The Cost Benefits of Adopting Private Cloud Infrastructure

Many IT teams view a public cloud as more convenient and operationally efficient than a private cloud, but that may not be the case. A private cloud can be just as efficient, and save you a ton of money. Many companies end up incurring more costs than they expect with a public cloud based on the way they use it. For these businesses, private clouds have a few benefits that can help them cut operational costs.

The Hidden Costs of Public Cloud Infrastructure

Many businesses are drawn to a public cloud infrastructure because it comes with a convenient, predictable subscription model. But this model may not be as affordable as you think, depending on how you use your cloud. Your service-level agreement (SLA) is just the beginning of the story -- you can incur additional costs for:

• Unexpected costs: It's very hard to compute and predict real-world cloud costs. Public clouds charge you for everything you use (vCPUs, RAM, virtual disks, other kinds of storage), for traffic in/out/across/down. And it's very easy to incur unexpected charges. But expected charges are painful, too.

• Premium features: Some premium cloud features come at an additional monthly cost. These features may cost a handful of cents per GB and may seem unassuming, but they add up quickly. These expenses may result in significant price hikes if your operation uses them often.

• Data transfers: Many cloud providers will charge pennies for data transfers and inter-region transfers. These costs are commonly called egress fees. Like your spending on premium features, these costs can feel insignificant at a glance but will add up quickly. 

• Overprovisioning: It's common for businesses to allocate more cloud resources than necessary because many cloud service providers operate on an advanced provisioning model. For the sake of playing it safe, IT teams overestimate the resources they need in order to account for potential growth. Sometimes, this results in paying for more resources than you require.

These costs tend to climb when you scale, particularly when you have to pay more for processing power and increased storage on top of these factors. 

How Private Cloud Infrastructure Can Reduce IT Costs

Switching to a private cloud infrastructure often involves a higher upfront investment, but the costs saved over time can be considerable. Private cloud adoption is ideal for organizations with advanced security requirements or unique processes and frameworks that need a more custom approach. 

Gain Complete Control of Your Resources

A private cloud is entirely yours, and you get to decide how you allocate resources, whether you need more or less over time. When you work with private cloud experts like Mirantis, you can leverage years of experience to provision adequately while accommodating unknowns with minimal risk--and achieve major cost savings cumulatively.

Complete control of your resources also allows you to create your own framework based on your processes. Businesses with unique workflows may find public clouds restrictive, forcing them to dedicate more time to adapting their processes, which may slow productivity in the early phases of adoption. 

Reuse Existing Hardware and Software Licenses 

Many public clouds will have limitations surrounding the type of hardware and software they can run. If your company aims to modernize, abandoning your legacy systems may be appropriate. However, some operations rely heavily on legacy systems and existing software based on their unique workflows. Obtaining new licensure can also rack up costs and cause more process problems during public cloud adoption.

A private cloud has the flexibility to operate with legacy systems and current licenses, allowing your team to save in these areas. 

Reduce Security Risks

A common concern with a public cloud is the security risks. While there are security practices that companies can implement to improve access control and reduce vulnerabilities, these practices may not be enough for highly sensitive data like health information and financial identifiers. Private cloud infrastructure ensures your business has complete ownership over your data, and only people within your organization can access it. 

Boosting security practices has become a higher priority as more companies move to the cloud to support remote workforces. Public cloud services are major targets for hackers because security techniques are often underdeveloped or mismanaged on this infrastructure. 

Meet Unique Compliance Demands

Stringent regulatory environments often clash with public cloud ownership. Many SLAs will specify that your public cloud data is technically co-owned with your service provider, which can cause trouble in the compliance world. Industries like health care and finance deal with sensitive data and have strict requirements around access that may conflict with these SLAs. Additionally, audits may require intensive details to describe how data is handled, which may be challenging to access.

With a private cloud, compliance-focused businesses have full ownership over data and can manage it accordingly. With a clear grasp of compliance processes, these operations can reduce noncompliance instances that result in fines. 

Adopt a Private Cloud Infrastructure With Mirantis

Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes (MOSK) is a self-service private cloud infrastructure. With its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) model, MOSK gives you full reign of your data with expert support from our team. With self-healing, autoscaling, automatic updates, and more, MOSK is a powerful service that includes container runtime and container orchestration that empowers your IT team.

Want to dive deeper into the cost benefits of public and private cloud? Check out this webinar highlighting Mirantis' new TCO calculator to learn more.

Contact us today to learn more or get started with a free trial.