Does the Private Cloud Exist?

The term ‘private cloud’ has been used a lot in the last year or so. Some say the private cloud doesn’t exist but in most cases the term is being used to simply relabel the status quo. Cloud is the buzz word so traditional vendors are jumping in and calling their datacentre a ‘private cloud’.

So does private cloud really exist? YES!

But I’ve never heard of it’s existence…..

By definition a private cloud should have the same characteristics as a public cloud but be private. A public cloud is:

• Scalable
• Multi-Tenant
• Fast to provision
• Location and device independent
• Predictable, usage based costs

The public cloud exists because the global marketplace has the scale to make it work. So in that context I think the private cloud can exist in a corporation large enough to support all of the characteristics of public cloud. So imagine this scenario:

• Corporation X is multinational and has offices all around the world
• Employee Y who works in a small department of one of the regional offices needs to spin up a new landing site for a marketing campaign. The campaign will be short lived but may peak quite high
• Using the company intranet, the necessary computing power is sourced with the ability to scale, and is paid for using internal monopoly money

With this definition the private cloud can and maybe does exist. In the meantime beware of the false private cloud!