The Public Cloud is Coming to Your Local Data Center
For a long time, public cloud providers have given users (almost) unlimited access to compute resources (virtual servers, storage, database, etc.) inside their end-to-end managed data centers. Recently the need for local on-premise solutions is now being felt.
In scenarios where network latency or there is a need to store sensitive or critical data inside a local data center, public cloud providers have built server racks meant for deployment of familiar virtual servers, storage and network equipment cloud infrastructure, while using the same user interface and the same APIs for controlling components using CLI or SDK.
Managing the lower infrastructure layers (monitoring of hardware/software/licenses and infrastructure updates) is done remotely by the public cloud providers, which in some cases, requires constant inbound Internet connectivity.
This solution allows customers to enjoy all the benefits of the public cloud (minus the scale), transparently expand on-premise environments to the public cloud, continue storing and processing data inside local data centers as much as required, and in in cases where there is demand for large compute power, migrate environments (or deploy new environments) to the public cloud.
The solution is suitable for military and defense users, or organizations with large amounts of data sets which cannot be moved to the public cloud in a reasonable amount of time. Below is a comparison of three solutions currently available:
Azure Stack Hub | AWS Outposts | Oracle Private Cloud at Customer | |
Ability to work in disconnect mode from the public cloud / Internet | Fully supported / Partially supported | The solution requires constant connectivity to a region in the cloud | The solution requires remote connectivity of Oracle support for infrastructure monitoring and software updates |
VM deployment support | Fully supported | Fully supported | Fully supported |
Containers or Kubernetes deployment support | Fully supported | Fully supported | Fully supported |
Support Object Storage locally | Fully supported | Will be supported in 2020 | Fully supported |
Support Block Storage locally | Fully supported | Fully supported | Fully supported |
Support managed database deployment locally | – | Fully supported (MySQL, PostgreSQL) | Fully supported (Oracle Database) |
Support data analytics deployment locally | – | Fully supported (Amazon EMR) | – |
Support load balancing services locally | Fully supported | Fully supported | Fully supported |
Built in support for VPN connectivity to the solution | Fully supported | – | – |
Support connectivity between the solution and resources from on premise site | – | Fully supported | – |
Built in support for encryption services (data at rest) | Fully supported (Key Vault) | Fully supported (AWS KMS) | – |
Maximum number of physical cores (per rack) | 100 physical cores | – | 96 physical cores |
Maximum storage capacity (per rack) | 5TB | 55TB | 200TB |
Summary
The private cloud solutions noted here are not identical in terms of their capabilities. At least for the initial installation and support, a partner who specializes in this field is a must.
Support for the well-known services from public cloud environments (virtual servers, storage, database, etc.) will expand over time, as these solutions become more commonly used by organizations or hosting providers.
These solutions are not meant for every customer. However they provide a suitable solution in scenarios where it is not possible to use the public cloud, for regulatory or military/defense reasons for example, or when organizations are planning for a long term migration to the public cloud a few years in advance. These plans can be due to legacy applications not built for the cloud, network latency issues or a large amount of data sets that need to be copied to the cloud.