Just as there are many types of clouds, there are many types of cloud computing. Learning how to identify the different types of clouds enlightens you on developing weather conditions of technology, while learning more about the different meanings of cloud computing can help you avoid bad cloud computing. Customer relationship management software solution provider Soffront Software offers the following guide.

Public vs. Private

The first distinction is the public cloud versus the private cloud. Generally, the private cloud represents a cloud application you host yourself or is hosted for you on dedicated equipment by a third party. This includes solutions available only over a private network, but which utilize some cloud approaches such as scalability through virtual servers.

A solution utilizing a private cloud approach does not offer the savings on infrastructure so often touted as one of the advantages of cloud implementations. However, private clouds do offer some advantages in certain applications for medium and large enterprises.

A Cloud of a Different Color

Cloud computing is about offering computing services as a service rather than a product. When considering a cloud solution, it is helpful to know just what service (or services) is being offered.

Software as a service (SaaS) is perhaps the most common type of cloud solution offered. Platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are also available.

A Note on Security

Considering the variety of approaches to which the term “cloud computing” is applied, specifying security problems or solutions for cloud computing is meaningless. The particular variety of cloud computing you intend to use will have its own set of security issues, as will the particular application.

Bad Cloud Computing

Given this information, what is bad cloud computing? The answer is simple: whatever doesn’t work for you. Whether it’s a private cloud solution when you need a public cloud solution, or IaaS when you are looking for PaaS, or even a particular application which cannot guarantee the level of security you require. Implementing the wrong cloud solution is like planning a picnic and having it rain.