Building a Private Cloud
We have been increasingly turning to self-hosted alternatives due to the privacy-invading nature of popular communication and file sharing services. We explored many other options before deciding on our own private cloud and did not feel like dealing with their cumbersome installation and configuration process.
The private cloud is still holding its own despite the seemingly endless growth and capabilities of public cloud systems. According to the latest Enterprise Cloud Index study, a quarter of respondents maintained that there IT environment operated in the private cloud.
Additionally, cloud repatriation (reverse migration) is now a thing – up to 85% of companies have considered moving their applications back to a private cloud server.
Private clouds should be deployed after careful consideration and strategic planning. In order to build a private cloud model, we will have to clearly define our needs, expectations, and goals. Below you will find a list of the various steps and considerations that must be taken in order to achieve this goal.
The decision to go private.
Every organization defines cloud differently, based on its size, industry, and the kind of data it manages. Additionally, there is the debate between public and private clouds.
Cloud computing is largely driven by two factors: control (regarding security and privacy) and cost.
The private cloud is the choice for us, as well as businesses in the finance, health, and telecom sectors, law firms where customer data is regulated by the government and industry.
Why a private cloud?
A regulatory or security issue then requires a focus on developing a security model and policies that are still able to enable public cloud providers to operate in an agile manner.
We must clearly define our cloud computing and overall technology goals in order to make an informed decision.
To commit to the private cloud, we needed to understand every service inside and out, draft service level agreements, calculate costs, and create roadmaps for each workload.
In our role as a cloud architect, we were responsible for identifying and scoping out dormant resources. Customer service, marketing, purchase, and pretty much every department needed to know about upcoming projects and strategies that might affect demand.
Nevertheless, we had to make sure that we were able to predict future demand.
In order to maximize the value of the private cloud, capacity planning is crucial. As part of a cloud management strategy, cloud metrics should be monitored constantly and workload and application stress tests performed periodically.
Deploy the private cloud server in steps
It is technically the most complex part of the deployment, but it can be accomplished if we plan it well with everyone involved.
An infrastructure for a private cloud consists of three basic steps:
With clusters, you can set up compute resources, networks, and storage. There will be at least three machines in our private cloud that can handle all the resources needed for a VM.
Install the base operating system along with management software for the hardware.
Make sure that you have a backup solution that works in the cloud and that you have redundancy servers set up.
In the case of workload specifications requiring NAT, configure private and public network addresses.
Admin roles should be defined, and users should be added. Security policies and authentication methods should be set up.
Install applications, provision virtual machines, and create storage containers. Whenever necessary, create VM templates and configure licensing.
