Data center consolidation, virtualization, PUE, green everything, and infrastructure flexibility. All current IT conversation topics, all are important management considerations for organizations stepping into the age of complete business integration with information and communications technologies (ICT). Cool and challenging topics.
But “cool” does not carry your business goals. A solid ICT strategy encompassing all your business objectives, while enabling rapid development and providing maximum business flexibility will define the leaders of the future.
Cloud computing is a great concept. It is quickly grabbing the attention and imagination of everybody who has accepted the concept of “the network is the computer,” “The Big Switch,” and the “4th Utility.” In short, most who have grown up in the “Internet Age” either understand or fear the idea that compute and storage capacity will soon become as essential, and available, as cell phones and email.
Why Private Clouds?
Why consider a private cloud? If I can put together an email account, online office environment, and group collaboration site in 10 minutes through Microsoft or Google, why should I consider building an internal cloud infrastructure, or leasing infrastructure from a cloud services provider (CSP) to meet my business objectives?
Well, whether you are in the European Union, North America, or Asia, there are compelling reasons to separate your data from a public cloud. Maybe it is related to privacy considerations. Possibly security requirements. Perhaps you need to ensure you have total control over the location and structure of your mission-critical data.
So let’s consider a few of the benefits cloud computing bring to your organization:
The option of outsourcing physical data center infrastructure to a CSP
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Usage-based billing
Infrastructure virtualization
Software as a Service (SaaS) applications standardization
Rapid infrastructure expansion/scalability
Physical and application level security
Infrastructure consolidation
And on…
In reality, while costs may be reduced if outsourcing into a public cloud, all of the above characteristics of cloud computing apply equally to a private cloud. The main difference is your internal IT department or CSP is responsible for expanding resources as needed to meet your business objectives through a level of physical provisioning vs. simply expanding further into a public cloud resource.
Some Additional Benefits of a Private Cloud
Within a public cloud infrastructure you have the benefit, and the shortfalls of being able to distribute your applications and virtual data center within a single – or multiple physical data centers. In a public cloud you cannot really put your finger on a single server cluster or disk where you actual data is maintained.
For applications that require little direct management, that is not a problem. For application that contains personal data that is regulated within a country or economic community that demands physical protection of personal or other sensitive data, it is at best a risk, and at worst a violation of security or privacy laws.
Imagine a 3 dimensional checkerboard with your company using 10 squares within the board. The board has a matrix of 10 squares by 10 squares on each plane, and there are 10 planes available – with a grand total of 1000 potential positions. Your square’s position is randomly moved within the 3 dimensional checkerboard every two seconds.
You will never really have a good idea where your squares have been, how long they will stay in a single place, or where they will be moved next. And the rest of the positions are shared among 300 other users whose positions are being changed at the same rate – possibly faster than your squares. That is one potential visualization of shared resources in a public cloud.
Now imagine your own 3 dimensional checkerboard. Your data is moved around at the same rate as the public board, however you do not share the board with anybody else. Thus, if you need to know where your data resides at any point in time, you only have to know it is within your own 3 dimensional checkerboard.
Consider the possibility that disks being removed for maintenance or technology refresh may contain your company’s mission-critical or sensitive data, and the CSP possibly losing positive control over the media – not a comfortable or acceptable situation.
You are also able to maintain better control over some aspects of cloud computing such as access to Internet Service Providers. In a private cloud you should be able to directly manage the relationship with “upstream” ISPs providing either corporate WAN connectivity, or public Internet connectivity without sharing a connection with members of a public cloud community.
This might be particularly important if a public cloud user is hit by a DDOS attack, loses control of a virtual process such as firewall or virtual router. You are able to stay separate from other shared resources – even if you decide to outsource your cloud service to a physical CSP.
You also have access to the same library of SaaS applications, utilities, operating systems, server images, firewalls, and any other feature of the public cloud service. You have the same ability to “spool” additional virtual machines, and quickly add or expand applications as needed to meet your business objectives – again the only difference is that your cloud environment is physically located on dedicated hardware, with the only limitation being the “current” resource capacity of your private cloud.
A Hybrid Private Cloud
Now the good news. Depending on your business objectives, it is possible to mix the private and public cloud models. One example might be if your business desires offsite archival storage of data. Nothing will technically prevent your company from using a cloud storage utility offered by a company in a distant location – either within your country or in another country.
This also applies to applications, allowing your organization additional flexibility in planning disaster recovery models and business continuity plans.
Many other possible examples, and if we can now begin to consider compute, storage, application, and network capacity as a basic utility, perhaps the 4th Utility, then our job as IT managers becomes easier. Understand the business objectives, and then configure your cloud-enabled resources to meet those needs.
And it is pretty “cool” afterall…
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