“What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?”
- Larry Ellison, founder of IT giant Oracle Corp., on cloud computing.
Cloud computing has come a long way since the early days of pessimism; not only has it flourished, it has also managed to convert detractors like Ellison, with Oracle being a major player in the field today (http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2010/12/oracle-the-latest-big-boy-to-join-the-cloud-computing-game/). However, Amazon, the company that started it all with the launch of Amazon Web Services (AWS) far back in 2002, still manages to retain its lead.
When one thinks of cloud computing, one usually thinks of storage and applications hosted on remote servers under the control of a service provider. This is known as the public cloud. However, there’s another kind of cloud where businesses have greater control, and responsibility, over their cloud resources. Not surprisingly, it is called the private cloud.
Now, for a small, medium or enterprise business, the public cloud may be the better option because it will entail no capital expenditure. Moreover, with a limited IT budget, a third-party vendor like Amazon can provide much better data security than the company itself. However, for enterprises, the private cloud, though costlier, may be preferable because it will provide them greater control and allow better implementation of proprietary best practices.
Amazon Web Services Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) combines the benefits of both public and private clouds. While Amazon Web Services VPC customers don’t have to make large upfront investments as required by a private cloud, they can still enjoy the greater control it offers. Also, they can easily scale up or scale down operations as per requirement, which would have been difficult with an actual private cloud.
AWS Virtual Private Cloud
The AWS VPC page (http://aws.amazon.com/vpc/ ) explains it best: “Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) lets you provision a private, isolated section of the Amazon Web Services Cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual network that you define. With Amazon VPC, you can define a virtual network topology that closely resembles a traditional network that you might operate in your own data center. You have complete control over your virtual networking environment, including selection of your own IP Address range, creation of sub-nets, and configuration of route tables and network gateways.”
What’s more, this amazing functionality is offered at no extra cost other than the normal charges associated with being an AWS customer. In other words, with AWS VPC, you need not balance strengths and weaknesses of public and private clouds to reach a decision; you can get all the benefits and none of the weaknesses.
In other words, it’s possible to “have your cake and eat it too.” However, it may take the guidance of an AWS Consulting expert to help you make the best use of Amazon Web Services Virtual Private Cloud. With that guidance, you can fully leverage the power of cloud computing and take your business to the next level of success.
For further details, please visit the product page at http://aws.amazon.com/vpc/ .