When a cloud is accessible to everyone by a public provider via the internet, it is referred to as a public cloud. Due to the large number of suppliers, there is a large portfolio of different offers in this model variant, which can be accessed without great effort. In this form of cloud, services are shared with other users and companies and have only a limited possibility to adapt to their own needs. This results in economies of scale through the use of many other users, which in turn lead to low prices in the applications. It is also possible that in this case the billing of the services can be accurate and that this does not entail any costs for businesses for unused services.

Unlike the public cloud, the private cloud can only be used for a specific group of people. For example, these cloud environments are often created by companies and used only by their own staff. The IT resources are located in the company’s own company and the cloud behind the company’s own firewall and can be used by staff via the intranet. For example, this execution has the typical advantages such as scalable IT structures or the possibility of installation and maintenance of the applications via the web browser. At the same time, however, the company must take over the IT structure and its maintenance itself.

The hybrid cloud is a mixed form of public and private cloud that combines benefits from both forms. In this model, the business processes can be divided into two categories. Data protection critical and non-critical processes. Depending on the division of the process, they can now be assigned to the public or private cloud variant. While this model variant includes all the benefits of public and private cloud, the complexity of the IT infrastructure and the management burden of managing this solution are increasing.