How to Weigh Your Cloud Options

Businesses have done incredible things with the cloud, regardless of their chosen industries, sizes, and scopes. In particular, they have innovated to create opportunities for scaling growth and operations. How can your organization do the same? We want to help you implement a cloud solution that addresses all of your pain points. To do this, you can start by learning more about the differences between the public, private, and hybrid cloud solutions available to you.

A simple way to understand the cloud is to imagine that you are storing data or running applications on someone else’s computer. That computer’s location depends on what type of cloud you have implemented. The three have notable differences you’ll want to consider before committing to one option over another.

The Public Cloud

Chances are that you use the public cloud in your personal life to some degree. This is when you use services available to the general public, like email, data storage, and so on. The public cloud lets you store data, applications, and services on the same server as other individuals and organizations. However, your portion of the server is partitioned off, so you have a secure environment for your needs. You won’t manage your own public cloud; the provider handles this responsibility. This means you don’t have direct control over customizing it to suit your requirements. However, if this isn’t a sticking point, the public cloud can be a perfectly viable option for businesses.

Examples of the Public Cloud:
Microsoft OneDrive/Office/Outlook Online
Google Drive/Docs/Sheets/Gmail

The Private Cloud

A private cloud is one that you host on your business’ infrastructure, whether that is an in-house server or a portion of a data center you control. This is a great thing that can work to your benefit under the appropriate circumstances. For example, you can protect your cloud infrastructure how you want to, or you can build a solution that works specifically for the needs of your business. Of course, the downside to this is that you have to manage and maintain it in-house. This is great if you have a team that can handle the responsibility, but many SMBs don’t, making it more of a liability.

Examples of the Private Cloud:
Centralized file storage through Microsoft Azure or AWS
Cloud-based Application Hosting

The Hybrid Cloud

When the public or private cloud might work, you can likely take full advantage of a hybrid cloud to get the best of both. You can have your technology maintained and managed by professionals while also leveraging the powerful customization capabilities offered by the private cloud. Working with a managed service provider for these needs is a great way to ensure that your cloud solution is built and managed with your company's specifications in mind.

Do you need assistance with your cloud implementation? Horne & Benik can help. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 499-4400 today.