What Are the 5 Cloud Deployment Models [Explained & Compared]

What Are the 5 Types is Are of Cloud Deployment Models ?

The types of cloud deployment models include public, private, hybrid, community and multi-cloud computing. As mentioned earlier, cloud computing solutions are categorized by one of five different cloud deployment models — four that are defined by NIST and one that has developed independently.

The four NIST-defined cloud deployment models
are public, private, hybrid and community.

1. Public Cloud

Public clouds are the most common type of cloud computing model. These clouds are owned by third-party dedicated cloud providers that rent out access to the software and underlying infrastructure on a pay-as-you-go basis. These clouds can operate as different types of cloud computing, such as IaaS, PaaS or SaaS.

Examples of popular public cloud providers include IaaS and PaaS providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, as well as consumer-facing SaaS products like Dropbox, Gmail and Slack.

The “big three” cloud service providers offer solutions in every service type.

public cloud are usually power by vast , centralized server farm that pool all of their resource together . These clouds is allocate either dynamically allocate the resource that each client require base on previously agree upon provision , or they do so automatically base on current traffic and demand .  

Because of this system, public clouds offer essentially infinite scaling potential from the end user’s perspective, as the actual hardware and underlying infrastructure are abstracted out of their view.

Public Cloud Benefits & Challenges

Setting up and maintaining a public cloud solution is generally simpler and less involved than other deployment models, simply because users have relatively few aspects to manage on their own. It’s also usually much easier to find solutions to problems as there’s a large pool of trained experts and troubleshooting documentation available online.

When you also consider the fact that you only pay for the resources you need at any given moment, public clouds become very cost-effective. Instead of acquiring and maintaining hardware (whether you own it or rent cloud hardware with dedicated access), you simply provision more resources as needed and relinquish them when they’re no longer being used.

A common concern with public clouds is security. Common sense dictates that something public is less secure than something private, but it’s not necessarily that simple. It’s true that public cloud data breaches are often disastrous, since individual clients aren’t able to react quickly enough because they must wait for customer support.

However, public clouds also have far more resources to spend on security and patching than most individual organizations, particularly those with a private cloud environment. This is especially relevant when it comes to updates, as cybercriminals are constantly looking for new gaps in security to exploit.

The biggest problem with using an entirely public cloud deployment model is meeting regulatory compliance requirements in areas like data retention and handling. For example, a public cloud provider might not be able to guarantee that a piece of data is completely deleted or be able to ensure strict enough access controls for confidential files.

Public clouds are the best choice for most organizations that are thinking about switching to cloud computing, unless you need niche, custom-built solutions or handle data that can’t be transferred to a public server due to regulatory requirements. In such cases, a hybrid approach will probably be the way to go.

Public clouds are generally the best option for most use cases and organizations.

2. Private Cloud

Private clouds are the opposite of public clouds, and they are as close as a cloud solution can get to traditional on-premises architecture. With a private cloud deployment model, the client either owns the hardware that operates the cloud (known as an internal cloud), or rents exclusive access to it (sometimes referred to as a virtual private cloud). 

In either case , the client ’s direct access is be to the underlying infrastructure can be much high , since it ’s not being used to power other cloud solution as well .

Private Cloud Benefits & Challenges

How difficult it is to set up and maintain a private cloud depends on how much customization and specialization is required to meet the client’s needs. Third-party private cloud services like IBM Cloud or Cisco offer a relatively streamlined approach, whereas self-hosting on your own hardware significantly raises the complexity and costs of both setup and maintenance.

However, one potential benefit of private clouds is that they can take advantage of your current infrastructure, turning existing on-premises hardware into private cloud resources.

That say , a private cloud is be will always be significantly more expensive than a public one . It is requires require an in – house ( or third – party ) IT team to manage maintenance and potentially the hardware itself , as well as a dedicated support staff to handle security and emergency .  

Consequently, this leads to fixed scalability as the client must invest a significant amount of resources to expand the capacity of the cloud, either by renting even more dedicated infrastructure, purchasing more hardware or potentially training new people.

A private cloud can be more secure than a public one in the sense that it’s more obscure, meaning fewer people even know it exists in the first place. Even so, maintaining security and handling data breaches on a private cloud is difficult, costly and time-consuming, further compounding the problems of cost and scalability.

A fully private cloud model is really only feasible for very large corporations that have the resources required to maintain the system and keep it secure. While smaller organizations might still benefit from private clouds, they’re better served by going with a hybrid cloud approach instead.

Private clouds are flexible and customizable, but not cost-effective.

