One Tuesday morning, Amazon’s servers went down. And it took a whole bunch of services down with it.
Amazon’s hosted public cloud provides an affordable service to businesses that don’t have servers. It allows them to outsource their online activities to experts. But it comes with its own set of downsides, too.
There are two main options when it comes to cloud computing consulting services: a hosted private cloud, and a public cloud. Both of these come with their own advantages and disadvantages.
In this article, you’ll learn the ups and downs of each. And how you can get the best out of your servers with Los Angeles IT support.
What Is a Hosted Private Cloud, and What Is a Public Cloud?
A hosted private cloud means you’re hosting your cloud services on your own hardware. That means you have a set of servers serving content. That also means you have an IT team that dedicates itself to maintaining this infrastructure.
When you use a private cloud, you’re handling everything. Unless you use Los Angeles IT services, it’s up to you how successful your implementation will be. You’re responsible for server house leases, digital security, hardware costs, and power costs.
A public cloud, on the other hand, goes through a third party. Amazon AWS is an example of public cloud hosting. They run everything for you.
This means you’re not responsible for the building leases, digital security, or anything else. You pay the rent, and you get the service. The only thing you need to worry about is updating your services since a public cloud service won’t usually do that for you.
Now let’s cover some of the unique benefits and downsides of each.
Operational Costs
On the whole, public cloud hosting is cheaper. Public cloud services know how to cut costs and provide stellar service. This depends on how many server racks you need, of course.
If you have a small business, you might only need one server rack to run your operations. There’s a good chance a public hosting service can do this for you for less than if you did it yourself.
A large organization might find that public hosting is actually more expensive. Depending on your situation, you may be able to run your own servers for a fraction of the cost. For Los Angeles computer services, it helps to consult with a local IT support expert.
Security
It’s important to keep in mind that when you use a public cloud, you’re sharing server racks with other companies. In some cases, there might be a virtual server serving your services right next door to another company.
Public hosting has some of the best security in the industry. You need not worry that hackers will steal your data with ease. However, it’s important to understand that it’s not a matter of if they hack you, but when.
If a hacker compromises your public hosting, there’s a good chance they will compromise everyone. That’s why it pays to have the best security possible on your server implementation. Even so, once a hacker gets in that gives them a lot of leverage.
The public cloud hosts a lot of major companies. That makes this an attractive target for hackers.
Further, you have to trust the employees of the public cloud organization. They may vet their employees thoroughly, but bad actors can still get through.
This is where a hosted private cloud excels. If you have a quality IT staff, they can provide the best security in the industry. You know your employees, so you can have more trust in your organization.
Outages and Downtime
Servers go down from time to time. The reasons vary from equipment failure to routine maintenance. Cloud computing relies on the surrounding network, too.
When you use a public cloud, you’re at the mercy of your managed service provider. If the public cloud goes down, your servers go down. If they need to perform regular scheduled maintenance, you go down as well.
Make sure to keep in close contact with your public cloud’s support team. Stay up to date with their planned maintenance. But know that you have no real control if their servers aren’t operational.
If you have a hosted private cloud, when your servers go down is up to you. Barring an act of God or a hack, you control how long they stay up. You can choose when your team performs maintenance.
That means you can install as many backups as you like. If you want to keep up and running during a power outage, you can install backup battery power. If you want to avoid any downtime whatsoever, you can plan to only take a few servers offline at a time to do maintenance.
Scalability
Your server needs may increase over time as your business grows. Or you may have demand that fluctuates throughout the day. The only way to remedy this is to have more servers for cloud computing in Los Angeles for times of increased demand.
This is problematic for a hosted private cloud. You can use server virtualization to increase the number of servers to handle increased demand. However, any more than that and you’ll need to install more servers.
This can be costly for a hosted private cloud in your facilities. You’re responsible for purchasing the hardware, hiring the installation, and running the new racks.
But this isn’t an issue with the public cloud. You can increase demand as you need it. In most cases, you can rent more server space in minutes so that you can meet a sudden spike in demand.
Find Out What Kind of Hosting You Need
A hosted private cloud and a public cloud give options to businesses with widely varying needs. There are other options we didn’t discuss today, such as a hybrid cloud. Whatever your business needs, there’s a solution perfect for you.
If you’re not sure what approach works best, get in contact with an IT support services Los Angeles based company like Be Structured Technology Group to find out.
The leading Los Angeles IT consulting company is here to help.
