What is the difference? Private Cloud vs. Public Cloud

A website needs a host to make it accessible to visitors. Before paid website hosting was an option, the only choice was to purchase the server infrastructure and operate everything yourself. As the internet gained popularity, companies started offering server hosting on a subscription basis. You could pay to access a portion of a shared or dedicated server, freeing website owners from the financial burden of owning their own server infrastructure.

When cloud storage came along, this transformed the website hosting model and made it more accessible than ever before. Cloud hosting is more affordable and flexible than physical hosting, and it offers additional benefits like the ability to mirror your website across multiple locations so that your website is less likely to go down. If you’re new to website hosting and wondering about the difference between private and public cloud hosting, read on to learn more about how this works.

Private cloud and public clouds explained

Cloud hosting in general offers flexibility and the ability to scale as your company grows. It’s possible to purchase only the cloud hosting you need at the time, and then pay for more as and when it is needed. 

A private cloud, or enterprise cloud, is a type of cloud computing that is used by an organisation to store and manage its data. It is typically managed by the organisation itself, or by a third-party provider. A private cloud is used only by your organisation, so you have the benefit of dedicated servers that only store your content. 

Public clouds are offered by many different providers and are typically accessed over the internet via a web browser or mobile app. They are often more cost-effective than private clouds because they don’t require any upfront investment from the company. 

A public cloud is shared by anyone who wants to pay for a part of it on a monthly basis. This means that resources are shared, which makes it more cost-effective for companies that are keen to keep a close eye on their expenses.

PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure. The underpinning concept of PKI, where one person encrypts a message knowing that the recipient has the secret key to decrypt it, has been in practice for thousands of years. Today, its most familiar use is probably online communications. To ensure data safety when communicating with others, the data is encrypted and can only be decrypted by a party with the correct private key at intertrust.com

What are the benefits of a private cloud?

A private cloud offers the obvious benefit of dedicated resources. This means that your access will never suffer as a result of the other organisations using the same server. You will enjoy consistent service and good reliability. If you are running a large website that attracts a lot of traffic, or if your company uses resource-intensive cloud computing, then private cloud hosting is ideal.

Through mirroring and load balancing, you can also achieve near-perfect uptime and website performance. This can be essential if you are running a large media organisation or an eCommerce website as you cannot afford to have website downtime.

Private cloud hosting also offers improved security, as you aren’t sharing the server space with any other organisation. This can protect you in the event there is a breach, but it does not make organisations immune to data breaches.

What are the benefits of a public cloud?

The primary benefit of public cloud hosting is that it is more cost-effective than private cloud hosting. While there may be some compromises to be had, if your primary concern is cost, then you can’t go wrong with this.

A public cloud is still reliable nonetheless, and while you might be sharing resources with other organisations, it is still a secure option. Your hosting provider will offer some protection against data breaches, but remember that the source of most data breaches is human error.

Another benefit of public cloud hosting is the ability to scale to your needs. It’s possible to choose flexible hosting where you only pay for the bandwidth that you use. As your website traffic grows, you can easily increase the resources available to you without moving to a new server. And if you have a quiet month and need to scale back, you’ll only pay for what you actually use.

Which one should you choose for your business needs?

The final choice comes down to where you are now and where you want to be. Failing to plan for the future is a shortsighted decision that could damage your business. Instead, you should try to think about where you’d like your business to be in 1 year, 5 years and 10 years.

If you have ambitious plans for your business, then choosing private cloud hosting offers considerable advantages for when the time comes to scale. While moving servers is certainly possible, it’s an added source of stress that can be eliminated by setting your website up for success from the start.

Another key consideration is cost. Some startups simply don’t have the funding available to invest in private cloud hosting so public cloud hosting is the best way forward. While it might not feel like the best option, the flexibility offered by shared public cloud hosting is certainly a key benefit.