Private cloud or public cloud or both?

Data will always remain key for every business, as it forms the foundation to forecast business profits, revenue, sales among other crucial parameters. However, what remains to be seen is how businesses plan to store this critical data component safely and securely, which paves the debate if private cloud is recommended over public cloud or both to keep the data security at the core.

Analysts perceive that blend of both could help blur the lines for people with hardline views of preferring private over public cloud or vice-versa. The private and public cloud each have their own set of benefits, however combining the two will provide you with the optimal solution.

What matters is finding a solution that meets your individual needs. Synology is currently working to blur the lines between public and private cloud, so that businesses can confidently employ a system that addresses all business needs.

A study conducted by 451 Research interviewed 150 It-decision-makers, where 41 per cent reported that they operate their private clouds at lower unit costs than public cloud, citing capacity planning, automation and costing technologies as the main drivers of cost efficiency. Within that same study, respondents said that even if public cloud providers lower their prices, decision-makers would migrate only 50 per cent of their private cloud workloads to a public cloud. It’s clear that businesses see private cloud’s value beyond just cost-efficiency.

Even the public cloud’s most overt benefit — on-the-go access to data and more — is being challenged by services that help the private cloud act more like the public cloud. For example, Synology has products that make it easy to enable remote access, file sharing, and cross-site or crossdevice syncing to mimic the best features of the public cloud within a private cloud environment.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) IT spending is projected to reach $160 billion in 2019, a 1.8 per cent increase from 2018, which places MENA seventh out of the 11 regions tracked by Gartner in 2019. John Lovelock, Research Vice President at Gartner stated that in 2019, businesses in the MENA are set to increase their IT spending in all segments except for the devices segment.

As the MENA region is ranked in the top 10, it becomes very important to understand how businesses make the decision of storing data and what factors contribute in making cost effective decision. So why choose between public and private clouds when there are better tools than ever to operate a hybrid of the two?

For example, since public cloud infrastructure excels for customer-facing websites and applications, you can run a production site on the public cloud with a backup on a private cloud. That way you can make changes and test them in a closed environment before deploying them back into a live environment. Not to mention, by running a test machine in your own environment, you won’t need to rent additional (expensive) cloud storage and computing from a service provider.

You also might consider setting up an offsite backup yourself with an additional Synology NAS in a remote location, which is more cost-efficient than the public cloud, assuming you have the resources to do so.

For smaller businesses without these resources, the public cloud is likely the route you’ll want to take. The public cloud can also play a role as part of a data backup protocol, in conjunction with an on-site solution that offers an added security barrier. For example, you can encrypt sensitive data on-site before pushing everything to the public cloud, adding an additional layer of protection against malicious parties. This way you can free up space on-site while keeping important data safe and accessible as needed.

With Synology, you have the option of backing up your data to the C2 Backup cloud service or one of the many major cloud providers that are integrated with Synology. The software also acts intelligently to allow you, for example, to specify which files are backed up to the public cloud to ensure your most sensitive data (e.g., financial information or customer data) is protected and not accidentally migrated.

The private and public cloud each have their own set of benefits, however combining the two will provide you with the optimal solution APAC President Synology