It seems IT is marching steadily and inevitably toward the cloud, and there are certainly cost advantages to putting data and applications into a hosted datacenter. But the biggest obstacle for many organizations is security and the loss of control that comes with having critical assets reside somewhere off-site. How can you be sure that the proper security measures are implemented to protect your data, and that security best practices are being followed?
The answer, for some, is the private cloud – an internal datacenter that uses the same technologies and practices as public cloud providers but still maintains ultimate control in your hands. Some say the private cloud is just another name for the same old datacenter model, but the real meaning of “cloud” isn’t about where the IT assets reside, it’s about how they’re handled.
Read my article for 2X Software, Virtualization and the Private Cloud, for my thoughts on this relatively new IT strategy and the role virtualization plays in implementing it fully:
http://www.2x.com/blog/2010/05/virtualization/virtualization-and-the-private-cloud/