Cloud Computing Coming Soon: Public Vs Private

By Alex Warne on April 4, 2011, 12:13 pm

Cloud computing is used to describe applications and services hosted and run on servers connected to the Internet that end users do not have to maintain or support. For example, Chyron offers broadcasters its AXIS graphics platform, a cloud-based service that cuts hardware and staffing costs and streamlines graphics creation. The company said graphics can be finished and sent to air within minutes.

Broadcast Groups

Used by a number of broadcast groups, including Fox, Gannett Broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Scripps, Chyron’s cloud-based services include high-resolution maps, 3D charts, financial quotes and a virtually unlimited set of tools for topical news graphics production. The staff is supplied with prebuilt templates that they can use to quickly create graphics for multiple outlets, including websites, mobile devices and print publications. Individual stations within a group can also share graphics created from a centralized location.

Private Cloud

Private cloud oftentimes is the knee-jerk reaction, but not necessarily the right decision, Coyle adds. “What companies really need to do is look at each workload to determine which kind of cloud it should be in. By asking the right questions around criteria such as availability, security and cost, the answers will push the workload to the public or private, or maybe community, cloud,” he says. The bulk of our clients come in thinking private. They want to understand the cloud, and think it’s best to get their feet wet within their own four walls,” says Joe Coyle, CTO at Capgemini in North America. But experts say a better approach is to evaluate specific applications, factor in security and compliance considerations, and then decide what apps are appropriate for a private cloud, as well as what apps can immediately be shifted to the public cloud.

 

Public Cloud

A public cloud provider’s profitability consciousness could conflict with how much it’d be willing to spend on data protections. “Public cloud companies are in the business to make money, as they should be. That’s entirely appropriate, but … if anyone is taking shortcuts to protect the bottom line, I don’t want to be in the middle,” Vogel says. Still, additional Info-Tech survey data shows that most enterprise IT executives expect some sort of future in the public cloud, Sloan says. When asked where they see public cloud services in the next three to five years, for example, 70% of IT decision-makers said it’ll indeed be a place where select data, applications and processes are located.