Cloud comparison
In many circumstances agency executives may now have three models from which to choose when building their IT portfolios: A fee-based public cloud; a shared cost, government-only private cloud; or the traditional buy and manage your own.
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Public Cloud
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Private Government-Only Cloud
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Traditional Owner-Managed Infrastructure
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Security
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Standard defenses offered, but many agencies uncomfortable not knowing exactly where their data physically resides.
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Agencies have more control over physical and IT security.
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Owners have total control and responsibility, for better or worse.
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Configurability
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Typically not very configurable, to insure provider’s economies of scale from common platform.
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Varies by number of agencies using the service. Configurability typically rises with fewer users.
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Maximum flexibility.
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Administrative tools
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Very lacking to non-existent.
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Lacking, though a highly customized private cloud can have finer controls.
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Wide range of very mature tools available.
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Cost
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Excellent value, sometimes even free.
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Can be less expensive than traditional infrastructures, but the economies of scale of public clouds often lost.
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Higher up-front costs, but cost of a long-lived software package can end up less than cloud’s recurring fees.
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Portability
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Depends on provider’s policy, but may be impossible to move.
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Very portable.
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Very portable.
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Source: FCW
About the Author
Doug Beizer is a staff writer for Federal Computer Week.