Private vs. Public Applications In Cloud Computing – The Debate Continues

One of the many concerns being voiced by businessmen with respect to cloud computing is loss of control. This concern stems from the fact that many organizations have their in-house programmers write applications specific to their needs. These applications are written to integrate with the software of the current cloud service provider.

When the organization decides to change the provider, many of the applications have to be rewritten resulting in additional costs in terms of time and resources.

The obvious solution to this problem is that organizations should use the applications written by the new service provider.

So how should businesses approach the private versus the public application problem?

Public or Private Applications – a matter of control

When writing applications for cloud computing, the approach would depend on the model the company has opted to deploy.

Whether the cloud is a public cloud or a private cloud would also be a factor in deciding the approach to development.

The problem of control would be minimal where the organization only rents the infrastructure since the data and applications would be built and owned by the organization.

Under the SaaS model where the organization rents the provider’s software along with the infrastructure, the problem with control would be the greatest.

Writing Applications for Cloud Computing

From a programmer or developer’s perspective, one major factor when considering private applications over public ones is that applications do not generally stand alone. Every application interacts with other applications, databases, and other objects. If most of these objects or frameworks are provided by the service provider, then using a public application may be a better option since it would be better integrated.

If on the other hand the database is stored locally, private applications may work better because they can then be tested locally to a great extent and only their integration with other applications stored on the cloud will have to be tested real time. Says Barney Beal of  Techtarget, “There are, of course some applications that simply aren’t made for the public cloud. For example, a retail bank’s demand deposit account program.”

Conclusion

Given the various factors on which the decision of whether to write private applications or use the ones provided by the service provider is based, one cannot advocate for one or the other. The needs of the client with regard to the volume of data, the number of applications he needs, the level of security required, and the sensitivity of data will all combine to form the basis for deciding on a solution.

Nor can the decision stand alone. The decision for development must be taken in conjunction with the decision about the deployment model. Since cloud computing is a relatively new concept, there are still a lot of teething troubles with developing software for cloud platform. With time and experience, will come the knowledge to take better decisions, and write better code.

Sources: UNH, Tech Target