Cloud computing is quickly being adopted as a way for organizations to improve efficiency, enhance agility and decrease operational costs. In a 2011 survey of IT decision makers, International Data Corporation (IDC) indicated that 44% of IT decision makers were planning on implementing a private cloud into their organization – one that is deployed within the firewalls of a corporation to meet the needs of internal users.
An Understanding of Private Cloud
A private cloud from Crossroads utilizes internal deployment models and IT resources to provide the basis of security through cloud implementation. In a typical private cloud scenario, your organization would build, develop and manage your own cloud infrastructure. Organizations that have the capital to fund their own private cloud will typically purchase all necessary equipment, hire an entire dedicated IT support team and build or lease their own data center. This option allows the organization to have complete control over their cloud environment.
Private Cloud Business Drivers
A private cloud from Crossroads utilizes internal deployment models and IT resources to provide the basis of security through cloud implementation. In a typical private cloud scenario, your organization would build, develop and manage your own cloud infrastructure. Organizations that have the capital to fund their own private cloud will typically purchase all necessary equipment, hire an entire dedicated IT support team and build or lease their own data center. This option allows the organization to have complete control over their cloud environment.
Efficiency improvements result from standardization within the organization. Better resource utilization and allocation, simplifying and automating processes, and overall operational improvements can drastically affect the efficiency and processes of IT management.
Business agility results from an organization’s ability to dynamically scale their infrastructure up or down to meet new business needs. Drastically minimizing time spent to provision a system or activate a new device – improving quality and time to use – can have a dramatic effect on your organization’s ability to innovate.
Costs can be drastically reduced by leveraging a completely virtualized, shared IT infrastructure. This not only reduces hardware costs, but can also result in significant IT staffing, data center, and power costs.
To fully understand how a private cloud can lead to improvements in these areas of an organization, consider a typical purchasing firm. At the end of each quarter, it is not unusual to have a surge in workload. Unless the firm has enough compute power to handle said surge, its sales suffer and orders will not get processed in a timely fashion.
With utilization of a private cloud, the organization can request and receive additional resources, and will be charged accordingly. Because the resources are shared among all departments within the organization, this is accomplished without a lot of extra computing capacity sitting idle the rest of the quarter, making it drastically more cost effective. Efficiency improves because the organization is able to simply request the necessary resources, without having to jump through difficult hoops and deal with excessive IT intervention. Business agility will also significantly improve when the organization can respond to increasing or changing business needs by scaling their infrastructure in whatever manner is immediately necessary. Overall, a private cloud can and will drastically improve any surges or decreases in business with minimal stress and effort on part of the organization.
7 Vital Benefits of Private Cloud
1. BUSINESS CONTINUITY
Business continuity will always be not only a business driver to the cloud, but also a large, ever increasing benefit. Businesses strive to be proactive in their disaster preparedness. By having the proper tools and procedures in place, businesses can be fully assured that they will constantly remain functional during a disaster scenario, whether it be small or large.
Business continuity in the context of data backup and recovery means that in the event of a cyber-attack, disaster, human error, etc., a business will always have access to their critical applications and data. Downtime is inessential to every business, because it can potentially bring operations to a complete dead stop while IT issues are being fixed. This is unsuitable for anyone, and offloading accountability to a company like Crossroads helps protect organizations against these detrimental situations.
2. DATA INSURANCE
Feel secure knowing that your data is backed up locally, on your premises, under your immediate supervision. With local hardware, all data is kept in-house, protected by pre-existing firewalls, security protocols, and the encryption essential to the backup device.
3. LOCAL STORAGE EFFICIENCY
With having your own private cloud, you possess the opportunity to obtain as much or as little storage as your organization needs. Maximizing your storage efficiency can significantly decrease your cloud operational costs, as well as increase your business agility. We can help you achieve the highest levels of storage efficiency and flexibility by implementing a single, unified storage architecture and unique storage software, as well as flexible cloning and thin provisioning to boost overall efficiency, increase utilization, and reduce costs.
4. COST ELASTICITY
Although private clouds can have a sometimes large startup cost, the benefits your organization will experience after implementation are great. You will have the flexibility to shift workloads and allocation of resources to different servers and departments whenever necessary, unlike public clouds where the cloud service provider must be contacted to make any changes.
Organizations also save money through the standardization of services or IT computer resources. This reduces operational costs, while freeing up IT personnel to focus more on customers, and less on tedious tasks, such as configuring software or allocating disk space.
5. STANDARDS COMPLIANCE
By having an organization like Crossroads set up and administer your private cloud, you can be sure that your government compliance standards (HIPPA, PCI, SOX, etc.) will always be up to date. We are aware of the stringent regulations that need to be accounted for, and can ensure that they will be met.
IT audits can be a stressful, cumbersome experience when dealing with individuals whom aren’t completely experienced and knowledgeable about the process. We guarantee that our infrastructure audits will ensure your organization is constantly compliant, or your money back.
6. INFRASTRUCTURE CONTROL
In a cloud environment, infrastructure and storage must be able to scale on demand as an organization grows, data increases, and business needs change. The ability to leverage self-service, portability, and flexibility capabilities that are provided by cloud architectures allow organizations to flourish and achieve high levels of operability without having to deal with vendors at every turn. In a public cloud platform, an organization must contact their cloud provider in any situation where an allocation of resources is required. When implementing a private cloud solution, there are no requirements for the scaling of your infrastructure – you will utilize your in house IT staff to handle the adjustments.
7. CAPACITY FLEXIBILITY
Crossroads provides clients with options when expansion is occurring. We make organizational growth simple and swift with our temporary hybrid cloud solutions. As your business needs change and expansion occurs quicker than storage capacity changes can take place, you may opt to to grow into the Crossroads cloud during the time in which it takes to allocate new local space. This multi-dimensional cloud is reliable, secure and effective, much like your private cloud; with the only exception being that it allows you to immediately outgrow your local storage space when necessary.
How Do I Implement a Private Cloud?
If you are interested in learning more about our private cloud solutions, please contact one of our dedicated IT professionals at 888-548-3893 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will happily provide you with an assessment of your current IT solution, and assist you in determining the best implementation route for your organization. We are equipped to answer any and all questions on private clouds that you may have, and would be grateful for an opportunity to assist you in advancing your business with proficiency, reliability, integrity, and accountability.