Between public, private, and hybrid cloud storage, it’s difficult to determine which type is the best fit for your business. The terminology is similar and the differences can blend into a murky mess to anyone without at least a little IT knowledge. But in order to choose the right cloud solution for your business, you need to know what distinguishes each of these three cloud computing resources. Before you determine whether private, public, or hybrid cloud storage will best fit your business type, take a look at what each has to offer.
Public cloud storage
The public cloud is likely the cloud computing option you’re most familiar with. Public clouds are owned and operated by a cloud service provider who is responsible for hosting, managing and maintaining the network. The provider sells cloud space to companies or individuals who subscribe. While companies share the infrastructure of a public cloud, they’re only granted access to their own data.
Public clouds are often cost-effective, scalable and provide access to the newest technologies. This makes public cloud storage the right choice for small businesses who can’t afford to build and maintain their own internal data center with a full-time staff but still wants a full-service cloud backup and recovery option at their fingertips.
Since any company or individual can subscribe to a public cloud storage or backup service to hold copies of their data, security and privacy concerns have been associated with public cloud storage. However, these concerns are often unfounded — especially if you’ve done an adequate amount of research on the provider you’re considering subscribing to. Many public cloud service providers for small businesses make security and privacy their top considerations by building and maintaining their data centers according to the highest industry standards and by providing software security features, like end-to-end encryption, to keep data safe.
Some other hallmarks of a secure cloud backup provider include:
- End-to-end encryption rendering data unreadable even during transit to the cloud
- Either 256-bit encryption, AES encryption, Twofish, or Triple DES encryption — all commonly used by governments, financial institutions and other trusted internet service providers worldwide
- Data centers protected with multiple levels of access control (alarms, video surveillance, armed guards, and more)
- Data centers equipped with uninterruptible power supplies, redundant cooling and multiple redundant gigabit internet connections — keeping data available when you need it, without downtime
- An annual SSAE 16 Type 2 audit of its data centers
Private cloud storage
Large enterprises with access to heavy duty IT and an extreme need for strict privacy often opt for private cloud storage. The private cloud is just like it sounds. It’s a data center built specifically for a single business to host and manage data internally and privately. This cloud resource is not shared by any other companies or individuals and is typically located on-site.
The on-site nature of a private cloud can contribute to data loss risks. With all data stored in one location, an on-site threat, such as theft or natural disaster, can jeopardize the safety and recoverability of all the data held there.
The level of maintenance required makes the private cloud the most expensive cloud option for businesses, as they require an in-house IT team, equipment, and housing. However, the additional expense does afford tighter privacy to the companies who are willing to build and maintain them with the latest upgrades. This often makes it the preferred cloud storage option for big businesses with a budget set aside for IT.
Hybrid cloud storage
One of the most misunderstood cloud computing options, hybrid cloud storage is a combination of both public and private cloud storage. By combining public and private resources, hybrid cloud storage offers security and flexibility to businesses at moderate cost. Hybrid clouds are beneficial to businesses that handle a mix of sensitive and nonsensitive data, and also have the sizeable budget required to develop and maintain their own internal network. A true hybrid cloud is one in which the private and public clouds work and are deployed together, often via an API.
It’s often the service of choice for businesses with privacy concerns driven by highly sensitive data like healthcare, legal and financial information, because of the protection offered by the private cloud component. However, the hybrid cloud is often chosen by these businesses because of a lack of understanding as to the privacy standards upheld by public cloud storage services. In a secure public cloud, deployed by experienced cloud service providers, any data stored by an organization will not be viewable by any unauthorized parties.
This makes the public cloud the perfect, affordable, scalable, and secure option for businesses.
An ideal public cloud service provider will value privacy and security. To find a public cloud service provider that offers the security of the private cloud with the affordability and scalability of the public cloud, explore the cloud backup solutions offered at Nordic Backup. With plans suited for a range of small business and enterprise-level cloud storage, backup and recovery solutions, your business will find the solution it needs to safely store and maintain even the most sensitive of data.
