Cloud deployment models

Public cloud

Companies and organisations can use four different methods to deploy cloud service resources:

The most well-known cloud computing type is the public cloud, which is the cloud service type offered by third-party providers over the public internet, meaning they are available for everyone to use or purchase. Examples of such services are Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Dropbox, and Amazon Web Services.

A public cloud is a large data centre that offers the same services to all its users, and all hardware, software, and other infrastructure are managed and owned by the cloud provider. This can save organisations from expensive costs as it is the cloud service provider who is responsible for maintaining and managing the system.

Another advantage is that public clouds can be delivered as an almost infinitely scalable platform, and can be deployed faster than on-premise infrastructures.

You might also be interested in reading our blog article about cloud deployment models.

Private cloud

A cloud vendor may also offer a private cloud to their customers. In private clouds, the computing services are offered either over a private internal network or over the internet–and only to selected users.

Private clouds offer businesses many of the benefits of a public cloud, but with additional control and customisation. The difference is that there is a separate hardware environment in the data centre, which makes it more suitable for sensitive data. It can be physically located on the company’s own on-site data centre or hosted by a third-party service provider.

One of the downsides of private cloud is that the company’s IT department is responsible for the accountability and cost of managing the cloud, similar to traditional data center ownership.

Both infrastructure as a service and (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) can be delivered in a private cloud.

Hybrid cloud

As the name suggests, hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private cloud. This gives businesses even greater flexibility, helps optimising the existing infrastructure, security and compliance, and gives more deployment options, because data and applications can be shared between private and public clouds.

It also gives organisations better control over their private, sensitive data. This is especially important in some industries where there are regulations that require certain types of data to be stored on-premises.

With a hybrid cloud, companies and organisations can benefit from the flexibility of the public cloud for the computing tasks that are less regulated, while at the same time meet their industry requirements for more sensitive data.