The private cloud, the preferred solution for sensitive information systems ...
Most of the time, when we think of the Cloud, we think of the Public Cloud. Popularised by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, Public Cloud offers virtually unlimited resources, available on demand somewhere on the Internet. These resources are supported by a global IT infrastructure shared by a large number of users.
However, these shared IT environments are not suitable for all businesses, particularly those with specific requirements in terms of critical workloads, security, availability and administration.
These companies, convinced nonetheless by the flexibility offered by the Cloud, are mainly moving towards an "on-premises Cloud" (or private Cloud), by investing in their own Cloud infrastructure, installed in their own data centres.
A private Cloud offers some of the advantages of a public Cloud. Self-service and scalability; direct control over data; multiple users; easier provision of IT resources; and billing tools that allow business users to be charged for IT resource consumption are all examples of these advantages.
However, there are some major drawbacks to opting for the private cloud.
... but a solution with certain limitations that you need to be aware of
Designing, deploying and administering a private Cloud requires significant resources, both human and financial. As the hardware (network, server, storage) is owned by the company, the financial burden is very similar to that of a traditional data centre (investment in hardware at the start of the project, followed by maintenance and replacement costs). Similarly, the company's IT department - and not a third-party Cloud provider - will be responsible for administering the private Cloud. A private Cloud will involve the same resources as a traditional datacentre in terms of staff, maintenance and capital expenditure.
What's more, the private Cloud lacks one of the key advantages of a Cloud: its elasticity.
Every change in a company's activity (e.g. strong seasonal fluctuations among e-tailers) will generate either an under-utilisation of installed resources, or the need for a new investment to resize resources. The responsiveness of each new project (setting up a Big Data platform, for example) will depend on the decision to invest in new resources.
To meet these business expectations, reduce the internal IT workload and benefit from more flexible financial models, some Cloud providers, such as Rackspace in the USA or Cloud Temple in France, are able to deploy alternative solutions.
The virtual datacentre, the alternative to the private cloud
A virtual datacentre, or private cloud in rental mode, is a set of dedicated network, server and storage resources that meet the needs of businesses for the deployment of virtual data centres in cloud mode (i.e. on-demand consumption).
A virtual datacentre includes environments that customers can control from end to end: from computing instances and their orchestration, to the network and security, not forgetting storage. All of this via graphical or programmable administration consoles (a "Software Defined" approach).
A virtual datacentre therefore offers the best of both the private Cloud (resources dedicated to the customer, guaranteed performance tailored to critical workloads, control over data location and security) and the public Cloud (elasticity of resources, pay-as-you-go), and is a particularly attractive alternative for companies considering the Cloud for their sensitive Information Systems.
Like digital players such as Netflix and Spotify, ViadeoIn addition, a growing number of more traditional companies such as Total, Suez, Bel and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers have or are in the process of abandoning their own IT infrastructure in favour of virtual datacentre solutions.