The term 'cloud computing' has been bandied about by IT professionals for the past few years as a buzz word, but there are many different options within the cloud, and businesses should understand the differences between these options - primarily public v private cloud - when weighing their options for IT development.

Currently, according to a recent IDC survey, 55 per cent of IT executives indicated they would prefer to use private cloud technologies - also sometimes known as virtualisation - in their operations. Meanwhile, 22 per cent of respondents said they found public and private cloud solutions equally appealing.

"There's clearly a higher comfort level with private versus public," said Frank Gens, chief analyst for IDC at a company-hosted event.

Gens, however, still has faith that public cloud computing has its place within the marketplace, and will continue to innovate and thus be employed by many businesses.

"If you scoff at the idea of a private cloud, you're in peril," he said. "But public clouds will drive a lot of solutions, so don't be too cocky if you're a private-cloud evangelist. Virtually every customer, at least from the midmarket up, will have a mix of both."

According to Rick Vanover, the predominance of the private cloud may be due to its familiar setup to users.

"Ironically, the private cloud seems to look more like a traditional data centre," Vanover wrote for Tech Republic.

IDC, however, predicts that revenues from public cloud computing will grow in coming years, with a prediction that it will generate $55.5 billion (£36.5 billion) in sales by 2014.

Written by Jason Morton

Consumers weighing options of public, private cloud