Public, hybrid or private? When it comes to cloud computing, your organisation has a wealth of choice — all three models are now viable, thanks to maturing technology and increasing standardisation efforts. As notes by Forbes, however, despite the widening market, many companies still consider public deployments the de facto cloud choice. In fact, the private cloud infrastructure market gained a solid 16 percent last year. What’s more, public and private compound annual growth rates are expected to keep pace over the next five years. Bottom line? There’s a real case for going private — here are four reasons you may want to keep the cloud close to home.

[easy-tweet tweet=”Chris Surdenik shares his four reasons you may want to keep the #cloud close to home” user=”comparethecloud”]

Compliance

All businesses are subject to some compliance regulations — for example, any retail organisation using point-of-sale (POS) services or collecting credit data online for e-commerce purchases must adhere to PCI DSS data handling standards. Certain industries, however, must ensure they can accurately track the movement and access all information in their organisation. Consider health care: HIPAA standards define specific requirements for the handling of electronic health records. Finance companies, meanwhile, must be able to demonstrate — even in the event of a network breach — that they’ve done everything possible to safeguard consumer data. While many public offerings now advertise specific standard compliance, this task is easier if you retain total control of your cloud environment.

While many public offerings now advertise specific standard compliance, this task is easier if you retain total control of your cloud environment

Security

Security is another key element of the private cloud. Although public cloud solutions have evolved to rival the defensive protection of on-premises alternatives, many IT professionals remain uncomfortable with the idea of outsourcing any portion of security control to public providers — what happens if connection with public servers is lost, or your provider permits a data breach? Staying private permits granular control of all security tasks and keeps hardware within reach.

Clarity

As noted by TechTarget, private clouds are a good fit for companies with superior line-of-business clarity — in other words, if you have a specific cloud vision and have the capital available, private cloud may be the better choice. While it’s impossible for most businesses to match the feature sets of public cloud offerings, in some cases, less is more: By designing a private cloud to suit specific needs, you can avoid the problems of both over provisioning and over spending.

[easy-tweet tweet=”If you have a specific #cloud vision and have the capital available, #privatecloud may be the better choice”]

Customisation

You may also want to consider going private if customisation tops your priority list. While public clouds offer a host of features and on-demand compute resources, limitations exist — public providers profit by delivering service under a “common denominator” model. Private clouds, meanwhile, allow your IT staff to customise not only software and platforms, but also infrastructure to meet specific needs. For example, industrial design firms may have graphics-heavy workloads that require graphics processing unit (GPU) throughput not supported by public deployments. Public-private customisation is also emerging. Next Platform notes that it’s now possible to run a “slice” public cloud on premises to create a truly hybrid environment.

You may also want to consider going private if customisation tops your priority list

Considering the cloud? While public remains the most popular choice, private alternatives offer benefits to address unique corporate needs.