• Admin Animix
• December 12, 2022
• 12 Comments

According to a recent Gartner estimate, more than 85% of enterprises will adopt a cloud-first strategy by 2025.Clouds Similarly, in RH-2021 ISAC’s CISO Benchmark Survey, cloud security ranks second on the list of CISO objectives. Selecting the cloud infrastructure that is best for your business can be overwhelming for enterprises. Especially ones that are just starting to explore the cloud. Each model has advantages and disadvantages. The option you choose will be determined by your company’s resources and the level of control you want over your data.

Private Clouds

A private cloud is distinguished by the fact that it is used purely by one entity. Traditionally, this has meant that the private cloud is hosted on-premises and maintained exclusively by the enterprise that uses it. However, with the advent of managed private clouds, this is no longer always the case. These environments are similar to public clouds in that the servers are present off-site. Additionally, they are under maintenance by a third-party vendor. However, you are not sharing the cloud with other businesses. Therefore, it remains a private cloud.The appeal of a private cloud is complete control over your cloud’s configuration and hardware. Organizations, particularly those in regulated industries, may believe that their highly sensitive data is more secure in a private cloud. Where they have complete control over access and other security components. There is also more room for personalization as the lone user. Legacy workloads that may not be transferable to a public cloud can be supported by a private cloud.The disadvantage of a private cloud is that you are solely responsible for the cost. Public clouds make it far easier to scale up consumption while sharing the infrastructure costs between the many cloud tenants.

Public Clouds

The term “public cloud” refers to cloud systems in which the firm using the cloud does not own the IT infrastructure. Instead, a business like Microsoft, Google, or AWS owns the servers and houses them on their premises while leasing them out to a variety of clients. Using a public cloud is ideal for enterprises that lack the space, funds, or personnel to manage their own servers in-house.The disadvantage of exclusively using a public cloud is that you give up some amount of control. Under the frequently accepted shared responsibility model, while you as the customer are responsible for the security of any workloads that the cloud hosts, the cloud service provider (CSP) is nonetheless responsible for the security of the cloud itself. Companies who are hesitant to keep their top security level data in a public cloud may instead choose a hybrid to better manage where critical data resides.

Hybrid Clouds

A hybrid cloud is the best answer for businesses that desire the advantages of both public and private clouds. A hybrid environment allows businesses to choose which data belongs where. Thus, reducing some of the fear about losing control of sensitive data. It also enables businesses to scale up their storage without having to invest in extra on-premises servers.The disadvantage of this method is that your security procedures must adjust to accommodate having two different environments. It is possible that you may need to invest in a system information and event monitoring (SIEM) solution that can combine data from both environments. You might also consider using a data broker to accelerate ingestions and standardize feeds to a single format that your security systems can consume. For enterprises with limited resources, the labor necessary to protect a hybrid cloud system may be too much.Businesses looking to scale their operations are turning to hybrid cloud systems as a low-cost alternative. Hybrid clouds offer the best of both worlds by allowing businesses to grow their network without having to invest in extra, expensive on-premises servers. Instead, they can maintain highly sensitive data on-premises, where they will have greater control while putting less sensitive data in a managed third-party cloud.While these environments offer numerous advantages, there are still  hybrid cloud security problems that must be addressed in order to successfully operate the cloud system.

Multi-cloud

Finally, multi-cloud, like hybrid clouds, comprises multiple cloud environments. However, the multi-cloud architecture incorporates cloud services from several vendors. It happens for a variety of reasons, including cost savings and less reliance on a single source. It may also be due to compliance with certain rules, such as storing data in a specific location.A multicloud arrangement enables you to select and choose the best services rather than settling for a mediocre offering simply because it comes from the same vendor you use for other areas of your IT stack. Of course, the disadvantage of a multi-cloud system, similar to a hybrid cloud, is that you have additional components that must be made interoperable with one another in order to get a complete picture of your security posture.The cloud infrastructure you will select be heavily influenced by your organization’s resources and security needs.