ChannelVision Magazine

According to analysts at Wikibon, the term “private cloud” has been used extensively by numerous ven- dors ever since it was first coined around 2009. The term has become interchangeable with traditional infra- structure services, and so Wikibon has created a strict set of architectural guidelines to ensure TPC services remain competitive. The company defines a “true” pri- vate cloud as one that has the follow- ing characteristics: • A converged or hyper-converged infrastructure that can be highly automated and managed as logical pools of network, compute and stor- age resources; • Vendor-managed software and hard- ware, extending to at least the virtual- ization layer; • Optimization through orchestration and automation, from implementation to decommissioning; • A single point for purchase, mainte- nance, support and upgrades; • Self-service access to resource pools for end users; and • Visibility into internal costs or IT chargeback pricing. A true private cloud, Wikibon main- tains, can live on premises, be out- sourced to a data center or be delivered through a dedicated cloud provider. True private cloud should also accommodate hybrid use cases. “A ‘true private cloud’ is distinguished from a ‘private cloud’ by the complete- ness of the integration of all aspects of the offering, including performance char- acteristics such as price, agility and ser- vice breadth,” explained Wikibon chief research officer, Peter Burris, in the recently released 2018 True Private Cloud Forecast and Market Shares report. “Equally impor- tant is the nature of the relationship with the cloud supplier — namely a single point of purchase, support, maintenance and up- grades (often referred to as a ‘single hand to shake, and a single throat to choke’). The key benefit of true private cloud is that they provide solutions close to the cost and agility characteristics of public cloud in an on-premises deployment when business, security and latency requirements dictate.” Additionally, the report states that TPC should incorporate several characteristics of public cloud. These characteristics, which are listed in greater detail in the report, include a simplified relationship between the end user and provider, unre- stricted self-service, the ability to choose how IT resources are consumed and the ability to accommodate hybrid cloud appli- cation use cases. By Gerald Baldino Private Lessons F irst things first: What exactly is true private cloud (TPC)? Report predicts ‘true private cloud’ market will remain highly dynamic through next decade virtual reality Channel Vision | September - October, 2018 44