The issue of data protection and network security can be found to be at the source of much of the misinformation and other myths attendant on deploying a cloud computing service infrastructure, such as DesktopLive. It’s also evident that the distinctions between deploying a private cloud or public cloud application are becoming confused in their varying appropriate utilities according to business domain needs.

Private Cloud
An early preconception is to take a view of private clouds as not providing the same elasticity and value as public clouds. This is assumed because they are not obtained from an outside provider using significantly considerable amounts of IT resources and not under private ownership. However, there is no reason to prevent the building of an IT architecture within the company itself that does appropriate same design patterns and, thus, the same value attributes of public clouds, including elasticity.

The assertion of an illegality issue that may be applied to individual industry sectors are ill informed, and notwithstanding adherence to compliancy guidelines applied to the storage of personal medical information and financial information, the rules do not extend to commercial/enterprise data. Key to a proactive IT stance, for example, will underpin the allowing of a cloud user to specify where data will reside.

It’s critical to understand that private cloud functionality is much more than simple virtualisation and supports a true multitenant architecture. Importantly, private clouds provide most of the features and functions of public clouds.

Public Cloud
Another contentious issue surrounds reliability although it is readily recognised that public clouds perform on a regional basis more reliably then most business/ enterprise IT infrastructure. The standard of IT support from cloud providers will focus more on ‘redundancy’ and thus provide superior IT services continuity monitoring to ensure sustained uptime than many private organisation systems.

It is often assumed that public clouds are always less expensive than private clouds. Lower costs may be reflected in the ability to use applications, development platforms, and infrastructure from a pay-as-you-go subscription service. But whilst this will always be more cost efficient than a company simply purchasing, installing, and supporting their own hardware and software, each type of application and service offering needs to be evaluated over a long term duration.

Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid clouds are essentially two or more separated clouds, e.g. private and public, linked by technology for data and application portability. They should not be considered as providing an easy method to migrate from a private cloud to the public cloud. Localisation of application and data in either or both can make this highly prohibitive.

Cloud computing is not a one size fits all applications model and is more than just shared, multi-tenant infrastructures. Key to understanding its different ways of being applied is to be aware that each approach possesses unique characteristics and economics that can help optimise application to how the service might best serve a given objective.

Whilst public clouds may be viewed as delivering best value, scaled cost efficiencies, their shared infrastructure model can limit configuration, and be less suitable for services using sensitive data subject to compliancy. Internal clouds will sit within a data centre behind company-built protections and tend to be less automated. A hosted cloud operates at a service provider behind enhanced resources protection. Although still managed as a pool, as a cloud provider service, increased custom protection with greater economies of scale can be delivered.

Companies adopting a hybrid cloud strategy will best optimise their business service usage to requirement. Taking a flexible, proactive IT approach, Cloud computing allows an increasing versatility which matches infrastructure service options to specific business applications more efficiently and cost effectively than previous static arrangements.

Integration between different deployment infrastructures can be seen as delivering the greatest value. Cloud platforms are essentially a portfolio of operating options, whereby cloud resources composed of public, internal, and hosted cloud resources can link together with traditional uses via a virtual private cloud.

Partnering with a cloud provider developer is critical as any web infrastructure will likely range across a data centre, content delivery network, and an IT support hosting provider. By determining what types, parts of applications and data sets best match specific cloud use options, a joined up map can be assembled to guide appropriate use as new applications are integrated within a cloud system.

It’s critical to build a network security model by understanding the dimensions of protection which must be taken for different data types and to determine where applications can safely be used. Security policy awareness is essential for cloud resource use as applications are developed whether a private cloud is internal or hosted.

As a more durable, yet flexible needs-based networking concept, which advances the principle of a virtual private network (VPN), cloud computing, as with the implementation of a DesktopLive model, is a scalable method for extending a secure trust based network over a series of resources regardless of usage, business service and locations.