A Private Cloud is a model of cloud computing where the infrastructure is dedicated to a single user organization. A private cloud can be hosted either at an organization’s own data center, at a third party colocation facility, or via a private cloud provider who offers private cloud hosting services and may or may not also offer traditional public shared multi-tenant cloud infrastructure.

Typically, the end-user organization is responsible for the operation of a private cloud as if it were a traditional on-premises infrastructure, which includes ongoing maintenance, upgrades, OS patches, middleware, and application software management.

Private Cloud Solutions offer organizations more control over and better security of private cloud servers, although it does require a much higher level of IT expertise than utilizing a public cloud.

Private Clouds offer the same control and security as traditional on-premises infrastructure. Here are some reasons why organizations opt for private cloud computing:

• Security: Private cloud security is enhanced since traffic to a private cloud is typically limited to the organization’s own transactions. Public cloud providers must handle traffic from millions of users and transactions simultaneously, thus opening a greater chance for malicious traffic. Since private clouds consist of dedicated physical infrastructure, the organization has better control over the server, network, and application security.


• Predictable performance: Because the hardware is dedicated rather than multi-tenant, workload performance is predictable and unaffected by other organizations sharing infrastructure or bandwidth.


• Long-term savings:  While it can be expensive to set up the infrastructure to support a private cloud, it can pay off in the long term. If an organization already has the hardware and network required for hosting, a private cloud can be much more cost-effective over time compared to paying monthly fees to use someone else’s servers on the public cloud. 


• Predictable costs: Public cloud costs can be very unpredictable based on usage, storage charges, and data egress charges. Private cloud costs are the same each month, regardless of the workloads, an organization is running or how much data is moved.


• Regulatory governance: Regulations such as the EU’s GDPR may dictate where data resides and where computing occurs. In those regions where public cloud providers cannot offer service, a private cloud may be required. Additionally, organizations with sensitive data such as financial or legal firms may opt for private cloud storage to ensure they have complete control over personally identifiable or sensitive information.

In a private cloud, computing resources are dedicated and proprietary, and a single organization hosts and manages the system. What makes it private is the fact that the underlying hardware layer is segregated from any other client’s infrastructure. In a public cloud, services are owned and managed by a provider who also hosts other tenants. Companies may combine a private cloud with a public cloud in a hybrid or multi-cloud environment.

VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure, and VMware Private Cloud offers a service enabling organizations to simply pool all their servers into a single resource, which can be distributed among virtual machines (VMs) that run application workloads across the enterprise.

VMware supports the three major types of private cloud: virtual private cloud, hosted private cloud, and managed private cloud.