#cloudchat Recap 23: Private Cloud Strengths, Best Applications

Choosing the right private cloud technologies can be a complex task. That’s why this week we took to #cloudchat to let experts weigh in on everything from strengths of the top private clouds to which apps are best suited for the technology.

While many struggled to agree on even the definition of private cloud, one theme emerged: adopting any type of private cloud should help achieve a business goal.

Miss a #cloudchat? We have all the #cloudchat recaps here on the blog!

Joining us to compare private cloud options was Rackspace’s Luke Huckaba and Kevin Jackson. Also weighing in on this week’s #cloudchat was Red Hat’s Thomas Cameron, RackN’s Rob Hirschfeld, Cybric’s mike d. kail, Bluelock’s Diana Nolting, and Pure Storage’s Cody Hosterman.

The group discussed the following:

• Q1: What are the top private cloud technologies businesses should keep in mind when considering a solution?
• Q2: What are the most important things to consider when choosing between private cloud technologies?
• Q3: What are the biggest unique strengths of top private clouds? (e.g. VMware Cloud Foundation, Microsoft Cloud Platform, OpenStack)?
• Q4: What are the pros and cons of deploying your own private cloud on-premises vs. partnering with a managed hosting provider?
• Q5: Are there certain types of apps better suited for one private cloud over another (e.g., traditional vs. cloud native)?
• Q6: Ideally, what should the role of managed service providers be in ensuring a successful private cloud project?

Right out of the gate, we asked the cloud chatters what top private cloud technologies should be kept in mind. mike d. kail said “you must choose the technologies that map to driving your current and future business outcomes.”

Private cloud “need[s] to be truly elastic, on-demand, and programmatic," he added. "Not just #virtualization cloaked as #privatecloud.”

https://twitter.com/mdkail/status/954037537768488960

Diana Nolting also weighed in, explaining that there may not be a need to switch technology, and that going private doesn’t “necessarily equate to reevaluating [a] virtualization vendor.”

https://twitter.com/DianaNolting/status/954037799669456896

What’s the most important thing to consider when choosing between different private cloud technologies? It must meet business goals, said to Cody Hosterman. That idea should be at the center of all IT; to make tech decisions based on goals and objectives, not “the new shiny,” as Thomas Cameron put it.

https://twitter.com/codyhosterman/status/954039129477496832

https://twitter.com/thomasdcameron/status/954039279302275073

Our own Kevin Jackson weighed in on the strengths of the major private cloud players. His thoughts? For OpenStack, it’s all about the community and flexibility. For VMware and Microsoft, the low barrier to adoption is a key strength.

https://twitter.com/itarchitectkev/status/954041195063209984

Rob Hirschfeld took a crack at definitively defining private cloud: “I don't believe in #privatecloud anymore – esp if you mean virtualized only. It's about ownership of your WHOLE infrastructure, not just VMs. Cloud means API driven and automated.”

https://twitter.com/zehicle/status/954041764851089409

Finally, Maish Saidel-Keesing posed a question of his own: “Does private cloud have a future?”

https://twitter.com/maishsk/status/954038304059674626

Our #cloudchat participants agreed private cloud absolutely has a future for certain use cases. Thomas Cameron said, “there will always be folks who need data locality or security capabilities public cloud can't offer reasonably.”

https://twitter.com/thomasdcameron/status/954038537963307009

Enjoy this week’s #cloudchat? Catch the rest of the conversation in the Twitter Moment below, and join us next Thursday, 1/25 at 11 a.m. CST for our final #cloudchat on private cloud.

https://twitter.com/i/moments/955462773554675712