Four ways for NIST to divide cloud computing system deployments

NIST divides cloud computing system deployments into private cloud, community cloud, public cloud and mixed cloud, through concrete analysis found this way is a very sensible approach, so that we can unify the understanding, avoid confusion, otherwise there will be more and more new "XXX Cloud" flooding (such as personal cloud, HPC Cloud, Science and Education Cloud, enterprise cloud, etc.).

Private Cloud

The cloud infrastructure is owned or leased by a single organization and can be located either locally (on premise) or offsite (outside the firewall), which serves only the organization.

Community Cloud (Community Cloud)

or the institution cloud, the cloud infrastructure is shared by some organizations, and for a community or large institution with common concerns (e.g., tasks, security requirements, policies and guidelines, etc.), the community cloud can be owned and rented by the community, or it can be located locally, offsite or multiple. The author believes that the community cloud may be a group of private cloud through the VPN (virtual private receptacle) connected to the VPC (Virtual private Cloud), is a mixed cloud.

Public Cloud

The cloud infrastructure is owned by an operating organization that provides cloud computing services that sell cloud computing services to the general public or to a large group of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Mixed Cloud (Hybrid Cloud)

Cloud infrastructure is made up of two or more clouds (private cloud, community cloud or public cloud), each of which remains a separate entity, but is combined with standard or proprietary technology, with data and application portability (for example, load balancing techniques can be used to handle burst loads (Cloudburst) )。

Through the analysis of the above four kinds of cloud computing system deployment way, we find out why the "community Cloud" is singled out as a basic "cloud", and NIST does not say, perhaps, that it takes into account the sharing of the federal government's ministries and offices, such as DHS and DOD (DoD) Consolidation requires a community cloud, but it seems to be contained in a mixed cloud of two or more private clouds, one of a mixture of clouds. Or it is a VPC or hybrid cloud that corresponds to a VPN network or extranet, while a private cloud corresponds to an intranet, and the public cloud corresponds to the Internet. The understanding of the community cloud has many different views, more confusing, a view that the community cloud users can only access through the intranet (intranet), the other is the opposite view.

In the absence of a community cloud, the relationship between the three clouds and the cloud is not clear, and perhaps NIST should consider removing the cloud from the community in the next release.