You would be forgiven for not being up to date with the latest technology buzzwords. What if we told ya that there's a new version on the horizon, and it's a mixture of all four?

According to Gartner's Glossary, Distributed Cloud refers to "the distribution of public cloud service to different physical locations while the operation, governance and evolution of these services are the responsibility of the originating public provider." To simplify, it is a cloud computing system that uses geographically dispersed sites to serve data to increase performance. Distributed Cloud, touted as the next generation in cloud computing, is a top-of-mind topic for CIOs and CISOs who are keen to keep their fingers on the pulse. First, let's talk about history.

Public Cloud

Public Cloud is a collection of computing services that third-party providers offer and which can be shared between organizations. It is the best option for small, medium, and large organizations due to its flexibility, scalability, and low-cost subscription model.

It is important that the cloud service provider takes responsibility for the management and maintenance of the system. This is a great advantage, but it also means that the infrastructure is not in the hands of enterprises.

This can be a problem if there are specific compliance requirements. Public Cloud is also not recommended for sensitive operations as it is the least secure.

Private Cloud

Private Cloud is different from Public Cloud in that your organization is not sharing its cloud computing resources with other organizations. The computing resources are delivered over a private, secure network. It is, therefore, more secure and better suited for handling sensitive data.

The Private Cloud also offers more control and customization, which is a way to compensate for the Public Cloud's shortcomings. But this comes with a cost. A Private Cloud solution has a significantly higher total cost of ownership and maintenance than a Public Cloud solution.

In certain instances, however, it has been suggested that the Public Cloud can be just as secure with the right security measures like intrusion detection systems and prevention systems.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid Cloud, as its name implies, is a hybrid of the Public and Private Clouds. Enterprises that store sensitive data in the Private Cloud but use the resources of the managed Public Cloud to run workloads or data that isn't sensitive are the most common users of Hybrid Cloud. This results in cost savings and increases productivity.

Hybrid cloud strategies allow businesses greater flexibility, allowing them to move workloads between different cloud solutions when costs and needs change. Hybrid Cloud allows organizations to use multiple service providers.

An organization might use AWS to host its apps and Azure to store data. These benefits come with additional infrastructure complexity, security risks, and greater management of cloud infrastructure across different categories and locations.

Edge Computing

Traditional computing infrastructure built around a centralized data center is not well-suited to the large amounts of data collected by sensors and Internet of Things devices operating in real-time from remote locations. Edge Computing refers to the deployment of computing resources and storage resources at the point where data is generated.

An Edge Computing solution, for example, moves some storage and computing resources closer to the source of data than central data centers. Instead of sending raw data to a central center for processing and analysis, this work is done at the edge of the network.

Edge computing is relevant today because it provides a solution to network problems that arise from the massive amounts of data that organizations create and consume. It's more than a matter of quantity. It's also about time. Applications rely on fast processing and timely responses. While Bandwidth, Latency, and Congestion remain major problems in Africa's context, Edge Computing is a significant step towards making them disappear.

Edge computing is increasingly being regarded as vital for applications that process large volumes of data at high speeds and in real-time, where low latency is crucial.

What is Distributed Cloud?

The distributed cloud is a type of public cloud computing service. It allows you to run your public cloud infrastructure at multiple locations (including on-premises and in other cloud provider's data centers) while controlling everything from one control plane. Cloud services offered by public cloud providers are 'distributed' to different physical locations. This helps companies overcome the difficulties of complying with industry-specific or country-specific data privacy regulations. The COVID-19 pandemic has made distributed cloud a key component in providing compute services for employees who are deployed to different locations.

While the cloud provider maintains control over all operations, updates, and security, the cloud user has access to the centralized cloud services powered through the compute stack as close to them as possible. Distributed Cloud is a distributed cloud that distributes the entire compute stack of a public cloud provider to customers who might require it. Distributed Cloud can be confused with Edge Computing. Distributed Cloud allows you to centrally manage multiple edge servers and makes it easier for you to do so consistently. Distributed Cloud is not available. This means that the tools and tasks needed to make security updates, manage Kubernetes clusters, or monitor performance can differ. This adds effort and costs.

Distributed Cloud has obvious advantages, such as high performance and scalability, greater compliance, etc. But how does it handle risk?

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Complex networks such as Distributed Cloud can increase security risks. There are more authorization controls and integration challenges. And there are many more dependencies. This demands the ability to communicate safety and expertise across the organization. To protect their clients' data and operations, companies must have the best security policies.

Enterprises should review their security posture in order to ensure security in Distributed Cloud environments. DataGroupIT is your best choice for all things Cloud security. We believe in the principles of Zero Trust, which promotes a low privilege governance strategy that allows users to only have access to what they need to do their jobs. It also requires organizations to make sure that web-facing applications are secure. DataGroupIT can help secure the future of distributed cloud and cloud technology.