Every day more companies realize the cloud offers them brand new ways to solve their business problems. Public Cloud services are available for a wide range of solutions, including Communications and Collaboration, CRM, Contact Center, Email, File Sharing, Network Management, Cloud Storage, and more.
What to Expect from Public Cloud Services
According to a 2015 Whitepaper on Cloud Definitions by IDC, “Public Cloud services are shared among unrelated enterprises and consumers; open to a largely unrestricted universe of potential users; and designed for a market, not a single enterprise.” Public Cloud Services offer an affordable alternative to Private Cloud Services dedicated to a single company or extended enterprise. According to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cloud Services include the following characteristics:
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Shared, Standard Services – Build for Multitenancy, among or within the enterprise
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Solutions Packaged – A “turnkey” offering, pre-integrates required resources
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Self-service – Provisioning and management typically via a Web portal
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Elastic, Resource Scaling – Dynamic, rapid and fine-grained
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Ubiquitous (authorized) Network Access – Typically accessible via the Internet
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Standard UI Technologies – Browser, RIA clients, underlying technologies
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Published Service Interface/API – Web services other common internet APIs
Considerations for Public vs. Private Cloud
Private Cloud Solutions provide a company dedicated resources and additional access to the Cloud Infrastructure. This capability could be important for regulatory compliance or high availability solutions. Private Cloud tradeoff includes Cost versus Control over Public Cloud Services. Data residency may also be a factor in your decision for Public Cloud Services versus Private Cloud Services.
With all these variables that will likely change over time, it is important to reach out to a consultant with Cloud subject matter expertise to determine if a Public Cloud Service is right for your business. Reach out to your Cloud Service expert for a Cloud Readiness Assessment to get the most from your investment in Cloud Services.