Harrison 
A dedicated private cloud is a type of cloud environment that gives businesses more control over their data, resources, and applications. This is one of the latest buzzwords in business hosting.
But how do you know if it’s the right hosting solution for you? What makes it different from other cloud computing environments?
This guide answers these questions and explains the features to consider when adopting a dedicated private cloud architecture.
What is a dedicated private cloud?
A dedicated private cloud is a single-tenant environment where computing resources are reserved exclusively for a single organization. In other words, a private cloud environment is an environment dedicated to you, offering more control, higher security, and more customization options.
Hardware is often hosted on-premises, and an organization’s IT team is responsible for managing and maintaining the hardware. It can also exist off-premises in vendor-owned data centers where cloud service providers host the infrastructure under a subscription or lease plan.
Dedicated private clouds are suitable for large organizations that want more control over their cloud settings.
Dedicated private cloud and virtual private cloud
A dedicated private cloud is a dedicated server in the cloud, whereas a virtual private cloud (VPC) is an isolated pool of resources contained within a public cloud setup. This is a type of virtual machine that takes a subsection of a public cloud and does not share resources with other users. It can be accessed through a secure connection such as a VPN and scaled on demand.
Because workloads are hosted outside of your own physical data center, VPCs are not ideal for companies that are subject to strict regulatory standards. Additionally, if you experience problems with your internet connection, your VPC may become inaccessible.
In a dedicated private cloud, resources such as CPU and RAM are dedicated to a single organization. It is built according to a company’s specific needs and does not have the problems inherent in a shared server setup.
Overall, a dedicated private cloud offers the highest level of security, availability, and uptime compared to a VPC. It also includes more stringent compliance features.
How a dedicated private cloud can help your business
Dedicated private clouds offer many benefits that help businesses and ensure they function, rather than circumventing limitations.
custom configuration
One of the benefits of a dedicated private cloud setup is that you can customize the infrastructure according to your own requirements. This includes configuring server settings and installing special software.
You have complete control over your environment, unlike a public cloud setup where your control is limited by the initial configuration options provided by the host.
Enhanced security
As cybercrime and data breaches continue to plague businesses, the importance of security has become critical. A dedicated private cloud provides a higher level of security than shared or multi-tenant environments. This is because more robust security measures can be implemented, such as intrusion detection systems, hardware firewalls, access control mechanisms, and encryption. This means you can adopt your own security processes rather than being at the mercy of shared security across multiple organizations.
Improved resource utilization
One of the key features of virtualization is the ability to take advantage of underutilized servers. You can move workloads to these servers to maximize resource usage. This also means you don’t have to purchase additional resources when you need them. Therefore, in addition to optimizing usage, you can also reduce costs.
Overall, a dedicated private cloud can allocate resources more efficiently, making it easier to manage workloads and reduce costs.
long-term cost savings
There’s no denying that dedicated private clouds can come with significant upfront costs. That being said, costs tend to be more predictable and transparent, so the initial investment pays off in the long run. And you don’t have to worry about an outage by another tenant monopolizing your resources or lax security leading to an expensive data breach.
The single-tenancy nature of private clouds also means monthly costs are more predictable. This is especially true for businesses with stable workloads.
Public clouds can come with hidden additional charges, such as bandwidth usage, which can make your monthly costs higher than you expected.
compliance
Dedicated private clouds have higher compliance standards. This helps you comply with strict industry-specific regulations and data privacy laws such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR. This is especially beneficial for financial, banking, and healthcare companies that handle highly sensitive data.
Additionally, the costs of non-compliance are much greater than the costs of remaining compliant, as non-compliance carries legal and financial penalties. For example, violations of the GDPR can result in fines of up to €20 million (approximately US$21.9 million). Additionally, having to notify customers of a breach can cause lasting damage to your reputation.
improved performance
Only your company has access to the computing resources, ensuring high performance and a better user experience. In a shared server environment, tenants compete for resources, and overuse by another tenant can degrade performance for users.
