When businesses explore cloud computing, sometimes they must wade through a host of confusing terminology. Some vendors will try to rebrand legacy products as private clouds or make unrealistic claims about technological capabilities for storage and computing power. Given the importance of private clouds to businesses that value control and security, it is vital that buyers be able to distinguish between real cloud services and imposters so that they avoid purchasing excessively expensive, unnecessary appliances or arrangements.
For organizations that manage large amounts of information and sprawling data centers, moving to a public cloud is usually not feasible. Gulf News staff reporter Alexander Cornwell examined the specific case of big businesses in the United Arab Emirates that have stuck with private cloud implementations out of concerns about security. The lack of reliable public cloud services has contributed to the issue. In response, IT managers have pushed for the construction of additional data centers in the region that can accommodate demand for cloud infrastructure.
Data security and backup are paramount concerns for the UAE public sector. To this end, cloud provider service-level agreements, which are sometimes vague about legal responsibility in the event of a breach, may need to become clearer. At the same time, enterprises can mitigate some risk and reduce expenditures by using a custom combination of hardware and software.
Writing for TechCrunch, Alex Williams looked at how new cloud services were disrupting imitation ones that simply repackage legacy technology. Williams argued that the advent of open hardware through the Open Compute Project may be one of the most significant changes in how companies set up cloud storage for business. Ultimately, OCP may give organizations a better way to manage their private clouds.
“We are looking forward to using Open Compute servers,” Digital Ocean CEO and co-founder Ben Uretsky told the source. “Since we are running Linux only, we can optimize the entire process – it provides a much more seamless experience. We will cut down on hardware. It will provide a better cost efficiency.”
