The public cloud is available to anyone, any company, anywhere. It allows data storage, compute and applicable services to be available based only on what you need or use, which is an attractive benefit. But how do you truly know if public cloud platform is the right option for your company?
The public cloud may be right for you if …
You have a limited budget
One of the main things to take into consideration when looking to migrate to cloud computing is your budget. The public cloud option is less expensive than the private cloud or a hybrid cloud computing option. Because you are sharing the cost of the underlying computing platform among various users, the public cloud offers cost savings as you pay on a per use basis for compute, storage and applicable services that you access via the Internet. The other significant cost savings associated with the public cloud is the expense of physical hardware, which is a large capital expenditure. Leveraging the public cloud minimizes and often times eliminates a significant capital outlay, which enables companies to have financial flexibility for the business.
You don’t have enough IT/technical experts on staff
Running a local computing environment takes expert knowledge, continued training and dedicated staffing. If you have a small IT department, using the public cloud enables your staff to free up time from fighting fires to focusing on your critical business initiatives. The public cloud hosting provider would be responsible for the management and maintenance of the underlying cloud environment in the data center.
Your business computing needs fluctuate:
Why overbuy to build your own cloud or data center for what you may need 3-5 years from now when your business needs vary month to month? The public cloud allows you to pay only for what you need. The public cloud is not right for everyone (even though in the latest Cloud Computing Trends Survey conducted by RightScale, 88 percent of enterprises are now using public cloud computing). If you have strict compliance needs that require a dedicated platform, the public cloud may not be right for you. If you want to retain control of your environment or compliance requirements dictate a private, dedicated platform, then the private cloud may be the better option. In a private cloud environment, the “cloud” platform and applicable services are dedicated to your business.