Scalability
A dedicated private cloud can easily scale as demand grows. Specifically, this can be achieved through vertical scaling or horizontal scaling.
Virtual scaling refers to adding resources to an existing infrastructure to increase capacity. This is especially beneficial for resource-intensive applications.Horizontal scaling means adding more virtual machines to your system to distribute the load. This approach is useful for highly concurrency applications.
How to purchase a dedicated private cloud
There are several factors to consider before adopting a dedicated private cloud hosting model.
business requirements
When preparing for a migration, start by assessing your business requirements. Consider your workload demands, security needs, compliance requirements, and budget. This will help you learn the technical details required for your private cloud environment.
Fee
If you choose to deploy or host a dedicated private cloud on-premises, you should be aware of the costs involved. Servers, networking equipment, physical data centers, storage services, software licenses, etc. require significant capital expenditures.
To keep it functioning properly or to ensure optimal performance, you must consider ongoing maintenance costs.
Application integration
Moving to a dedicated private cloud setup also requires integrating existing applications into this environment. Certain applications may need to be rebuilt to reap the benefits of the cloud. However, modernizing these applications can be difficult and time-consuming.
Liquid Web solves that problem with VMware Private Cloud, which makes it easy to use older applications. This allows you to start migrating to a private cloud without worrying about compatibility issues.
Support needs for managed and unmanaged dedicated private clouds
Many IT teams lack the ability to deploy and manage a dedicated private cloud environment. For example, data center infrastructure must be reconfigured to accommodate private cloud technology.
If you host the server yourself or choose an unmanaged host, you’ll need to take care of all your technical needs. However, an unmanaged, dedicated private cloud is not your only option. If you lack in-house expertise or have a small IT team, you can choose managed services. This scenario offloads the burden of managing a dedicated private cloud to a service provider.
For example, consider Liquid Web’s dedicated VMware private cloud. We handle your entire infrastructure, including your hardware, giving you time to focus on high-priority activities. Additionally, we provide proactive monitoring around the clock to ensure everything runs smoothly. If that’s not enough, we offer industry-leading technical support.
Additionally, choosing a managed, dedicated private cloud solution lowers your total cost of ownership (TCO), making it even more cost-effective.
safety
As you know, security threats are constantly changing and malicious attackers are getting smarter. Insider attacks also pose a security risk.
Therefore, it is important to adopt a proactive security stance, despite the control you have in a dedicated private cloud environment. After all, the costs associated with a breach can be significant. According to IBM’s report for 2023, the cost of a breach in the US was $9.48 million, up from $9.44 million in 2022.
Physical security measures are also important for servers. For example, Liquid Web data centers include motion-detecting security cameras and locked cases.
surveillance
Once you’ve set up your dedicated private cloud, you need to monitor it to ensure it’s working properly. This is easiest if your server is onsite or if you have a managed host that handles monitoring and maintenance.
In addition to checking performance, monitoring allows you to:
- Identify and mitigate potential security threats.
- Track resource consumption to avoid unnecessary costs.
- Understand resource demands and effectively plan for future growth.
capacity planning
If you set up a dedicated private cloud environment, you’ll also need to invest in capacity planning. Because a dedicated private cloud does not include unlimited resources. Limited by available physical hardware.
It is scalable horizontally, but to maximize the resources of your current server, you may need additional hardware to scale vertically. Therefore, you need to plan ahead and be prepared to scale up when the time is right.
This is where capacity planning becomes important. Capacity planning tools like resource quotas allow you to track resource usage so you are never surprised by the amount of capacity you need.
Finally: What is a dedicated private cloud and why do I need it?
Adopting a dedicated private cloud hosting environment can be a worthwhile endeavor. This allows you to enjoy the benefits of the cloud while maintaining control over your sensitive data and performance.
And when combined with the right managed hosting solution, there are almost no limits to what you can accomplish.
At Liquid Web, we offer managed private cloud hosting tailored to your needs. Our hosting solutions include industry-leading uptime, highest levels of security, and predictable pricing. Plus, it’s a scalable cloud service.
