Private Cloud Solutions

Your Data. Your Infrastructure. Your Control.

Cloud computing has transformed the way businesses use technology. Applications, files, servers, and backups can be available from virtually anywhere without being tied to a single desktop computer.

But using the cloud does not necessarily mean surrendering control of your computing environment to a large public cloud provider.

A private cloud brings many of the advantages of cloud computing into infrastructure dedicated to your organization.

At Patriot Computer Solutions, we design private cloud solutions for businesses that want centralized resources, secure remote access, virtualization, data protection, and greater control over where their information resides.

What Is a Private Cloud?

A private cloud is a computing environment dedicated to a single organization.

Instead of every employee depending entirely on individual computers—or placing every application and file with unrelated public cloud services—important computing resources can be centralized and managed as an integrated system.

Depending upon the organization’s requirements, that environment can provide:

• Virtual servers and workstations

• Centralized business applications

• Shared file storage

• Secure remote access

• Backup and recovery

• User and access management

• Centralized data protection

• Network services

• Remote workforce resources

The objective is not simply to put a server in an office.

It is to create a managed computing environment that can deliver resources where they are needed.

Keep Greater Control of Your Data

Public cloud platforms can provide tremendous capabilities, but they also place important business information on infrastructure controlled by another organization.

For some businesses that is perfectly appropriate.

For others, greater control matters.

A private cloud can allow important applications, documents, customer information, intellectual property, backups, and other resources to remain on infrastructure dedicated to the organization.

That can provide greater visibility into where information resides, who can access it, how it is protected, and how it is backed up.

Work From More Than One Location

Modern businesses rarely operate entirely from a single desk.

Employees may work from an office, home, another branch, a customer’s location, or while traveling.

A properly designed private cloud can provide secure access to centralized resources without requiring independent copies of important information to be scattered among numerous computers.

Remote users can connect to the resources they need while the organization’s core applications and data remain centrally managed.

The result can be a much more consistent working environment for a distributed organization.

Virtualization Creates the Foundation

Virtualization is often at the heart of a private cloud.

Instead of tying applications and services directly to individual pieces of physical hardware, virtual machines allow workloads to operate as independently managed computing environments.

A single virtualization platform might support separate systems for:

• Business applications

• File services

• Databases

• Remote desktops

• Specialized software

• Development or testing

• Network services

• Backup management

As requirements change, those resources can be expanded, migrated, backed up, restored, or reorganized far more flexibly than a collection of unrelated physical computers.

Storage Designed Around the Business

Business data has different requirements from ordinary desktop storage.

Capacity matters, but so do performance, redundancy, accessibility, backup, and recovery.

PCS can design private cloud storage around the type and importance of the information being protected.

That may include combinations of:

High-performance SSD or NVMe storage for active workloads.

Redundant storage to reduce the impact of individual drive failures.

Network-attached storage for centralized files and backup resources.

Separate backup storage so primary data and its backup are not dependent upon the same hardware.

Offsite or cloud replication where additional geographic protection is appropriate.

The goal is not merely to store the data.

It is to make sure the business can continue to use—and recover—that data when it matters.

Security Begins With Architecture

Security is not a single product that can simply be installed.

A private cloud provides an opportunity to design security into the environment from the beginning.

Depending upon the organization’s requirements, that can include:

• Firewalls

• Network segmentation

• Secure remote access

• VPN connectivity

• User authentication

• Access permissions

• Endpoint protection

• Encryption

• Backup protection

• Administrative controls

• Monitoring and documentation

PCS looks at how the different layers interact rather than treating each security product as an isolated solution.

Backup Is Not the Same as Redundancy

This distinction is particularly important in business infrastructure.

Redundant drives can help keep a system operating when a drive fails.

They do not protect against every threat to the information.

Accidental deletion, corruption, ransomware, software failure, administrative mistakes, hardware damage, theft, or other events can affect perfectly redundant storage.

A properly designed private cloud therefore includes a separate backup and recovery strategy.

Depending upon the environment, that may include multiple backup generations, separate devices, offsite copies, replication, or other recovery mechanisms.

The question isn’t merely whether the data has been backed up.

It is whether the business can successfully recover it.

Grow Without Rebuilding Everything

A private cloud does not have to begin as a large enterprise installation.

It can begin with the resources a business needs today and expand as requirements grow.

Additional storage can be added. Memory can be expanded. New virtual machines can be created. Remote users can be added. Faster networking can be introduced. Backup capacity can grow.

A well-designed foundation makes those changes easier because the environment was planned as a system rather than assembled one isolated computer at a time.

Reduce Dependence Without Eliminating the Public Cloud

Private cloud and public cloud technologies do not have to compete.

For many organizations, the strongest solution is a hybrid approach.

Critical applications or sensitive information may remain under direct control while public cloud services continue to provide email, collaboration, offsite backup, specialized applications, or other capabilities where they make sense.

PCS can help determine which resources belong locally, which belong in the cloud, and how the two environments should work together.

Infrastructure Designed Around Your Organization

There is no standard private cloud configuration that is right for every business.

A small professional office may need centralized files, secure remote access, and reliable backup.

A larger organization may require multiple virtual servers, remote desktops, redundant storage, site-to-site connectivity, sophisticated backup, and centralized management.

The design should follow the organization—not the other way around.

Take Control of the Computing Foundation

A private cloud is ultimately about ownership and control.

Control over where critical information resides.

Control over how resources are allocated.

Control over who can access them.

Control over backup and recovery.

And control over how the environment grows.

Tell us how your organization works, where your people work, what applications they depend upon, and what information must be protected.

We’ll design the infrastructure around those requirements.

Patriot Computer Solutions Private Cloud Solutions — your data, your infrastructure, your control.