Private Cloud vs Public Cloud

With the move to remote work, cloud computing has found purpose and necessity for businesses to maintain and upgrade their IT systems while keeping day to day activities running smoothly. What many IT providers also found from this necessary move to the cloud was a way to reduce costs and gain efficiency and productivity. As businesses start to define what their “back to normal” looks like it is clear cloud computing will be part of the discussions.

For everything the cloud can do there are things the cloud exposes networks to in terms of support, security and storage. Some solutions provide more support than others depending on pricing. Some have storage limitations or challenges, particularly around restoring archived data. And, some need serious consideration before implementing for security reasons.

So which cloud is the best cloud for your business?

Public Cloud: Ease of implementation

A public cloud solution is hosted and maintained by an external provider, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. The outside provider essentially “owns” the cloud infrastructure and simply “leases” a portion to businesses for a monthly fee. Deployment of a public cloud is quite easy and offers flexibility to SaaS applications and services, but as all public cloud data resides on shared infrastructure so there are few things to consider.

Security

The security of your system and data is only as good as the shared security model of your vendor. Public clouds offer a flexibility to maintain agility, but there are other areas to consider when looking at them, such as the “shared-tenant” environment where multiple customers share the same hardware. If another user’s data is compromised, access may be gained to others in that space. Moving to a public cloud has its fair share of attractive benefits, including improved scalability functions, enhanced reliability, and public cloud networking automation capabilities, but the availability and security of your content, your apps, and your customer data is dependent upon the vendor’s policies and procedures.

Pricing and Fees

Moving to a public cloud environment offers reprieve to overstretched IT divisions, but it comes with additional costs, which impact your bottom line, particularly around backup of data. As most of the services associated with public cloud are based on a “pay-as-you-go” model, costs can spike at the worst possible time. For example, additional fees for the transfer of large amounts of data in and out of a cloud, when you mount and run a recovery virtual machine (VM) which could inflate monthly costs. Furthermore, many public cloud providers charge egress fees for transferring data in and out of their cloud or additional helpdesk and support fees .

Data Availability: Back-up and Recovery

When it comes to back-up of data, what matters is how quickly you can restore it. This is where a public cloud solution can prove most challenging. Depending on the type of data you are looking to recover or the age of that data could prove time consuming due to the Shared Responsibility Model that Microsoft and Google operate on. This Shared Responsibility Model means their services aren’t required to protect your lost or stolen data caused by human error (due to malicious activity or innocuous accidents), misconfigured workflows, hackers, or viruses. Additionally, recovering what is deemed archived data, the dates of what is considered “archived” which can also vary according to contracts can prove time consuming in recovery

Private cloud solutions offer security but limited support

Single-tenant public cloud, sometimes referred to as “private cloud,” offers a more secure environment that can be configured to support any application, just like with traditional on-premises architecture. They’re also the preferred choice for organizations dependent on certain legacy applications, many of which experience issues with poor performance when deployed through the more conventional public cloud solutions and where security is a top priority when moving to cloud computing.

But, similar to the full public cloud offerings, private cloud options have complicated and complex pricing models which can also include options to build your own (BYO). Each can be daunting not just in the capital expenditure needed to build out the environment but also the liabilities associated with building and maintaining an “always-on” cloud capable of storing backups and recovering entire systems.

Backup Tool Alternatives 

All-in-one backup and recovery solution for businesses

All-in-one solution providers offer the ease and scalability of the public cloud with the security and cost efficiency of a private cloud that help organizations meet security objectives, compliance regulations all while keeping costs under control.

The Datto Cloud is a private cloud built for data protection, and in conjunction with Backupify provides an all-in-one backup and recovery solution for businesses. The Datto Cloud is built to securely store backup snapshots for Backupify while providing a platform for recovery. Most importantly, the Datto Cloud is a proven platform for data protection.

With Backupify and the Datto Cloud, you can retain and recover data via a secure, intuitive interface. The tool can back up Microsoft Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, & Sharepoint. As well as Google Drive, Contacts, Mail, Calendar & Shared Drives. Backupify also provides 24x7x365 direct-to-tech support to assist Backupify users with every aspect of recovery.

Here are 6 considerations when evaluating a cloud backup service.