Today, enterprises need greater business agility and faster time-to-market for applications. That's why, in many instances, they are building their own private clouds or adopting on-demand private cloud. Companies that are most suited to building their own private clouds are those that have deep engineering and IT leadership and need strong security and governance around applications and services.

Depending on the needs of the business and core competencies, other types of companies can benefit from a managed private cloud. For these companies, it's not core to the business to be great at infrastructure, but it is crucial to be able to focus on the services offered on top of the infrastructure. These types of organizations may not have strict regulatory or data sovereignty requirements. Typically, they gain the most advantage from using managed private clouds.

The biggest benefit of an on-demand private cloud is that businesses don't have to build, operate, and manage the infrastructure themselves.  This frees them from dealing with the complexity and rapid change that happens in the cloud. Further, using a managed private cloud allows the IT team to focus on more strategic projects. There's no need to incur big capital expenses up-front. Instead, costs shift to an operational expense model, with customers paying as they go depending on their resource usage.

If an on-demand private cloud sounds right for your business, there are several important questions to ask a potential service provider. First, what are the security and IT policies, rules, and regulations? What type of reporting and visibility are available to gauge security, compliance, and governance?

Ask about specific infrastructure components, processes for making changes over time, and programs for training staff. Be sure there is an easy way to monitor and measure performance and track adherence to service-level-agreement guarantees. Because time-to-market is so critical, and it is typically the primary reason for choosing on-demand private cloud, find out which services are available out of the box, without integration or development work. Asking the right questions up front can help enterprises avoid unwelcome surprises.

Cisco has taken a compelling path when it comes to cloud services. We have been working with cloud providers and enterprises for years. We offer world-class cloud applications and services directly and through partners for public, as-a-Service options. Or, we can manage your cloud infrastructure for you, while you retain full visibility and control through our Cisco On-Demand Private Cloud Services. Cisco's cloud solution portfolio and partner ecosystem offer you the choice to build clouds or consume them from a trusted cloud provider.

It's exciting to be part of all the changes happening, driven by the advent of different types of clouds.  We're seeing our customers gain greater business agility, free up resources, and reduce capital expenditures. Powering business today is a whole new endeavor with a wider array of smart options, including managed private cloud.

To learn more about Cisco's managed private cloud offerings, view the full video here.