Many corporate entities are now turning to newer technologies like virtualization and cloud computing as cost-effective solutions to expand their IT infrastructure’s capabilities – that is, without causing a dent on IT relegated budgets. And to keep up with the increasing hardware and software demands, IT companies as well as many small and medium-sized businesses are leveling up their operations and heading for the cloud.

As companies leverage on cloud computing technologies for most of their productivity-driven needs, it is crucial to determine where you want to run your data center applications, with the supported environments that include the public cloud or the private cloud.

This is a decision best determined by first conducting a survey of the applications you need to run, how often they are indeed accessed and the number of people using them. With your IT support group, you can easily decide on your data center applications’ implementation environment. As both types of cloud platforms have their own advantages with regard to data center specifications, storage capacities and user accessibility.

Public Cloud vs. In-House

The Public Cloud is a cloud service which enables servers, storage access, networking and even the applications readily available over the Internet for its intended user base. IT support services may have their cloud applications run on-site, or hosted off-site through third party service providers. Here, multiple mission critical processes and applications run concurrently within servers.

On the other hand, applications on the Private Cloud are hosted on dedicated servers to offer beefier security restrictions. Since they work independently from other processes, system administrators and IT managers have better flexibility with the delegated server resources and access authorizations.

Factors to Consider

Both the public and private cloud services offer their own benefits though the needs of the data infrastructure and the intended users must be taken into serious consideration by the IT support teams when making the decision. There are, of course, other factors to consider when making that call, including the available hardware resources at your disposal and their compatibility with your set of applications, the specifications of the solutions already set in place and the number of IT-related concerns you may also need to address.

On top of these, taking note of the mission-critical nature of the applications you need to run is also important. Each application may have varying degrees of platform and security limitations, level and user licensing agreements, performance requirements, storage needs, among other features.

Security Restrictions

As with the nature of cloud computing, the high availability of these services gives rise to many security concerns, given their easy accessibility over the Internet. IT support groups may have their public cloud-geared infrastructure and applications hosted off-site through third party services providers, or have their cloud-relegated infrastructure hosted on-site. Private cloud, meanwhile, offers high availability for users in other locations and even on-the-road, while allowing better flexibility for the IT department to implement security protocols and other restrictions to protect their data.

Cloud computing is definitely evolving in terms of capabilities; and along with it are a new set of technologies and best practices set to make the workplace a lot more efficient and cost-effective for the long run. Having data center applications run on the cloud ensures that everyone who needs them and their mission-critical tools are granted access 24/7. Contact our team of IT experts at All Covered to find out more about cloud computing, and how you it can benefit the day to day operations of your SMB. Truly, by enlisting IT support, small and medium, enterprises can address the many different challenges of the modern market. Call us at 866-446-1133 if you need more help with your IT strategy.