The private cloud market is complex because the very definition of “private cloud” is diverse and, frankly, confusing. A private cloud could be a completely in-house deployment, or it could be a private cloud hosting in a remote data facility – or some combination of those two scenarios.
When it comes to the private cloud, the list of industry leaders is focused on growth. There’s an industry competition between AWS vs. Azure vs. Google, with other key players including IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud.
For more information, also see: What is Cloud Computing
Scalability | Networking | Flexible Integration | Strengths | Pricing | |
HPE | X | Varied Solutions | Pay-as-you-go | ||
VMware | X | X | X | Migration | Product levels |
Dell Tech | X | Automation | Calculator/Call sales | ||
Oracle | X | X | X | Scalability | Free tier or pay after 30 days |
IBM/Red Hat | X | APIs | Free tier/estimates average cost | ||
Microsoft | X | Data centers | Free tier/Pricing Quotes | ||
Cisco | X | X | X | Cybersecurity | Prices vary |
Netapp | X | X | Storage | Contact sales | |
AWS | X | Control | Payment calculator |
For more information, also see: Public Cloud Computing Providers
By most estimates, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is a key leader in the private cloud market. The company touts its ability to offer bespoke private cloud offerings, using a mix of cloud applications and infrastructure tools to fit a client’s individual needs. Companies can then use this platform as part of a hybrid or multicloud solution.
HPE’s private cloud offerings span hardware, software, and services.
For HPE’s private cloud, HPE supports a pay-as-you-go model. For more on pricing, go to HPE’s How To Buy page.
For more on HPE’s cloud portfolio: HPE: Cloud Portfolio Review
VMware is arguably the “original” private cloud company. In the early days of the cloud, many companies simply fully virtualized their data center and called it a private cloud. In today’s cloud world, VMware is often thought of as a “bridge” between the private and public cloud worlds.
It also offers the vRealize Suite Cloud Management Platform, which can manage both private and hybrid clouds, and Cloud Foundation, a software-defined data center platform designed for private clouds.
There are no free trials or pay-as-you-go, but VMware does provide separate product levels. For pricing, go to the VMware Store.
For more on VMware’s cloud portfolio: VMware: Cross-Cloud Review
A long-term, established vendor in the private cloud market, Dell Technology’s APEX provides a turnkey developer platform that offers a broad mix of tools. Additionally, the company has an alliance with Microsoft, to offer a solution for the Azure Stack, which is a dedicated hardware solution for the private cloud.
In a broad sense, Dell’s private cloud offerings include virtual private cloud services, cloud management, cloud security software, and an array of cloud consulting services.
For pricing, go to Dell’s Store page. Dell offers a pricing calculator for customers to find exactly what they will pay for.
For more on Dell’s portfolio: Dell Technologies: Streaming Data Platform Review
Oracle has been investing heavily in the cloud sector and has turned itself into a real player in the last few years. The company’s Private Cloud Appliance takes a hardware-supported approach to crunching data and workloads in a mixed environment – critically important in today’s multicloud world.
Oracle’s Private Cloud solutions include its Cloud Platform, applications, infrastructure, lifecycle management tools, and integration services. It also offers Managed Cloud Services.
Oracle’s pricing begins with the ability to use a free tier, ensuring that companies receive and see exactly what is needed. For pricing, go to Oracle Cloud Free Tier.
For more information: Oracle Opens Cloud Region in Chicago
In a bold move to boost its cloud portfolio, IBM acquired open source pioneer Red Hat in 2018. Red Hat’s private cloud offerings include the Red Hat Cloud Suite management and development platform, Cloud Infrastructure software, CloudForms cloud and container management software, Red Hat Virtualization, and Red Hat Gluster Storage. Of particular note is Red Hat OpenShift, which is a flagship part of its offering that enables cloud deployments in many different ways. The company also offers a variety of services to help customers deploy and manage private and hybrid clouds.
Additionally, IBM’s private cloud solutions include hardware such as IBM Systems and IBM Storage, hosted private cloud services, IBM Cloud Managed Services, cloud security tools, and software like Cloud Manager and Cloud Orchestrator. It also has cloud solutions and services for its System z mainframe platform.
IBM and Red Hat’s partnership allows users to use a free account with $200 credit and 50+ products on the free tier. For more pricing information, go to Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud Pricing page.
For more information on IBM: Data Science Q&A With Aakanksha Joshi of IBM
While Microsoft runs a solid number two to AWS in the cloud market overall, Microsoft is arguably the leader in the private cloud market. A large cohort of legacy, Windows-centric organizations use Microsoft components in their private cloud deployment.
Indeed, many private clouds run on Microsoft’s Windows Server operating system and its Hyper-V virtualization technology, which is integrated into Windows Server. The company is pursuing a hybrid cloud strategy, which encourages enterprises to integrate private clouds in their data centers with the company’s Azure public cloud computing service. To that end, it offers Microsoft Azure Stack, which allows companies to replicate the Azure service in their own data centers.
Microsoft has a pay-as-you-go plan as well as a free account to start using the private cloud. For pricing, go to the Virtual Network Pricing page.
For more on Microsoft’s portfolio: Microsoft: Azure Batch Review
Cisco, the giant in networking, has an extensive offering of tools to increase the efficiency and capability of the private cloud. Tools, for instance, that inventory your cloud or data center-based applications. And tools that are geared for end-to-end security, focused on the enterprise’s inevitable development into a multicloud environment.
While best known for its networking hardware and solutions, Cisco also offers a variety of cloud software for analytics, infrastructure automation, cloud management, orchestration, development, and cloud security. Those offerings include its Cisco ONE Enterprise Cloud Suite, Cisco CloudCenter and the Metapod, a production-ready cloud stack that Cisco deploys and operates in enterprise data centers.
Pricing can vary based on what elements a company wants. For pricing, go to Cisco Commerce.
For more on Cisco: Cisco Report Shows Cybersecurity Resilience as Top of Mind
A strong vendor in the storage market, NetApp also touts its scalable, cloud-like deployments for private cloud, and does have a significant presence in the cloud market. Its goal is to provide a solution that enables organizations to perform at scale, efficiently and with no undue complication – “simplify and automate” is a key phrase.
NetApp’s private cloud storage offerings include NetApp Private Storage (NPS), the AltaVault Cloud-Integrated Storage backup solution that can run on public or private clouds, and StorageGRID Webscale Object Storage, which also runs in public or private clouds. It also offers NetApp Private Storage for Cloud and FlexPod converged solutions, which combine hardware from NetApp and Cisco and can be used in private cloud environments.
For pricing, go to NetApp’s How To Buy page. It offers both contact information and trials of different products.
For more of NetApp’s portfolio: NetApp: Storage Portfolio Review
The undisputed leader in public cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has warmed up to the private cloud offering as the other vendors on this list – and the market as a whole – have maintained a major on-prem deployment.
AWS offers a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) service that runs on its public cloud infrastructure. VPC allows organizations to isolate their cloud instances from those of other organizations to meet security and compliance needs. VPC also gives administrators greater control over the cloud environment, and it provides the option to create a Hardware Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect enterprise data centers with AWS.
For pricing, go to the AWS Pricing page. They have options such as a payment calculator and what products a company might use.
For more information: AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud
Now that public cloud computing is fully mainstream for businesses of all sizes, some experts forecast that private cloud will fade away. As companies offload a greater percentage of their infrastructure to the public cloud, building and maintaining a private cloud is seen as less desirable.
On the other hand, the private cloud sector remains strong. At the least, businesses need to hold some data in-house for compliance purposes, so that the private cloud will always have a place.
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