How Different Types of Clouds Protect Your Data [Video]

As cloud technologies continue to grow, even small businesses are taking a look at how to best leverage these offerings to protect their critical data. While the architectures of cloud infrastructure can take on a variety of complex models, in their most basic form - 3 types of cloud networks exist.

1. Private cloud data storage is built on premises, typically using your own hardware and private cloud server software, and is managed by your internal resources and IT team.  Data protection and storage occurs locally onsite, offsite at a co-location facility with a private cloud server, or potentially even using a 3rd party private cloud storage solutions vendor (VPC). However, with your own private cloud, resources are delivered securely and dedicated exclusively to a single organization, locked away from the outside world.

Private cloud data storage benefits include:

• Highly secure – private cloud data storage is inaccessible by other organizations
• Private cloud storage offers the ability to meet strict regulatory security requirements
• A private cloud server offers independence and control for fast data access
• Private cloud software offers the independent ability to make infrastructure changes

2. Public clouds provide resources (storage, applications, virtual machines, backup services) via third-party providers via the Internet. The public cloud is a multi-tenant environment, where other organizations share the same hardware and infrastructure by definition. Security and management of this infrastructure is provided by the vendor and often delivered via various pay-as-you-go models.

Public cloud data protection benefits include:

• Data security and infrastructure managed by the vendor
• Highly scalable and easy to deploy
• Reduced complexity
• Predictable, recurring costs

3. Hybrid cloud models combine the two solutions. On-premise private cloud infrastructure is secured to the resources of 3rd party public cloud services. Data and workloads must securely move between the two platforms as a seamlessly integrated environment. Private cloud infrastructure is leveraged to meet the strictest security requirements, while the flexibility of public cloud applications and services is also enjoyed.

Hybrid cloud data protection benefits include:

• Enhanced redundancy with multiple infrastructures
• Flexibility to dedicate workloads to the best environment
• Highly dynamic and scalable
• Reduced infrastructure costs

While each type of cloud network has its benefits, each also has potential drawbacks. For assistance with designing a cloud model that's the best fit for your organization, speak with a NovaStor backup expert today.