Cloud Network Types

Name: Cloud Network Types
Author: Bernie Kuan

Learn about the difference between public, private, hybrid, and multicloud environments

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 3 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Private clouds refer to the infrastructure owned and managed privately by an organization for its own use. The infrastructure often sits in secure physical data centers and the organization that owns the private cloud can provide access to those infrastructure resources. The infrastructure and resources in those data centers are within the organization's premises and are not shared with the public or external organizations. The organization is solely responsible for the infrastructure, applications, and security of the private cloud. Private clouds are also referred to as on-premise, on-prem, or internal clouds. They leverage a cloud-enabled network where modern cloud technology is heavily used to enable the organization to access pertinent devices and resources anywhere within the organization's network. Through the use of firewalls and virtual private networks or VPNs, organizations can create access points between the organization's private cloud network and a user's public internet connection. Organizations can ensure secure access to their resources in several ways. For internal users, organizations typically require the use of VPNs on the user's devices. The VPN creates a virtual network within the user device that connects to the organization's private network resources. Organizations also provide secure access to their private resources through the use of public facing applications. These applications would be accessible by anyone with an internet connection but require user authentication and authorization. The applications can be cloud-based software as a service solution offered by third-party vendors or a custom web portal or application created by the organization itself. The connectivity between the private network and public internet is bridged by firewalls and proxy solutions. These proxy solutions are applications that can intercept incoming data traffic through one IP address and port and relay that traffic through another IP address and port. This relay of data through different addresses is hidden from the public which adds additional security to the private network by preventing direct public access to the private network device. For example, a user trying to request data from an organization's shared network storage through a web portal would first connect to the web portal's public internet IP address. Then through the web portal the user's request will attempt to connect to the organization's private network. Firewalls recognize web portals and allow requested data to be retrieved. Then they return it back to the user through the web portal. The firewall may recognize the web portal through the application's public IP address, private IP address, or other identifying information such as encrypted key certificates. The cloud environments also leverage virtualization technology such as hypervisors and docker containers. That'll allow infrastructure resources to be provisioned on demand. Resources within a server or network of servers in the private cloud network can provision virtualized resource instances. Those can be used by specific groups and individuals within an organization. For example, a large data storage device may be partitioned into many chunks of smaller storage resources assigned to specific user accounts. A powerful server may also be partitioned to represent smaller virtual machines that users can access for their specific purposes. An organization may choose to deploy a private cloud for many reasons. Private clouds are commonly seen in the finance, healthcare, life science, and government industries. This is due to the regulatory and security requirements those industries are expected to comply with. For example, an organization might have strict requirements for tracking data processing, management, and storage. Without having total ownership of the cloud environment, it might be difficult to attest to that in an audit. External providers of infrastructure services often use infrastructure for multiple clients. Their own people, process, and technology might not be as available to the organization for audit. Ownership of the infrastructure resources and shared applications enables the building of a tailored computing environment. Some of these requirements could be custom configurations of resources, such as servers, storage, and applications provisioned to users. Another requirement could be performance, where external infrastructure solutions don't provide the processing speed needed for the organization's computing workloads. And in some cases, organizations may have proprietary solutions that aren't available or visible to external vendors.

Advanced Provider : Bernie Kuan 3 Lessons · 14m in English

Course Description

Cloud networking environments can be implemented in several ways. Organizations adopting a cloud networking approach may leverage cloud technologies in different ways depending on their unique situations and the objectives that they are trying to accomplish. Most organizations begin by implementing either a private or public cloud network based on the organization’s current state and future aspirations. Some organizations may also choose to deploy hybrid clouds or multiple cloud environments to satisfy their unique situations, despite the increase of overhead that might be required.

In these lessons, we’ll examine four implementations of cloud networks: private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, and multiclouds. We’ll explore the benefits and drawbacks of each environment, such as the benefits of using private clouds for increased security and control, or their potential drawbacks of higher costs and limited scalability. We’ll also discuss the advantages of public clouds' cost-effectiveness and scalability, as well as security and control challenges.

What You'll Learn

Understand the four main types of cloud networking: private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, and multiclouds
Explore the benefits and drawbacks of each cloud network type
Compare private clouds' increased security and control against drawbacks like higher costs and limited scalability
Evaluate public clouds' cost-effectiveness and scalability alongside their security and control challenges
Explain how to choose the right cloud network type for an organization's needs

Key Takeaways

Cloud networking environments can be implemented in several ways depending on an organization's unique situation and objectives.
Most organizations begin by implementing either a private or public cloud network based on their current state and future aspirations.
Some organizations deploy hybrid clouds or multiclouds to satisfy their unique situations, despite the increased overhead this may require.
Private clouds offer increased security and control but can carry drawbacks such as higher costs and limited scalability.
Public clouds offer cost-effectiveness and scalability while presenting security and control challenges.

Frequently Asked Questions

What cloud network types does this course cover?

The course examines four implementations of cloud networks: private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, and multiclouds.

What will I learn about each cloud network type?

You will explore the benefits and drawbacks of each environment, such as private clouds' increased security and control versus higher costs and limited scalability, and public clouds' cost-effectiveness and scalability versus security and control challenges.

Does the course help with selecting a cloud network type?

Yes. One of the learning objectives is to explain how to choose the right cloud network type for an organization's needs.

What lessons are included in this course?

The course includes three lessons: Private Clouds; Public Clouds; and Hybrid Clouds and Multiclouds.

What skills does this course build?

It covers skills including Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Security Architecture, Cloud Security Infrastructure, Multi-Cloud, Private Cloud, and Public Cloud.