The key piece behind the public Cloud is the economics, according to Veeam APAC technical director, Charles Clarke, who said it was the hardest part of Cloud computing to figure out, and something many providers were still struggling with.
“Any Cloud provider needs to have a sensible, easy to understand billing model, one that matches the needs of their customers,” he said.
“If businesses want to engage with the public Cloud in a pay-as-you-go model, it has to be something they understand.”
Even if it turns out the public Cloud is more expensive than what a business already has on-premise, Clarke said it is important to demonstrate that the elasticity may be worth it in the long run.
“Having a sensible and easy to understand billing model means an IT manager can budget and plan IT initiatives easier to manage from a financial perspective,” he said.
The infinity pool
While Clarke admits the public Cloud is not for everybody, he said the flexibility it provides is a key attraction for many.
“It provides the illusion of infinity that doesn’t exist with the private Cloud,” he said.
Clarke describes the capacity of the public Cloud as a “huge elastic bucket” that businesses can put data and workloads into.
“With the private Cloud you know what the data capacity is and you can expand and contract it if you want, but with public Cloud it doesn’t matter,” he said.
Along with elasticity, there is also the on-demand billing model which Clarke said negates the need for a capital investment.
“Businesses can react quickly to project or market driven initiatives, and commission them without having to carry the weight of capital expenditure that would normally entail,” he said.
Patrick Budmar covers consumer and enterprise technology breaking news for IDG Communications. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_budmar.
