Cloud and Infrastructure
Private Cloud and VMware
A private cloud is a full set of servers, storage and networking dedicated to your organization alone, on your site or in a provider's data center. It gives you the flexibility of cloud without sharing the underlying hardware with anyone else.
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Buyer's checklist
Eight questions that decide this purchase
Think these through before you buy. Answer what you can and your quote comes back faster. Skip what you cannot, and we will work through it with you.
- 01
Where do your VMware workloads run today: on your own servers, in colocation, with a hosting provider or in a public cloud?
- 02
How large is the environment, counted in virtual machines, processor cores, memory and storage?
- 03
Which VMware products do you actually use, and what kind of licenses do you hold?
- 04
When do your licenses, your support and your hosting or colocation contracts each expire?
- 05
Does your current provider still hold standing in VMware's new partner program?
- 06
What is your direction: stay on VMware, stay for now and plan an exit, or leave now? If you leave, to which platform?
- 07
When is your server hardware due for replacement?
- 08
In which countries or regions must the infrastructure sit, and do you rely on the same provider for disaster recovery?
No company matches every box you checked
That usually means the combination is rare, not impossible. Clear a filter, or add the service and we will go find who can do it.
Capabilities come from published supplier material. We confirm them for your addresses before anything is quoted.
More on what it is
Three terms sort the field. In a public cloud, many customers share the provider's hardware. In a private cloud, the hardware is yours alone. A virtual private cloud sits between the two: your workloads run on a shared platform the provider owns, are walled off from other customers in software, and are billed by what you use.
VMware is in this page's name for a reason. For years most private clouds were built on VMware's software, which carves physical servers into virtual ones. VMware has since been bought by Broadcom, and its licensing and partner programs changed. Many organizations now face a renewal with new terms, and the providers they buy through may or may not still hold standing in the new partner program. That single event is why most buyers arrive here.
You have four broad routes. Stay on VMware with a provider that remains in the program. Move VMware workloads into a public cloud that runs VMware for you. Move to a different platform, such as Nutanix, which combines computing, storage and virtualization in one system, or an open-source alternative with no licensing fee per server. Or extend a public cloud's own hardware into your facility or a colocation site, for work that must sit close to where it happens.
Whichever you choose, ask how much the provider runs. Service menus range from bare hosted hardware, where you manage everything above it, to a fully managed private cloud where the provider also handles the virtualization layer, the patching and the monitoring.
Who needs it
- You run steady, sensitive or heavily regulated workloads, and predictable cost and control matter more to you than the elasticity of a public cloud.
- You are a government agency, a financial institution or a healthcare organization with rules about shared infrastructure.
- You run manufacturing control systems, medical imaging or media production that must sit physically close to the work.
- You want to modernize aging infrastructure without rewriting the applications running on it.
- You run high-performance or AI workloads that need computing power no other customer can draw on.
If your workloads are small, variable and carry no special rules, a public cloud is usually simpler. See Cloud and IaaS.
Signs you need it
- A VMware renewal is approaching and you do not yet know what it will cost under the new terms.
- A hardware refresh is due, and you would prefer a hosted model to buying new equipment.
- You are leaving a data center, or software you depend on is reaching end of life.
- Your own infrastructure has not delivered the uptime the business expects.
- A large share of your servers are older models with few processor cores, which limits how you can consolidate.
How IT Raven helps
Add Private Cloud and VMware to your quote list and tell us the size of your environment and your renewal dates. A person takes that to the private cloud providers in our 500+ partner network and sorts them on what matters now: their standing in the new VMware program, the alternative platforms they run, the regions they cover and how much of the operation they will take on.
The dates drive this project. We line up your license, support, hardware and hosting expirations on one timeline, because the right answer often depends on which of them comes first.
We stay on one thread through the assessment, the migration plan and cutover. Hardware you decide to keep belongs in Colocation, and a recovery site belongs with Backup and Disaster Recovery. We quote those alongside, and the same team is here at the next renewal.
How buying works
The store is the easy part. Staying on the account is the job.
Anyone can show you logos. The reason to buy here is what happens on install night, and on the ticket you open nine months later.
- 01
Build your quote list
Add services and companies as you shop. No form stands between you and the shelf.
- 02
We bring back real options
A person shops the bench against your addresses, then walks you through what fits and what does not.
- 03
We handle the order and install
Paperwork, site survey, install dates, cutover night. You get one thread, not five vendors.
- 04
We stay on your account
Same team for moves, adds, tickets and the next renewal. That is the part everyone else drops.