Here is an article that appeared in the San Francisco Gate today. It provides a list of considerations for private cloud deployments.
From SF Gate:
Virtualization is understood as one of the key building blocks for private clouds. As a dynamic technology that enables IT organizations to reinvent how they think about management, it has the potential to make some things easier or make all things harder. Silo buying, heterogeneity, politics, poor integrations, and immature management tools can inhibit virtualization’s full value.
For the full list, read on.
(Image used under CC from Globetoppers)
Good points… one point I will quibble on (disclaimer: I’m from Hoff’s school of what constitutes a private cloud) is that you need own a single server to run a private cloud. With private links/IPSec/magic fairy dust a 3rd party could host the underlying resources on which your virtualized environment runs, yet is not exposed to the internet at large.
Addendum: there should have been a point 9.
“Ensure you have some degree of portability when the inevitable day arrives and you change virtualization providers”.