Cloud services have become an in-demand solution for businesses of any scale these past few years. The cloud is a top platform for data management and digital transformation to support business operations. Some cloud services you can avail include cloud computing, data storage and information technology security.
Staying on top of the game is essential, but what matters is deciding which solution is the perfect fit for your company. In this case, it’s important to know what a private cloud is and how Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) helps a business flourish.
Private Cloud: What Is It?
A private cloud is best defined as an exclusive infrastructure-as-a-service that uses on-site hosting or data center hosted by the service provider. A private cloud can be tailored to fit the needs of a business’s IT environment, security strategy, and business goals.
While the public cloud is more cost-effective and scalable, the private cloud is still ideal especially for big businesses or companies that handle sensitive data. It can provide all the services available in the public cloud like cloud computing and more.
One of the most significant benefits of the private cloud is the ability to control the server. This means that your company can modify services according to your preference and business style. A private cloud, however, eliminates some scalability that is available in the public cloud.
A solution to this is cloud bursting, also known as hybrid clouds, wherein low- to medium-level security data ‘bursts’ into the public cloud if there is a sudden demand for more storage space.
What Is IaaS?
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model where an off-site service provider hosts the infrastructural components of a client company’s security and IT environment. IaaS components encompass storage, servers, hardware and other virtualized services needed to keep the business going.
The range of IaaS services from the service provider may include monitoring, detailed billing, security, logs access, storage resiliency like recovery, backup and replication, and load clustering and balancing.
By the nature of a private cloud, these services are flexible and customizable because the users can control what is automated and/or limited. For instance, the cloud user can orchestrate infrastructure tasks like load balancing based on company policies.
Customers can access infrastructure resources using a wide area network on the internet. The service provider offers an application stack with installation packages to be downloaded off the network, which then completes the application elements. A customer can then create a virtual machine and install operating systems, databases, storage and enterprise workload.
Having an IaaS will allow your business to perform many tasks using the host’s services to control network traffic, troubleshoot issues, monitor performance and costs, manage the disaster recovery and a lot more.
Components of IaaS
Before diving into a private cloud IaaS, it is important to first understand its basic components and concepts:
Virtual Machine
A virtual machine (VM) is the basic unit of any cloud computing system. It is the perfect replica of a physical machine that can run programs and operations, except that it is an operating system or software created by a host in a separate computing environment. A single host can create multiple versions of the VM at one time.
Virtual Disk
A virtual disk is block-level storage that is permanent and configurable in size, which can then be used in an operable VM. The virtual disk can only be matched to a single VM at one time. However, it can be transferred from one VM to another and will exist even after shutting down the VM it was mounted to.
Geographical Region
The virtual components are actually existing physically somewhere, as opposed to being exclusively found online. Specific resources that power up the virtual components are identified through their geographical region. This component is important, particularly when determining the speed at which the data travels from the source to the destination, and isolation of the virtual components from the resource.
Failure-insulated Zone
The failure-insulated zone is a subdivision of the resource region. While the geographical region has a larger scale and determines the scenarios involving disasters and failures of a larger coverage, failure-insulated zones focus on a tiny portion of the problem like disk failure or power supply cuts.
Archival Storage
The archival storage is not mounted to a VM but is used for long-term and permanent storage on the blob level. This component can be accessed by many VMs at a single time and exists outside a region.
Advantages of Using IaaS
A good number of enterprises have turned to the IaaS model for their private cloud requirements because of the service’s many advantages. Here are five benefits that make it an attractive option for your company:
- Cost-effective. Shifting to the IaaS model cuts costs on maintenance and repair of any hardware and networking machinery usually found in traditional on-site data centers. It also eliminates the need to replace machines regularly. IaaS is typically a pay-as-you-go model that lets a company pay only for the capacity it needs.
- Disaster recovery and business continuity support. An IaaS provides the convenience of having easy and instantaneous access to infrastructure through the internet makes it a sound solution in case of any event, especially related to data-loss issues.
- Scalable and flexible. An IaaS model is scalable and can vary based on an organization’s requirements. Consequently, it provides flexibility and agility in responding to changes and opportunities.
- Focus on operations. Having an IaaS type of cloud computing minimizes the need to give too much attention, time and effort on maintaining the technological infrastructure of your company. The IaaS can help your organization devote time to running the business instead, to foster better growth and innovation.
If you are interested in private cloud infrastructure-as-a-service for your business, we can help you implement it. Contact us today to learn more.