What is a public cloud and what is a private cloud?
Cloud computing technologies promise cost savings as a result of more efficient resource utilization. In the case of public clouds (or commercial external clouds), all the hardware is managed by the cloud provider. The customer pays only for the computing resources it uses and no more.

A private cloud (or internal cloud) is a computing architecture that delivers services to users behind a firewall. IT departments still save on hardware because they see better utilization of resources, which are delivered dynamically.

Where are the differences between the two, and how significant are they?
In the case of private clouds, the organization has complete control over its data and security. However, public clouds offer little in the way of service-level agreements and visibility into security due to their distributed nature. A customer's data is stored and moved between a number of data centers located around the world.

What is a hybrid cloud, or combination of the two?
A hybrid cloud is a composition of at least one private cloud and at least one public cloud. A hybrid cloud is typically offered in one of two ways: a vendor has a private cloud and forms a partnership with a public cloud provider, or a public cloud provider forms a partnership with a vendor that provides private cloud platforms.

What kind of security considerations should organizations take into account for both models?
Security is a top concern for large scale adoption of public and private cloud services. Some of the security concerns are as follows -

• Losing control of confidential business information and fear that this information may get accessed by unauthorized people.
• Location of the data and not knowing exactly where the data is hosted especially in the case of public cloud.
• Not knowing how the data will be retrieved in case of a disaster.
• Data segregation as data in the pubic cloud is typically in a shared environment with other customers' data.

Security considerations for companies consuming cloud services should be -

• Understand the cloud service provider's identity and access management, approach to data handling, data retention policy, deletion methods, user access controls, incident management and SLAs.
• Understand if the cloud service provider is subjected to external audits and/or possesses security certifications.
• Understanding the Service Providers' investment in sophisticated security solutions

To overcome the security challenges, enterprises are looking at adopting private and even hybrid cloud offerings into their network. Private cloud solutions help organizations leverage the existing IT environment and create a private cloud computing platform in the private internal network. This model is a natural progression from virtualisation which is already being used by several organizations today. With private cloud solutions, companies know exactly where their data is stored, maybe even down to the hardware and software details.

How readily available are both services in the Middle East?
Typically the Middle East is slightly slower in embracing emerging technologies. But as the demand for ever-growing amounts of information continues to increase, companies are seeking simple and direct access to data and applications that cloud computing delivers in a cost-efficient, always-available manner. The credit crunch has made cloud computing a particularly hot topic with SMBs keen to save on costs by using applications in the virtual space - a similar rising trend is taking place in the GCC region too.

In the Middle East, organizations are increasingly beginning to virtualize their IT infrastructure to facilitate the adoption of cloud computing. End-users may be apprehensive about public cloud computing but are definitely opening up to private and hybrid cloud models. They want cloud technologies and methodologies in a form that can be implemented inside a consumer's enterprise and are looking at service providers offering private cloud solutions along with other managed services. More and more organizations in the ME will adopt the private cloud to start their journey on the cloud path.

Public cloud services are more readily available in the Middle East currently than private cloud solutions.

We are ourselves in the process of charting out our cloud roadmap. We have conducted multiple internal assessments in understanding the market demand and evaluating the available models instead of directly investing on a public/private cloud platform as we believe it is more important to identify the businesses demands and the corresponding complementing cloud technologies which can fulfill these demands.

We already have a cloud ready infrastructure in our data center. We have launched our own Managed Private cloud solutions for medium to large enterprises looking at enhanced & dynamic utilization of existing infrastructure / applications in terms of scalability, elasticity & faster time to market. We have also launched a Lite Public cloud version for companies operating in the SMB space.

Which of the two delivery models has experienced greater uptake in the Middle East, and why is this?
According to industry research, 32% of the organizations surveyed are currently using or planning to use some form of cloud. Within the GCC, Saudi Arabia and the UAE appear more progressive with regards to cloud, with 34% and 33% of organizations, respectively, considering cloud. Of the one-third of organizations interested in cloud, the majority show a preference for private cloud.

At eHDF, we envision enterprises of all sizes to eventually minimize investment in purchasing hardware and software applications. It will fundamentally change the way in which companies use computer technology.

Some of the reasons for this change are -

• With workforces becoming ever more mobile, and staff using smartphones and tablets, companies are expecting access to their work data and information everywhere. Cloud services will enable companies to support mobile staff without investing in expensive infrastructure.
• Extra storage or computing power available dynamically and the need for agility and scalability will persuade companies to venture into the cloud.
• By switching to cloud computing, businesses can cut support and maintenance costs, achieve faster implementation and upgrade speeds.
• Companies are not tied to individual desktop PCs. As long as the user can get online, they can access all the data and tools they need.

Overall, are public or private clouds more suited to regional enterprises?
There can be no one size fits all strategy when it comes to the cloud. It is completely based on the number of business users existing in the organization as well as whether the organization is an SMB or large enterprise. E.g. SMB might use cloud based ERP while enterprises may not.

Private, public or hybrid cloud adoptions would depend on the organization's overall IT strategy. In addition, Cloud Computing may not be the right model for all applications. In the region, customers prefer a private cloud computing model.

New businesses, for example, may choose to use all their applications in the cloud. If they are starting from scratch, they will want to be up and running as quickly as they can. In contrast, more established organizations might choose to virtualise in stages, gradually moving to cloud computing via infrastructure sharing as their on-premise hardware approaches end of life.

Organizations such as the government and financial sector organizations are wary about sharing confidential information in the public cloud and want to stay in full control of their data as they have various regulatory requirements. They prefer having their data in-house or at a third party data centre located within the same country where they have easy accessibility to their data.