The boundary between enterprises that use cloud computing services and the providers that serve them may be disappearing. Self-service clouds, standards-based hardware and open source software have empowered businesses to create highly customized clouds rather than accept prepackaged services from vendors. Specific benefits of becoming more active in cloud construction include greater control over security processes.
Writing for Forbes, Joe McKendrick explained that some IT departments have moved beyond being passive consumers of public cloud services and are now creating custom clouds, both for use in-house and for dissemination to other companies. For example, a bank and a cloud provider could work together to create commercial financial services software.
"The ongoing 'democratization' of [the] cloud is something that has been occurring steadily and quietly, across the business landscape," wrote McKendrick. "Companies both inside and outside the tech realm are subscribing to cloud services to bolster new business initiatives, or to replace existing aging infrastructure."
One logical extension of an IT department taking cloud services into its own hands is the creation of a private cloud for maximum control and security. Although seemingly more expensive than public alternatives, some experienced IT departments have found ways to connect cloud storage hardware and services such that their private clouds end up being more cost effective.
VentureBeat's Eric Blattberg cited the example of a company that abandoned AWS for a less expensive custom cloud, and McKendrick pointed to a media company that had carefully aligned its costs to match the going rates on public infrastructure. Many startup organizations and cloud newcomers continue to rely on public clouds as they scale up operations, while others have taken the opposite tack and actually gotten into the managed services market. The Street's Dana Blankenhorn highlighted the importance of cloud resellers like Breakthrough Technology in sustaining the managed private cloud market.
