#cloudchat Recap: Exploring Private Cloud

How do you define the term “private cloud”? Why is adoption growing so rapidly? And what about common misconceptions — of those there are certainly plenty.

This week’s #cloudchat explored the world of private cloud, and if there was ever a time we needed 280 characters, this was it. Our experts touched on several themes, starting with private cloud infrastructure as a vital part of a multi-cloud strategy, if the use case is right.

Curious about what a #cloudchat is? Check out our guide to participate!

Once again, our #cloudchat guest list was stacked. The team of Rackers included Rackspace CTO, John Engates and cloud evangelists Kent Kingery and Kenny Johnston. They were joined by joined by Cybric’s mike d. kail, Virtustream’s Rodney Rogers, Bluelock’s Diana Nolting, Apcera’s Mark Thiele and Cloud Technology Partners’ Ed Featherston.

The debate centered on some of the following questions:

1. How do you define “private cloud” and how is private cloud different than traditional datacenter virtualization?
2. What’s the number one thing businesses need to understand about private cloud?
3. What are the biggest misconceptions about private cloud?
4. Private cloud adoption continues to grow rapidly — what are the biggest factors driving it?
5. How can private cloud fit into a multi-cloud strategy that also leverages public cloud?
6. Is private cloud a stepping stone to eventually transitioning most workloads to public cloud, or a destination in itself?

When asked to define private cloud, Mark Thiele simply explained, “the original definition of #cloud via NIST should also apply to #privatecloud. It is not just virtualization.” (NIST is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which offers a standard definition of cloud computing.)

Rackspace’s own Kenny Johnston agreed, noting that resiliency must be built at the app level, not just the infrastructure level.

https://twitter.com/KenCJohnston/status/913435213082095617

Many of our #cloudchat experts cautioned on misconceptions related to private cloud. Chris Petersen pointed out that “shifting risk and hiding complexity” doesn’t mean you can get by without maintaining, monitoring and enhancing the technology.

https://twitter.com/CPetersen_CS/status/913436890614857728

John Engates weighed in on why private cloud adoption is rapidly increasing: because as the move to the cloud accelerates, so does the move to private cloud — it’s a vital part of a multi-cloud strategy.

https://twitter.com/jengates/status/913441449252855809

Finally, in an almost universal yes, everyone agreed that private cloud can be both the journey and the destination, depending on the individual case.

https://twitter.com/efeatherston/status/913445275032793089

https://twitter.com/KenCJohnston/status/913445296885157889

Taking this idea a step further, John Wooten asked if there's really ever a destination to any cloud strategy. "It's more of a necessitated evolution,” he wrote.

https://twitter.com/w00tfoo/status/913446040275161089

Did you enjoy this week’s #cloudchat on private cloud? Take a look at our Twitter Moment to explore the conversation further. Catch us every Thursday in October for #cloudchat as we debate the ins and outs of security at 11 a.m. CST. And if you are looking for expertise in private clouds — be it OpenStack, VMware or Azure — our experts are here to help!

https://twitter.com/i/moments/913821014618001408