What Is The Public Cloud?

A public cloud is one based on the standard cloud computing model, in which a service provider makes resources, such as virtual machines (VMs), applications or storage, available to the general public over the internet. Public cloud services may be free or offered on a pay-per-usage model.

How Is The Public Cloud Different?

The main differentiator between public and private clouds is that you aren’t responsible for any of the management of a public cloud hosting solution. Your data is stored in the provider’s data center and the provider is responsible for the management and maintenance of the data center. This type of cloud environment is appealing to many companies because it reduces lead times in testing and deploying new products. However, the drawback is that many companies feel security could be lacking with a public cloud. Even though you don’t control the security of a public cloud, all of your data remains separate from others and security breaches of public clouds are rare.

What Are The Benefits Of The Public Cloud?

  • Advanced Disaster Recovery – Like all cloud solutions, cloud storage can be used as a backup plan since your files will be stored at a remote location.
  • Optimized IT costs – Cloud storage is flexible so you are only paying for the amount of storage used. You can also free up some hardware and energy costs.
  • Improved Reliability – Creating virtualized operating environments decreases the risk of individual failures across the physical infrastructure.