Essential components for a modern private cloud
Many companies started their journey with cloud computing through the purchase of public cloud services. But as processes matured and their internal teams grew more sophisticated, many wondered if transitioning their workloads to a modern private cloud might be a better fit. This blog post explores the core features required for a truly modern private cloud, and why organizations benefit by maintaining a private cloud.
Private clouds: Driving innovation and efficiency since 2008
Modern cloud computing took off around twenty years ago with the launch of Amazon Web Services. Organizations quickly embraced the simplicity, flexibility, and pay-as-you-go model, some even liberating themselves from on-premises infrastructure complexity. The public cloud promised speed and scalability without having to maintain expensive infrastructure, shifting large CapEx expenditures to manageable OpEx budget allocations.
Fast forward twenty years, and the narrative around the public cloud is shifting. Many businesses are grappling with spiraling costs. Egress fees, the cost of always-on services, and unpredictable pricing models have led businesses to reconsider private cloud solutions. The public cloud’s abstracted consumption model can be used on premises in a private cloud, where the management of the complexity and automation required to run at scale are behind the scenes.
Private clouds have been creating opportunities for rapid innovation since 2008. Traditional workloads benefit from the private cloud’s self-service model, eliminating slow response times without scrimping on infrastructure. Private clouds have been providing better resource utilization, improved performance, high availability, scalability, compliance, and security to organizations for almost two decades now.
And as organizations prepare to deliver AI and other high-complexity workloads, this is the perfect time to reevaluate the features that make a modern private cloud stack scalable, user-friendly, and affordable. What features are must-haves in a modern private cloud?
Essential features for a private cloud platform
If public clouds taught us anything, it’s that simplicity is key. Launching workloads was as easy as providing a credit card and clicking a few buttons. A modern private cloud must offer a similar experience. Core virtualization essentials include:
- Ease of deployment and management: Private cloud management software should integrate seamlessly with existing hardware and offer easy installation.
- Dynamic Resource Rebalancing: Private clouds must automatically place VMs on optimal servers and migrate them as workloads grow.
- High Availability: Workloads keep running during failures or maintenance windows.
- VM migration: Virtual machines must be able to move from one physical host to another, while the VM still runs and serves applications. This need extends to storage, with Storage Live Migration also moving data (ephemeral/local or attached) to the new host.
To provide scalability, there must be an agile way to create and decommission virtual machines (VMs). And it must scale effortlessly, from supporting small clusters to thousands of VMs across hundreds of hosts. Automation using tools such as Kubernetes can help execute this at scale.
The platform must be as easy to build and manage as it is to consume.
Software Defined Networking: Scaling with ease
Scalability in private clouds depends on a fluid, programmable network. A Software Defined Network (SDN) is exactly what its name suggests: a network architecture that uses software to manage networks, rather than traditional hardware.
Why does that matter? An SDN allows you to expand and reconfigure networks on demand, without downtime. Centralized network management provides a view of all systems and traffic in one location. Also, an SDN enables isolated virtual networks, which increases fault tolerance.
Based on an SDN’s inherent capabilities, failures or even intrusions are isolated to a single segment of the network. This allows the rest of the network to stay operational while the incident is resolved.
This fault tolerance also enables network scalability. As workloads grow, an SDN provides a simple way to adjust network capacity for bandwidth. This is especially important for AI workloads.
For example, RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) provides a way for networked computers to exchange data while bypassing the CPU, cache, and operating system. This provides higher speeds and lower latencies, and is often used to quickly share data between nodes or even GPUs in an AI cluster. An SDN provides control and flexibility for this networking, allowing jobs to be on isolated networks or identifying and quickly removing bottlenecks.
Operational security: Protecting the private cloud
Operational security is essential. One reason organizations choose private clouds is due to security requirements. Key considerations include:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM): Limit user access to only necessary resources.
- Segment Resources: Isolate workloads by groups or tenants.
- Comprehensive security: Secure everything from servers, networking equipment, and storage to cooling systems and physical buildings.
Operational security ensures a private cloud is protected from internal and external threats.
Open extensible architecture: Preventing vendor lock-in
A private cloud cannot operate in a vacuum. With an open extensible architecture, IT operators can enable flexible, customizable infrastructure components from different providers to be integrated into the architecture.
Extensible architectures prevent vendor lock-in and can be expanded to suit specific business needs, as well as technological advancements. For example, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) allow the private cloud to effortlessly connect to management services and even AI models. Open architectures also enable rapid adoption of shifting business demands or advancements in AI and machine learning.
Automation and orchestration can simplify the lifecycle management of cloud resources. It helps scale, patch, update, and decommission these services with minimal human intervention.
Embrace a modern private cloud with Platform9
When is the last time you evaluated your current private cloud platform? The Platform9 Private Cloud Director provides production-ready virtualization, software-defined networking, operational security, and an open, extensible architecture. It can be deployed on the hardware you choose.
It protects you from rising costs, vendor lock-in, and the demand from your users for more agility and advanced features. Seamlessly migrate your entire platform with zero downtime—no modifications to your existing virtual machines required.
Schedule your private cloud demo now and see it in action for yourself!
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