We're taking a look at our clients' journey to a hybrid-cloud architecture, exploring the benefits private cloud boasts over public, and how this helps an organisation's digital transformation.
In a previous post, we explored the drivers behind an organisation moving from an on-premise strategy to the use of private clouds.
We demonstrated that – based on where data originated and is held, and how it is used - businesses can situate their decision-making on a simple spectrum, ranging from an on-premise option at one end, to public cloud on the other.
We showed that there are many drivers to move from on-premise into the world of private cloud. However, this ‘shift-right’ is not the only pattern of migration that companies are facing.
There is also a ‘shift-left’. This can be characterised as a move from public cloud to private cloud.
Public cloud is defined as a third-party provider offering data storage, transit and processing, using the public internet, to more than one organisation.
A private cloud sees the storage, processing and transit of data provided by a third party, to a business, as a single organisation, typically on a privately held infrastructure.
The cases for shifting left
In terms of what is driving this change, sovereignty is again a big issue. Public cloud providers typically have hyperscale, centralised data centres – meaning data is quickly taken outside of its original borders.
As regulators have confronted businesses with the question ‘where is your data?’ – as well as ‘where has your data travelled to?’ they have forced the move towards private clouds. They have enforced the best practice of minimising the transit and exposure of sensitive, private data.
However, it is not JUST regulation that has caused this drive to repatriate data. There has been a steadily growing commercial case as well.
As businesses have pushed everything to public cloud and the technological estate has grown, they have been hit with much larger than expected bills, and an array of hidden costs such as surplus provision and egress fees.
As far back as 2021, Gartner cautioned that companies are overpaying by up to 70% for their cloud infrastructure.
In addition to excessive cost, the service provided by large public cloud providers has often fallen short of the needs of UK businesses. In-person account managers have been replaced by layers of chatbots, and transparency around services has become opaque. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into hyperscale providers, found that they engage in practices that harm competition[1].
Lastly, in terms of security, public cloud infractions last longer than those hitting a private cloud. IBM-sponsored research has shown that organisations relying on a public cloud model took an average of 310 days to identify and contain breaches[2].
Against this backdrop, the move to a regional, sovereign private cloud provider, with fixed, predictable costs and open visibility of services rendered and local personnel, has become very attractive for businesses. Technavio has forecast that the global private cloud services market will grow at a CAGR of over 19.6% from 2025 to 2029[3].
Pulsant's Private Cloud (PPC) is a sovereign cloud platform enabling businesses to seize upon these opportunities when ‘shifting left’. Based on our owned and operated data centres and UK-wide 400Gb network, with access to a private ecosystem of partners, PPC helps businesses ensure compliance with emerging regulations, and remain secure, yet competitive as they move from public cloud options.
As an example, LinkPool, a smart contract infrastructure provider, realised cost savings of 85% moving from AWS to Pulsant, primarily due to predictable pricing. Improvements of this scale will mean that businesses will keep shifting left, exploring the move from public to private cloud.
[1] See Cloud services market investigation: provisional findings - GOV.UK
[2] As reported at 65+ Cloud Computing Statistics Updated for January 2025
[3] See Private Cloud Services Market , 51% of Growth to Originate from North America, Technavio