It has become a common practice for both big and small enterprises to run programs and store information on the cloud. According to a poll conducted by RightScale, in the year 2017, more than 95% of businesses throughout the world and specifically in the Middle East are running apps as well as using cloud storage for an easy access of data and information. There are several types of cloud storage such as Public cloud, Private cloud and Hybrid cloud solutions that are chosen by the enterprises according to their business needs provided by cloud computing services. There are specifically three things to consider when zeroing on which cloud storage to consider.
- Tasks at Hand: This is a factor on which several enterprises are considering to shift to cloud storage culture due to an application that is vital to the enterprise but works on a cloud. Thus, cloud storage is an answer to all the doubts and questions.
- Storage priority: When storage is the main concern and priority of the individual or an enterprise, cloud storage readily becomes the answer to it. Expansion of the data and up gradation of the infrastructure becomes the reason of choosing a cloud storage system.
- Data priority: The customers are readily becoming aware of the fact that availability of the data on the cloud helps in exchange of information an easy and accessible task.
The available choices for cloud storage to both individuals and enterprises are the following: public, private and hybrid Cloud storage. Each of the three-cloud storage has its set of merits and demerits. But, before zeroing on the type of cloud storage, one must consider the following checklist.
- What is the need for cloud Storage: The cloud storage is an alternate for an emergency backup or day-to-day use.
- Need of extra space: There is an upsurge of data that requires extra space for storage.
- Interaction: The amount of consumer and employee interaction is pretty high and needs minimum lag time management.
- Security: Importance of security and special agreements that are needed to be met.
- Data interactions: Is the data being shared between different departments?
Let’s take a look at the merits of the three cloud storage systems:
Public Cloud
Merits
- It is a cloud storage based on the standard cloud computing model, in which the resources are made available to the public by a common podium over the internet.
- It can be both free as well as a paid usage model.
- A public cloud is sometimes referred to as an apartment complex of the internet because of its ownership by a different company, provision of security, operations on the servers and workings for a provision of the data standards for specific requirements like HIPAA which is used by the medical industry to input their records.
- When it comes to the storage of the enormous amount of data, Public Cloud Storage is an economical option as compared to on premises storage considering periodic hardware upgrades.
- Most of the cloud services have a high capacity of accommodating periodic surges so that if more storage is required, it can be easily availed.
- Prestigious Cloud storage services such as Dropbox, are PCI DSS adaptable and are well equipped to protect the data including the backup process.
Demerits
- The cloud storage server is being shared with several other businesses that can lead to a plethora of problems.
- Even though the cloud storage is designed to provide a firm and secure spot for each tenant, still there are certain limitations to its isolation policies.
- If there is a sudden surge of data activity apart from the regular activities, one’s account can be levied with additional charges on the bill despite the unlimited bill plans.
- Due to heavy data accumulation on the cloud service, there is a possibility of a greater lag time than in usual cases. This might happen only with businesses that experience extreme activity.
Public cloud storage is mostly preferred by small businesses that have a constant activity and require less security as they do not contain any ownership information.
Private Cloud
Merits
- The working of the Private cloud storage is like that of public cloud storage. The information is sent and retrieved just the same way i.e. by the internet.
- The data and information are housed on premises that allow full control over its security and retrieval along with being able to access the data from anywhere.
- One can host multiple tenants in Private Cloud storage as well but these tenants will be departments of the same company instead of several other companies.
- Purchasing and running the cloud storage on your own can induce problems related to hardware upkeeps.
- Many companies nowadays offer to host private cloud for private firms. They maintain a server that is dedicated solely to the company both on premises and at the server farm.
- It is always cheaper to host private clouds by a software company.
- With the improvement in the public cloud storage technology and services, private cloud services are losing their popularity. Still, enterprise level companies prefer to use private clouds for security reasons and responsiveness to the data.
Demerits
- Costs: A private cloud is expensive and incurs more cost. It means the company or an enterprise must shell out more money for hardware and hiring concerned personnel and programmers in comparison to a public cloud.
- Continuation: the continuous process for private cloud storage needs undisrupted power backup, cooling facilities etc. the lack of which plays hindrance in the smooth functioning of the services.
- Under-Use: There are chances that the resources that an enterprise has subscribed can be under used leading to many optimization related challenges of resources for the enterprise.
- Capacity: There are chances of having limitations in the physical hardware by the service provider leading to the shortage in the amount of storage.
Hybrid Cloud
The term Hybrid cloud refers to the features of both a private as well as the public cloud for hosting the enterprise data. It is one of the most popular choices for small as well as large enterprise. Though it is considered unnecessary to have data in both public and private clouds, it is a safe option to preserve data on both the clouds in case of an outage.
Certain business models for hybrid cloud storage are
- When the active data is on the private cloud and the backup is created on a public cloud.
- Sensitive and proprietary data on private cloud storage and less sensitive data are stored on a public cloud.
- The cloud storage can also be chosen by the departments and preferences for e.g. The HR can remain on the public cloud storage whereas the sensitive research related data can stay on the private cloud.
Merits
There are many merits of hybrid cloud storage system, some of them are:
- The data stored on Private cloud storage is directly accessible to the enterprise.
- The Private cloud storage reduces access time and computing the stored data as compared to the public cloud services.
- Hybrid cloud storage allows flexibility in designing the server and access to the data.
- When an enterprise is on the verge of upgrading, considering hybrid cloud storage is the most feasible alternative.
Demerits
- The expenditure on creation and maintenance of a hybrid cloud is quite high.
- It is necessary to take proper precautions for the security of the data stored on hybrid cloud storage as they too face security issues from time to time.
- Data and applications are interdependent and cannot exist independently. So, storing specific data needs consideration on where to store the data for easier access.
- Compatibility and striking a balance between Hybrid clouds is a challenging task.
In the Nutshell: Well, the bottom line to the debate over Public Cloud vs. Private Cloud vs. Hybrid Cloud Storage is that whichever option is being considered, the one fact to consider first is the model of the enterprise and then based on above-mentioned merits and demerits, one can choose the appropriate Cloud Storage system that is most suitable for the Enterprise.