Cloud Platforms: What Are They And How Do They Work?

26 Sep, 2024 Source: TierPoint

The first crucial step in any cloud migration strategy is selecting the most suitable cloud platform. With a diverse range of options available, each platform offers unique benefits tailored to different needs. Some platforms are optimized for workloads demanding consistently high performance, while others prioritize cost-effective deployment or offer scalable on-demand capacity for managing peak loads. Multitenant architectures, like the public cloud, can maximize resource efficiency and minimize costs, whereas single tenant, (like a private cloud) dedicated environments provide enhanced security and control. The key is to align your choice with your organization’s specific requirements and workload demands to ensure a seamless and effective migration.

To help you understand the differences in cloud platforms, we’ve put together a guide comparing cloud platforms.

What is the Public cloud?

A public cloud is a cloud computing model where third-party providers, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, offer computing resources and services over the internet to multiple users. These resources include virtual machines, storage, and applications, which are shared among users while ensuring data privacy and security.

Public Cloud Advantages

Scalability: Public clouds are very scalable, enabling businesses to swiftly modify their resource consumption to meet demand. This adaptability allows organizations to easily increase or decrease their resources without being limited by physical infrastructure.
Cost efficiency: Operating on a pay-as-you-go model, public clouds eliminate the need for significant upfront investments in hardware and infrastructure. Organizations only pay for the resources they consume, leading to potential cost savings. This model also allows businesses to optimize their expenses through various pricing options.
Shorter Project Delivery Times: Immediate access to infrastructure, automated workflows, and continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) provided by the public cloud can significantly reduce project delivery times for development teams.
Built for global reach and provides anywhere access for distributed and mobile workers.

But that’s not all, there are many more benefits to the public cloud.

Public Cloud Challenges

Public Cloud Security: Public cloud environments face security risks, including misconfigurations, data breaches, insecure APIs, insufficient identity and access management, and confusion over shared responsibility models. These challenges underscore the need for organizations to implement robust security measures, regularly monitor their cloud infrastructure, and clearly understand their role in the shared responsibility model to effectively protect their data and resources in the public cloud. 
Skills shortages: Many organizations lack the in-house expertise required to effectively navigate cloud environments, particularly in specialized areas such as cloud architecture, engineering, and cloud-native services. The rapid evolution of cloud technologies demands continuous learning and adaptation, creating a pressing need for IT staff to acquire and maintain cloud-specific skills. This skills gap can lead to inefficient cloud usage, misconfigurations, and difficulties in aligning cloud deployments with business objectives.
Cost Management and Optimization: Without proper governance, visibility, and monitoring mechanisms in place, companies often face issues such as overprovisioning of resources and cloud sprawl. These problems can lead to unnecessary expenses and inefficient resource utilization, undermining the cost-saving potential of cloud adoption. Implementing robust cost management strategies and optimization practices is crucial for organizations to maintain control over their cloud spending and maximize the value of their cloud investments.

What is a Private Cloud?

A private cloud is a cloud model dedicated exclusively to a single organization, providing enhanced security and control over data and resources.

Private Cloud Advantages

Enhanced security and privacy: This model provides dedicated resources for a single organization, ensuring that data, applications, and infrastructure are not shared with others. This setup allows for greater control and customization of security measures, helping organizations meet regulatory compliance requirements effectively.
Customization and Configuration: Private clouds offer the ability to customize and configure infrastructure to precisely meet specific business needs. This flexibility allows organizations to tailor their resources, security protocols, and applications, ensuring optimal performance and alignment with unique operational requirements while maintaining control over their data and compliance standards.
Data Sovereignty: Gives control over where data is stored and processed, ensuring compliance with data residency requirements specific to certain industries or regions. This capability helps organizations maintain regulatory standards and protect sensitive information effectively.

Hosted private clouds can offer added benefits from the provider’s data center, like resilience, uptime, and more.

Private Cloud Challenges

Costs: They typically incur higher upfront and ongoing costs than public clouds, as organizations are responsible for all expenses related to acquisition, deployment, support, and maintenance. This can include the need to purchase new hardware and software licenses, as well as hiring additional IT staff to manage the private cloud infrastructure effectively.
Limited scalability and flexibility: Private clouds’ capacity is restricted to the hardware and software that organizations have purchased. Scaling up requires additional purchases and deployments, making private clouds less adaptable compared to public cloud options.
Complexity: Private cloud environments may have increased infrastructure complexity and resource demands. Unlike public clouds, private clouds require organizations to maintain dedicated teams for monitoring, management, maintenance, and security. This not only increases operational costs but also demands a higher level of in-house expertise, potentially straining resources and diverting focus from core business activities.

What are Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud?

Multicloud involves using services from multiple public cloud providers, allowing organizations to choose the best offerings and avoid dependence on a single vendor. Hybrid cloud, on the other hand, combines public cloud services with private cloud or on-premises infrastructure, creating an integrated environment that balances security for sensitive data with the flexibility of public clouds. What’s the difference between the two?

Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud Advantages

Flexibility and choice: Organizations can select the best services from multiple providers and environments, optimizing for cost, performance, and features while avoiding vendor lock-in.
Enhanced security and compliance: Sensitive data and critical workloads can be kept on-premises or in private clouds, while leveraging public cloud resources for less sensitive tasks, helping meet regulatory requirements.
Improved scalability and resilience: Workloads can be distributed across multiple environments, allowing for better load balancing, disaster recovery, and the ability to scale resources up or down as needed.

Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud Challenges

Increased complexity: Managing various cloud environments and integrating them with on-premises systems can be complicated, requiring specialized skills to ensure everything works together smoothly.
Security and compliance risks: Keeping security policies and data governance consistent across different clouds and on-premises systems is challenging, which can increase the risk of data breaches and compliance issues.
Cost management: Hybrid and multicloud environments may present challenges due to the complexity of monitoring and optimizing expenses across multiple platforms. Organizations often struggle with visibility issues, as they navigate different dashboards and pricing models for each cloud provider. This fragmentation makes it difficult to gain a comprehensive view of cloud spending and effectively optimize costs across the entire cloud infrastructure.

So which cloud platform is right for you?

Finding the right cloud platform can be complex. Especially when understanding the benefits, challenges, and the ever-changing nature of cloud platforms, like the recent changes to VMware.

At TierPoint, our certified experts take a cloud-agnostic approach, focusing on your unique application and business requirements to guide your cloud journey. Whether your needs are best served by public, private, hybrid, or multicloud solutions, we have the experience to navigate the complexities of various platforms, including Azure Stack, Azure Native, VMware, Azure VMware Solution, and AWS.