Public Cloud vs. Private Cloud vs. Hybrid Cloud

Experts predict that 80% of all IT budgets will be committed to cloud solutions (source).

Are you planning on migrating your business to the cloud? If so, you’ll have to decide on a cloud setup that best fits your company’s needs.

Let’s take a look at your three options for the cloud. We’ll point out some scenarios in which each of these options may make sense for your business.

What are your cloud options?

Public Cloud

With a public cloud, Red Level hosts your information in our datacenter or in our partner clouds such as Azure. Since you only use the resources that you need, the public cloud is a good low-cost option for migrating your business to the cloud. Public cloud options such as Azure have many layers of security that often supersede that of on premise security options.

Only pay for the resources that you use
Reduce your IT hardware and staffing costs
Easily scale up resources as your business grows

Private Cloud

Red Level will build a private cloud on your premises in your data center or at a colocation facility. The private cloud offers the ability to completely manage all facets of the infrastructure and be able to lock down the environment in even more granular methods than in a public cloud offering. Complying with ITAR or other compliance and regulations might restrict you from being able to adopt public cloud offerings.

Get more security by not sharing your resources with others
Have more control to customize the cloud to your needs

Hybrid Cloud

The hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private cloud. Often a business will keep some data in the public cloud, and other data in the private cloud. Usually, sensitive data like credit card information is kept in the private cloud

Protect sensitive data by storing it in the private cloud
Move data to the public cloud when demand on resources increases

How do you know which cloud is best for your business?

Every business is unique, and so are its IT needs. When you work with Red Level, we develop cloud options that are tailored to those needs. Here are some situations in which you might benefit from public, private and hybrid cloud options.

Public cloud may be a good choice if:

Your employees need access to resources while working remotely
You want to back up critical data remotely in case of disaster
You want to reduce the cost of hardware, infrastructure and IT staff
You need to easily scale resources based on demand

Private cloud may be a good choice if:

You have an ecommerce website and database that stores credit card info
You have a healthcare business and store patient information electronically
You have to comply with strict security standards like HIPAA
You want more control over hardware, resources and infrastructure
You store lots of confidential business information

The hybrid cloud gives you the best of both worlds, but it’s not perfect. Since you’d still be using the public cloud, security threats are a bit higher. And data moving in and out of these clouds can be targeted. The cost of a hybrid solution may also be higher than either public or private cloud options.

Not sure which cloud you need? We can help.

The experts at Red Level have developed custom cloud solutions for a wide variety of businesses. Let us know what you need, and we can build a cloud that fits your company. Contact Red Level today for more information.