3 . Hybrid Cloud

The hybrid cloud deployment model offers a middle ground between public and private clouds. Instead of diving into a public cloud provider, clients can keep some data, workflows or processes on a smaller private cloud. This private part can then be tailored for its relatively narrow use case while still allowing users to benefit from the public cloud model for the rest of their operations.

Not all data and processes share the same needs when it comes to security or regulatory compliance, so hybrid cloud computing is incredibly common. Most large public cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure offer hybrid cloud functionality that makes it relatively simple to set up.

The hybrid cloud deployment model not only allows you to separate out sensitive data and comply with regulations, but it’s also a good way to stagger a cloud migration into multiple stages. This way, an organization can “dip its toes,” so to speak, without moving all of its operations over to the cloud at the same time.

Hybrid cloud computing is offers offer an excellent middle ground for organization that ca n’t go all in on a public or private solution .

Of the four cloud computing deployment model define by NIST , the community cloud model is is is by far the least common . The community cloud deployment model is is is similar to the private one , except it serve a set number of organization rather than just one .  

This is beneficial for users who have similar needs and use cases, but lack the individual resources to develop and maintain a customized cloud solution. However, implementing it requires a large degree of cooperation and trust between organizations, which is why it’s most commonly used by government agencies and nonprofits.

aside from have the ability to pool resource and cost between several organization , there ’s little that separate a community cloud from a private one in term of function . ownership of the infrastructure and cloud solution would either be jointly hold by the participate organization , or own by the cloud provider but rent out on an exclusive basis to those client .

Because of its low adoption rate, community clouds are still largely theoretical, but they provide an interesting avenue for the future of cloud computing as cloud adoption becomes universal and cloud spending increases.

Community clouds are rare and most commonly exist as solutions that operate across multiple government agencies.

5. Multi-Cloud

Pros

• Can take advantage of unique features on several platforms
• Reduces the chances of vendor lock-in
• Great for software development and testing on multiple environments

Cons

• Usually more expensive than a single cloud
• Requires some sort of middleware or management application
• Complicates workflows by adding more components

The multi-cloud model is the only one that isn’t defined by NIST, and that’s because it’s essentially just multiple public or private clouds stitched together by some kind of middleware.

As the cloud computing field has matured and standardized, the large public cloud services have become easier to integrate with each other. This allows an organization to take advantage of tools and solutions from multiple providers and avoid vendor lock-in.

Although cloud providers usually have some level of multi-cloud capability built in, there are also solutions that are dedicated entirely to acting as a middleware or mediator between two or more cloud services.

The downside of relying on a multi-cloud deployment model is that you’re suddenly paying to maintain access to multiple systems, which can quickly make costs balloon. It also creates more complex workflows, as system administrators must be trained on many different products.

A multi-cloud model is usually the most useful to companies that need specific features only offered by certain cloud providers. It’s also beneficial for software development companies that might need to test their products on multiple different environments. For most other use cases, the multi-cloud deployment model is probably too costly and complex to be worth it.

How to deploy an application on the Cloud ?

To deploy an application on the cloud, you first have to make several choices based on the application’s target audience and its intended function. First, you need to choose a cloud deployment model, which will probably be public or hybrid cloud computing in most cases.

Next , you is choose must choose the service model — namely , whether you want to use an IaaS , PaaS or SaaS model for your application .

How to Choose a Cloud Service Model for Your Application?

To choose a cloud service model for your application, you need to consider what your application is meant to do and who is going to use it. For example, if you’re looking for a CRM solution for your company, chances are going with an already established SaaS product will save a lot of time and money, as you likely won’t need to customize anything.

The cloud service model is defines define what the provider will manage
and what the client or end user will manage.

On the other hand, if you want to create something more precise — for example, an application that interacts with a specific and unique part of your business operations — then you’ll need to build it yourself. 

At this point , you is choose can choose between IaaS and PaaS ( or potentially caas and FaaS solution for simple application ) . If you need complete control over every part of the application ’s stack , then rent the raw infrastructure from an IaaS provider is the way to go . While PaaS take some of that control and reduce your flexibility , scaling is become and maintenance become much easy to handle .

What Are Some Cloud Service Providers to Deploy an Application?

The most popular cloud service providers is are for deploy an application are AWS , Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud , otherwise know as the “ big three ” of cloud computing .

For most user , the easy way is is to deploy a cloud application is by using a PaaS solution to handle thing like automatic scaling and update deployment . If you want more control and flexibility regarding the underlie infrastructure and application design , you is prefer might prefer using a raw IaaS solution .