Back in the days of the famous California gold rush, the desire to get in on the excitement and jump right into the new frontier caused many people to head west on a whim, without thoughtful planning or an understanding of what was going to be required to succeed.
Insight for Success from a Managed Service Provider
Today, many businesses are making this same mistake when it comes to joining the rush to be “on the cloud” by jumping right into this new frontier without understanding the options available, the differences between them and what would best meet their particular needs.
In order to make an informed decision as to what cloud strategy is best for your situation, there are many factors to be considered, but first let’s set forth some quick definitions to ensure clarity.
- Private Cloud: An organization utilizes a proprietary network or data center within its own facility or at the facility of a managed service provider (MSP).
- Public Cloud: An organization’s data is stored in a third-party’s data center. While sometimes thought to refer only to the general public using well-known examples of large Public Clouds such as Dropbox or Google Drive, it also applies to data storage and services provided by MSPs who maintain high-quality data centers for their select group of customers, including small to mid-sized businesses.
- Hybrid Cloud: Combining aspects of both Private and Public Clouds.
When deciding which approach is best for your business, start by identifying what services or data you need to access and/or store and with whom it will be shared.
Is it highly sensitive (proprietary research and development) or specifically regulated (financial, legal or medical)? Is it in-house information for use by employees only or something you want to make available to other authorized users such as vendors or customers – or even just to anyone anywhere? Very often there are subsets of users and a combination of scenarios to consider.
It doesn’t come down to “private info should be on a Private Cloud and public info should be on a Public Cloud.”
Just because some data is for employee use only, doesn’t mean it can’t reside on a Public Cloud…this only means that a third-party assumes responsibility for providing the necessary infrastructure (hardware, software, etc.), maintenance and security of the data that your employees will access.
For example, companies with many mobile employees or those that require a variety of software or platforms often find Public Clouds offer the best ease of access, highest speeds, and lowest costs.
Conversely, data that you want to disseminate to the public can very successfully be stored on a Private Cloud – whether housed at your facility or in that of a trusted MSP.
Or…you can utilize a combination of both clouds with the Hybrid Cloud approach.
A Hybrid strategy allows you to maintain certain data within your Private Cloud (such as if required by specific regulation), but enables you to reduce workload and expenses by storing other data or accessing business functionality (such as Software as a Service) via a Public Cloud.
No matter which type of cloud you chose, MSPs can offer a higher level of personnel training, security expertise and more advanced hardware and software protection than is economically feasible to all but the largest companies. And, whether you go Private, Public or Hybrid, offsite backup for disaster mitigation and recovery purposes is of paramount importance.
If you’d like discuss how to take a thoughtful approach to cloud implementation or other managed services for your company, please don’t hesitate to contact us. At AE Technology Group, as an experienced Managed Service Provider, we not only offer Cloud Computing, but IT support, Managed IT Services, IT Hosting, Hardware as a Service (Haas) and much more. We’re here to help you succeed with whatever combination of services is best for you.
