Cloud deployment models: public vs private vs hybrid vs multicloud
Verdict: Third-party owned, open to any buyer, no capex, public cloud. Single tenant on owned hardware, private cloud. Interconnected private and public, hybrid cloud. Two or more public providers at once, multicloud.
| Criterion | Public cloud | Private cloud | Hybrid cloud | Multicloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Third-party provider | Single organisation owns hardware | Mix of owned and provider | Several public providers |
| Tenancy | Shared, multi-tenant | Dedicated to one entity | Both private and public | Across multiple public clouds |
| Capital outlay | None, consumption-based | Buy and maintain hardware | Partial | None |
| Choose when | Fast start, no hardware to own | No shared hardware, full control | Keep some workloads private, surge to public | Avoid single-vendor dependence |
Rules
- The public cloud is built and maintained by a third-party provider, available to anyone who wants to purchase, with no capital outlay to add capacity.
- A private cloud is used by a single entity on hardware it owns, so its data is not collocated with other tenants.
- A hybrid cloud interconnects a private and a public cloud, letting the private side surge into public resources for a temporary peak.
- Multicloud is deliberately using two or more public cloud providers at the same time.
Traps
- A public cloud is multi-tenant on shared hardware even with logical isolation, so it fails a no-shared-hardware mandate; that needs a private cloud.
- Two public providers with no private component is multicloud, not hybrid; hybrid always pairs private with public.