There are different types of clouds (cloud computing) according to the needs of companies, the service model offered and how they are deployed in them.
Depending on where the applications are installed and which clients can use them, we will have public, private or hybrid clouds, each of them with its advantages and disadvantages.
Public clouds
The services they offer are located on external servers to the user, being able to access the applications for free or for a fee. They are managed by third parties, and the work of many different clients can be mixed on the servers, storage systems and other cloud infrastructures. End users do not know what other clients’ jobs may be running on the same server, network, drives as their own. The clearest advantage of public clouds is the processing and storage capacity without installing machines locally, so you do not have an initial investment or maintenance expense in this regard, but you pay for the use. The operational load and data security (backup, accessibility, etc.) falls entirely on the hardware and software provider, therefore, the risk of adopting a new technology is quite low. The return on investment becomes faster and more predictable with these types of clouds. Sometimes it can be difficult to integrate these services with other proprietary systems.
Private clouds
The platforms are located within the user’s facilities and do not usually offer services to third parties. They are a good option for companies that need high data protection and service level editions. The advantage of this type of cloud, unlike public ones, is the location of the data within the company itself, which leads to greater security of these, being the responsibility of the information system used. It will be even easier to integrate these services with other proprietary systems. Private clouds are on a local infrastructure run by a single customer who controls which applications run where. They own the server, network, and disk and can decide which users are allowed to use the infrastructure. However, the downside is the initial investment in physical infrastructure, virtualization systems, bandwidth and security, which in turn will lead to loss of scalability and de-scalability of the platforms, not to mention the maintenance costs required. This high investment will mean a slower return on investment.
Hybrid clouds
They combine public and private cloud models. This allows a business to maintain control of its core applications, while leveraging cloud computing where it makes sense. You own some parts and share others, albeit in a controlled way. Hybrid clouds offer the promise of externally provisioned, on-demand scaling, but add the complexity of determining how to deliver applications across these disparate environments. A hybrid cloud has the advantage of a more moderate initial investment and at the same time having SaaS, PaaS or IaaS on demand. When necessary, using the APIs of the different existing public platforms, you have the possibility of scaling the platform as much as you want without investing in infrastructure. This type of cloud is being well accepted by companies in the near future, since cloud management software is being developed to be able to manage the private cloud and in turn acquire resources from large public providers.