Contemplating moving your IT operations to the cloud? You aren’t alone. According to Denodo’s Global Cloud Survey 2021, cloud adoption is still on the rise. The percentage of businesses moving advanced workloads to the cloud spiked 25 percent in 2021, with private cloud deployment showing the largest increase (also 25%) over the same period of time.
But what is private cloud? The term “private cloud” can be described as a type of cloud computing where IT services are delivered over a dedicated network to a single organization or set of users. These IT services include data storage, backup and security. Private cloud differs from other virtual services in a few key ways: they are privately owned, they are available only to a certain number of users, and they are secured behind a firewall. Businesses that use the private cloud are seeking greater security and control over their data without having to adjust their storage space, or count on third-party hosting solutions that oftentimes have limits on the type of data that can be stored.
In this blog, we will describe five different use cases for the private cloud environment. Below are just a few examples of how it is being used in the real world today by various verticals.
Industry: Education
Challenge: Cost. It’s no secret that education (in particular K-12 education) has faced massive funding deficits in recent years, resulting in increased classroom sizes, textbooks held together by rubber bands and a lack of access to school nurses, to name a few. On top of this, navigating the steep learning curve of virtual learning has provided a recipe for disaster… or the chance to seize on the opportunity to move education into the digital age.
Solution: The future of education is arguably in the cloud. From textbooks to online class forums to resources for teachers, it all has to be online in today’s digital world. At first glance, private cloud may not seem like the most cost-effective choice for IT professionals in education. But the total cost must be looked at with a long-term cost savings lens. Investing now in more innovative and flexible learning looks like this:
- Lower hardware and software costs
- Private and secure virtual classrooms
- Learning labs for education professionals
- Improved accessibility for students and faculty
- Collaborative learning
Industry: Finance
Challenge: Security and regulatory compliance. Both are high priorities for all financial institutions whether they are in the cloud or not. The reasons are obvious. Security of sensitive data is non-negotiable when organizations are looking toward digital transformation. And compliance or governance issues can make it so organizations must use a private cloud.
Solution: Migrating data and digital processes to the private cloud allow financial organizations to maintain complete control over them while enjoying the benefits of cloud-based computing such as:
- Cost-effectiveness
- Compliance automation
- Scaling and mobility
- Integration of machine learning and IoT
Industry: Healthcare
Challenge: Privacy and HIPAA Compliance. The HIPAA Privacy Rule, which protects patients’ medical records and other health information, requires healthcare organizations to provide safety, exclusiveness and robust network connectivity to move large files as well as a private connection in order to remain HIPAA compliant.
Solution: Those in healthcare have a vast amount of sensitive data to manage and are many times skeptical about that data being stored in a shared cloud system. Private cloud solves this problem, while also providing the advantages of a cloud environment such as:
- Scalability
- Customization
- Simplified management
- Backup and data recovery mechanisms
Industry: Hospitality
Challenge: Transformation of guest experience. When was the last time you checked in and out of a hotel? Odds are, your experience was vastly different than just a few short years ago. The pandemic, like in many industries, sped up digital transformation efforts within the sector. But this shift requires complex networks in order to operate. Traditionally, a hard-wired internal network on-premise is what would be required, which is both expensive and difficult to manage and scale.
Solution: The private cloud offers flexibility and the added benefit of lower operational costs to push forward these advances in technology. It is unmatched by other solutions. Private cloud enables an organization to manage their own infrastructure as needed, supporting personalized guest services in a centralized manner.
Industry: Government
Challenge: Privacy, control and cost. The digitization of government data and processes demands all three of these. The challenges are great whether we are talking about agency collaboration, tightly constrained budgets or data privacy.
Solution: While the adoption of private cloud in the public sector has lagged behind the private sector, it is quickly catching up due to constituency demands. This has driven faster IT implementation all the while requiring transparency throughout. The private cloud, in its essence, solves for privacy, control and cost, making it the go-to solution for government agencies.
If you are sensing a pattern here, you’re right! Private cloud offers the security, privacy, flexibility, regulatory compliance and cost-effectiveness for those organizations that require it. Would you like to learn more about how UPN can help? Contact us today.
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