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Determining a Private Cloud Delivery Model: Page 2 of 2

The other option is always a mix of the two models. This allows an organization to utilize IaaS in a more traditional model for legacy enterprise applications while deploying new applications via PaaS. Additionally, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments and some other virtualization projects will fit better in an IaaS model.

Most likely, this PaaS/IaaS mix would be a temporary to semi-permanent deployment model, with an end goal of moving to an all-PaaS environment. This could be further enhanced by using public cloud services such as software as a service (SaaS) for certain applications, or public based backup and disaster recovery strategies.

Mixing cloud service models and building hybrid clouds can offer a great deal of flexibility, but may lead to additional administration or complexity without proper care and planning. Fortunately, tools exist to minimize the complexity and offer greater feature sets for these types of deployments. Cloud management tools such as Enstratus and Cloupia provide varying levels of management for mixed and hybrid clouds. These types of tools and the services they can be coupled with provide a faster on-ramp to cloud computing with the promise of reduced risk and greater flexibility.

Whichever model, or mix of models is chosen, organization must consider carefully how services should be delivered and how applications can best be deployed. Moving application and service delivery to cloud infrastructure models without changing the thinking around service delivery and possibly redesigning applications for optimal delivery will result in lowered ROI or failed service roll-outs.

Disclaimer: The vendors and products listed in this article do not comprise an all-inclusive list and are used for example purposes only. This article is not intended as an endorsement of any of the products mentioned.