By Steve Eveleigh, Product Marketing Manager, Star — www.star.co.uk.

Cloud computing has become a short hand for the complex process of virtualisation and application delivery. On the whole, most users of cloud computing use Public Cloud services such as Google Apps, Microsoft BPOS or SalesForce.com, all names that have become synonymous with cloud.

However, large enterprises are increasingly moving toward Private Cloud. Private Cloud provides specific services to a selected group of users and resides within a private wide area network and corporate data centre, with the implicit advantage of being managed by an in-house team of dedicated IT professionals. Businesses that have deployed such an infrastructure commonly utilise both Public Cloud and Private Cloud services resulting in Hybrid Cloud.

The main challenges that organisation face when adopting public cloud services are around security and control of their data. Inheritably, the delivery of data from public cloud service providers to users, is insecure and not encrypted, whether on disk, in storage or carriage over the network. The main concern of businesses using public cloud services would be if that public cloud service provider is subject of a security breach or attack. The inability to access hardware and software, fully audit security or test the robustness of the infrastructure means public cloud has a limited business audience.

Those businesses deploying Private Cloud infrastructures can optimise the resources involved in the provisioning, delivery, monitoring and control of their business critical tools and applications. The ability to access elastic storage, processing and networking as an on demand set of services means business can efficiently react to change, up scaling and down-scaling their infrastructure to match their requirements.

Businesses that adopt Private Cloud can reap all the benefits of Public Cloud such as
· Reduced cost and the ability to pay for services incrementally

· The removal of Capex

· Increased storage and network capacity so the business can scale.

· Increased process automation delivering high levels of flexibility.

· Increased mobility allowing for increased availability of data, applications and resources.

While no longer will IT personnel have to worry about the management and maintenance of infrastructure, they are free to concentrate on innovation and driving real business value.

With Cloud services very quickly becoming the predominant way of delivering services, a new breed of Private Cloud services where flexibility, service integration, control and independence from vendors and software providers become key factors in the success of Private Cloud deployments. Simply put, the future of corporate IT is Private Cloud Computing delivering increased security, application optimisation and control.