan that includes the perfect blend of platforms for your organisation.

To start planning your own Right Mix strategy and build a hybrid IT environment that delivers accelerated results for your organisation, download our free guide to embracing the public sector cloud.