How to determine if a public cloud is the best option for you
When it comes to using online applications, storing data, and creating a sustainable online environment for your business, cloud services are a must; however, it’s not always easy to assess whether private or public cloud services are ideal for your business needs.
We’ll provide you with all the essential data about public clouds, how they work, and what sub-options are available to help you confidently make your next business move.
What is a public cloud?
A public cloud is an IT model that allows you on-demand access to computing services, with the infrastructure being housed and managed by a third-party provider. These services are shared across multiple organizations, significantly driving down the price compared to private cloud services, at least in the short term.
Public clouds may offer several different types of service, including the following:
- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
- Platform as a service (PaaS)
- Software as a service (SaaS)
All of these services have slight advantages and disadvantages, but to summarize, each provides computational, storage, and networking resources on-demand, eliminating the need for the user (your business in this case) to house and manage the infrastructure yourself.
You pay for these services either on a monthly basis, like a subscription service, or per the amount of the service you use. With the latter, you can use as much or as little of the public cloud’s resources as you need.
Often, cloud providers will allow you to pay for access to virtual machines shared among tenants, allowing them to use the services mentioned above on demand. Storage, application development tools, or applications themselves may be priced separately or may be a feature contained in the purchase price of the subscription.
Why choose a public cloud?
There are many reasons businesses choose to invest in public cloud services compared to storing data locally or relying on a private network:
Scalability
One of the most significant advantages of a public cloud network is its readily scalable. Private networks, on the other hand, are limited by their infrastructure and need to be upgraded over time as the business expands.
Public clouds allow you to use the service as you need, adding additional resources readily without relying on physical hardware. You can boot up the virtual machine or turn it off from just about anywhere within minutes.
Storage
In a similar vein, a public cloud is an excellent resource for storing data since public clouds are incredibly reliable, secure, and protected against data loss. You can download the data onto physical hardware, and authorized personnel can access it from anywhere. Public cloud services even offer discounted prices for rarely accessed data you wish to store.
Computational power
Everything tech-side needs muscle to get the job done when it comes to application building, applications, and computation. The public cloud is a perfect choice for businesses with periods of peak use when extra computational power is needed. This practice saves money in the long run and allows employees and application creators to use public cloud services efficiently and cost-effectively.
Price
Another great reason to consider a public cloud is if you don’t have room in the budget for a full-scale infrastructure on the premises. Private servers can be expensive, especially regarding the initial cost of purchasing the data centers and housing space.
With a public server, you never need to worry about having IT services on hand to fix a hardware issue or deal with the physical security of your data centers. The IT service provider will handle the maintenance costs instead. Because employees can access cloud resources only when needed, public clouds offer the same uptime with significantly lower maintenance costs.
Who needs public cloud services?
Now that we’ve gone over all the essential details about how public cloud services work, it may be helpful for you to understand what sort of businesses rely on public cloud services to see whether yours would be a good fit.
Growing businesses
One of the main advantages of a public cloud service is scalability, so it makes sense that businesses that are growing—with no real sense of how much computational power they actually need—can take advantage of cloud services.
If your business has hit its stride, then public cloud services can ensure that you and your employees are effectively keeping up with demand with high-quality, powerful cloud services. In general, businesses that are more established rely on private cloud services because they are much more familiar with the computational needs of the organization.
Businesses without an IT Background
It’s fair to say that private servers need a fair bit of management. Established organizations that have staunch security compliance regulations sometimes can’t store data on public clouds, prompting the need for an on-demand, full-time IT team to manage the security of their private cloud data.
By contrast, businesses that aren’t heavily involved in IT for fields that require staunchly privatized data can rely on the IT experts who run the third-party service rather than having to hire out or manage a private server themselves. The third-party service shoulders the burden for those expenses, making it much easier for businesses to focus on how they use the service—not whether the service is working correctly in the first place.
Businesses on a budget
While a private server eventually provides a solid return on investment, the initial installation cost is staggering, certainly not viable for a small business just getting its start. Public or hybrid cloud services offer a good compromise with multi-tenancy, which drives the price down and allows you to focus on business growth rather than building a dedicated private server infrastructure, at least for the time being.
The bottom line
A public cloud server is a viable option for many businesses. Many providers offer different ways to store and access your data and provide computational resources when you need them. Fortunately, you now have a good starting point to discern whether public cloud services are the best option for you.