I’m spending most of this week at Microsoft’s Tech Ed 2011 conference, dosing up on all sorts of information on Windows, Azure, Windows Phone 7 and other Redmond tech. One of the overriding themes at this year’s event is something that pops up more and more these days in work environments: private cloud.
As the name suggests, a private cloud infrastructure uses the same concepts as a conventional cloud environment for business — network accessibility, centralised management, and charging on a usage basis — but is only accessible to a single company, rather than being divided amongst multiple clients. That in theory cuts down on some of the cost savings associated with cloud services (since they won’t be scaled out to the same degree), though it can still represent a budget reduction on old-fashioned IT if your organisation is sufficiently large.
The upside is that private cloud offers a much higher level of security and sovereignty. For industries like finance where regulators demand that companies know exactly where confidential data is stored, it can be the only practical option. In businesses with highly customised applications, it’s also often a more practical way to integrate additional apps.
Anyway, before I go dosing up on even more private cloud stuff, I’m curious to know: how is the private cloud playing out for Lifehacker readers?
Additional thoughts, as usual, are welcome in the comments.
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