Choosing a cloud platform

Choosing a cloud platform Many organizations are considering hybrid cloud, but how to you know what’s right for you?  

In this blog, we’ll go through some of the questions we’re asked about the different cloud platforms, to give you a starting point to navigate this decision.

1.     What’s the difference between Public and Private Cloud?

NIST definitions have been around for a while and they’re a good reference structure for us:

• Public Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business, academic, or government organization, or some combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider.
• Private Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises.

Public cloud is what most people think of when referring to the cloud. Some examples are Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). While the Public Cloud is more commonly known, and a good option for many Oracle workloads, Private Cloud is another option to keep in mind when thinking about moving your on-premises applications to the cloud.

2.     What’s important to keep in mind when comparing a Public Cloud to a Private Cloud?

Particularly with Oracle, commercial considerations are key, specifically when it comes to Oracle licensing. It’s vital to make sure you have the appropriate number of Oracle licenses when you go to the cloud or you could be in for a costly surprise.

Here’s a typical (but not exhaustive) Oracle technology licensing model to give you an idea of what to expect regarding Oracle licensing requirements with different cloud platforms:

• On-premises: 2 Intel cores = 1 Oracle processor license
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: 2 vCPUs = 1 OCPU, 2 OCPU = 1 Oracle processor license
• AWS/Azure: 2 vCPUs (with multi-threading) = 1 Oracle processor license
• AWS/Azure: 1 CPU (no multi-threading) = 1 Oracle processor license
• Private Cloud: Here it depends on the hypervisor and the platform the provider has underneath it

While Private Cloud does depend on the infrastructure of the provider, clouds like our Inoapps Private Cloud offer the same licensing paradigm as OCI and on-prem, and  we offer even more benefit in cases where licenses can be split across more than one Virtual Machine (VM).

3.     Are there certain workloads that work better in Public Cloud versus Private Cloud?

DevOps and active projects are two contexts that lend themselves better to Public Cloud. If you need to spin up and down as your needs change without contractual obligations, Public Cloud comes into its own.

On the other hand, for environments like Oracle Hyperion (EPM) or Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS), which are fairly fixed in what they do and don’t tend to flex or go up and down, Private Cloud infrastructure is a good fit. Private Cloud can be provisioned for exactly what you need and tailored to your precise environment. In addition, high performance database VMs based on Exadata servers are available with some providers, like Inoapps.

While most cloud vendors would ideally like customers to have everything exclusively within their cloud platform, many businesses will likely end up with a Hybrid Cloud solution with, for example development and testing environments in a Public Cloud and production environments in a Private Cloud.

4.     What do I need keep in mind when moving Oracle workloads to the cloud

A big trend we often see is that Oracle workloads get pushed off to the end of the IT roadmap. This is usually because they’re typically big systems that are heavily integrated with other business systems and often aren’t maintained and upgraded to the latest versions.

We now have the capabilities to move these to the cloud with proven approaches and attractive commercial benefits. Oracle-based applications can be complex in some areas but, with the correct expert guidance, the desired outcomes are attainable.

If you’re considering moving your Oracle workloads to the cloud, whether that’s Public Cloud, Private Cloud, or a combination of the two, Inoapps is here to partner you through that process to make sure you’re getting all you can from the move.

If you’d like to have a chat about which cloud platform makes the most sense for your business, reach out to us for a conversation. Or have a look at our Hybrid Cloud page to read about our expertise in helping our customers establish which Oracle solution is best for their businesses.