Private Cloud

Hosts only your enterprise, and none other. Your enterprise owns your Cloud.

Public Cloud

Hosts multiple customers, possibly on multiple operating systems.

Three generally-accepted private Cloud architectures

(Adapted from resources.idgenterprise.com/original/AST- 0112091_IDC_Selecting_the_Optimal_Path_to_Private_Cloud.pdf)

Integrated infrastructure system

Purchase a preconfigured, ready-to-deploy infrastructure, typically including:

  • Blade server chassis
  • Network fabric manager
  • Virtualized storage systems
  • Hypervisor, a/k/a virtual machine monitor
  • IT automation software

Advantage: Deploy a ready-to-run preconfigured infrastructure tuned together for high performance across multiple workloads, rather than deploying elements individually.

Reference architecture

Follow a tested, validated design blueprint for building a complete system:

  • Provides guidance on layout size and deployment for each component.
  • Offers more flexibility in the components that make up the solution.
  • Does not provide integrated, seamless support across elements from multiple vendors.

"Build your own"

Construct infrastructure by:

  • Selecting, acquiring, and configuring separate server, storage, network, and system software elements.
  • Assembling these technologies onsite.
  • The customer is responsible for everything.



How do these approaches compare?