Hype around cloud making it cloudy, Gartner

Ongoing hype around private cloud computing is creating misperceptions about private cloud, according to Gartner. To help reduce the hype and identify the real value of private cloud computing for IT leaders, Gartner explains five common misconceptions about private cloud. 

"The growth of private cloud computing is being driven by the rapid penetration of virtualisation and virtualisation management, the growth of cloud computing offerings and pressure to deliver IT faster and cheaper," said Tom Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "However, in the rush to respond to these pressures, IT organisations need to be careful to avoid the hype, and, instead, should focus on a private cloud computing effort that makes the most business sense." 
Server and infrastructure virtualisation are important foundations for private cloud computing. However, virtualisation and virtualisation management are not, by themselves, private cloud computing. Virtualisation makes it easier to dynamically and granularly pool and reallocate infrastructure resources (servers, desktop, storage, networking, middleware, etc). However, virtualisation can be enabled in many ways, including virtual machines, operating systems (OSs) or middleware containers, robust OSs, storage abstraction software, grid computing software, and horizontal scaling and cluster tools. 

Private cloud computing leverages some form of virtualisation to create a cloud computing service. Private cloud computing is a form of cloud computing that is used by only one organisation, or that ensures that an organisation is completely isolated from others. 

An enterprise can reduce operational costs with a private cloud by eliminating common, rote tasks for standard offerings. A private cloud can reallocate resources more efficiently to meet enterprise requirements, possibly by reducing capital expenses for hardware. 

However, private clouds require investment in automation software, and the savings alone might not justify the cost. As such, cost reduction is not the primary benefit of private cloud computing. The benefits of self-service, automation behind the self-service interface and metering tied to usage are primarily agility, speed to market, ability to scale to dynamic demand or to go after short windows of opportunity, and ability for a business unit to experiment.