For legacy applications that are critical for enterprise performance, private clouds provide a necessary level of security, but only if they are granted the correct amount of operating capacity. To maintain these apps and keep them relevant to a company's technological development, enterprises need to be able to access the proper solutions.
Although housing applications in private clouds doesn't guarantee that there will never be an issue, it does put the tools to prevent security breaches and data protection problems in the company's hands. According to Search Cloud Computing's Nicholas Rando, this gives these environments a distinct advantage as long as the enterprises using them work to make the most of what the private cloud has to offer.
Rando says that businesses should be vigilant about optimizing security in these clouds and create standards for best performance to make sure they are successful.
"Companies should determine which employees need private cloud access and grant permissions accordingly," he writes. "Unlike public clouds, where providers handle security, private cloud users are responsible for protecting their own data." He adds that "mission-critical apps or apps containing sensitive information can become vulnerable in the public cloud."
C.J. Radford of Vormetric recently told Tech Republic that protecting Software as a Service will be a major priority for organizations in the coming year, especially since half of all application spending was devoted to SaaS last year. He also said that organizations need to take initiative to promote proper security protocols.
When deciding how to move forward with legacy systems, companies should give more consideration to the private cloud because of the way it lets them create the secure environment they need. This is crucial when important data and systems applications have been brought into a newer web-based platform.