Private cloud
Cloud flexibility inside an environment reserved for you. Private cloud suits organisations that want self-service provisioning and elasticity, but need the isolation and control that public platforms cannot evidence.
Choose how much we run for you
Cloud hosting and managed hosting are different products, so we make the split explicit. Buy the infrastructure on its own, add operating-system care, or hand us the whole stack.
Infrastructure only. You own the guest operating system.
- Hypervisor, hardware and London data centre
- Network, IP addressing and inbound DDoS protection
- Virtual machine provisioning and console access
- Platform availability SLA
Operating-system care added to a self-managed server.
- OS monitoring with UK engineers on the alerts
- Security patching in scheduled windows
- Hardening baseline and vulnerability remediation guidance
- Backup monitoring alongside a backup plan
We operate the server end to end under one SLA.
- Everything in self-managed plus managed OS
- 24/7 UK monitoring and response
- Managed nightly backups with tested restore
- Routine maintenance windows and a named UK engineer
Supported operating systems: Ubuntu LTS (current releases); Oracle Linux (supported versions); SUSE Linux Enterprise Server; Windows Server 2019 and 2022 with valid licensing. End-of-life releases such as CentOS 7 and Windows Server 2016 are handled as a migration project rather than a support contract.
Hosting service levels
Availability is measured monthly, excludes planned maintenance and is backed by service credits. Full detail sits in our published service level agreement.
| Service | Target |
|---|---|
| Hosting platform (compute, storage, hypervisor) Availability of the virtualisation platform in our London data centre | 99.95% |
| Data centre power and cooling A and B feed power to the rack, with UPS and generator backup | 100% |
| Network and IP connectivity Reachability at the platform edge across diverse carriers | 99.99% |
| Managed backup service Availability of the backup platform, with nightly job success reporting | 99.9% |
| Priority | Response | Fix target |
|---|---|---|
| P1 Critical Server or platform down, data loss risk, site unreachable | 15 minutes, 24/7 | 4 clock hours |
| P2 Major Severe degradation, failed backup job, resilience lost | 1 hour, 24/7 | 8 clock hours |
| P3 Minor Single non-critical fault or a performance question | 4 business hours | 2 business days |
| P4 Request Resource change, new virtual machine, scheduled maintenance | 1 business day | Agreed in the change window |
Service credits
- Below target but at or above 99.0%5% of the monthly charge
- Below 99.0% but at or above 98.0%10% of the monthly charge
- Below 98.0%20% of the monthly charge
Supported operating systems
- Ubuntu LTS (current releases)
- Oracle Linux (supported versions)
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
- Windows Server 2019 and 2022 with valid licensing
Not supported under a management contract
- CentOS Linux 7 and earlier (end of life) - migration project only
- Windows Server 2016 and earlier
- Community-only distributions with no vendor support stream
About private cloud
A private cloud is a pool of compute, storage and networking dedicated to one organisation. You still create, resize and retire virtual machines on demand, but the underlying capacity is not shared with anyone else, so performance and security boundaries are yours to define.
The usual driver is assurance. Contracts with public sector bodies, financial clients or large enterprises increasingly ask exactly where data sits, who can reach it and how separation is enforced. A private cloud lets you answer with specifics instead of a provider's marketing page.
Capacity is planned rather than infinite, which is a feature when budgets need to be predictable. We size the environment with growth headroom, report on utilisation and expand it on an agreed cycle so there are no surprise bills.
Security controls are built into the design: segmentation between environments, controlled administrative access, logging into your monitoring, and immutable backup with tested restore. Where you run Cyber Essentials or ISO 27001, the environment is designed to fit those controls rather than fight them.
Private cloud does not have to be all or nothing. Most customers run a hybrid: sensitive or licence-bound workloads in private cloud, everything else in public cloud or Microsoft 365, managed together.
What's included
The capabilities included as standard with this service.
Dedicated compute pool
Hosts reserved for your organisation only.
Network segmentation
Separate environments for production, test and management.
Controlled admin access
Least-privilege administration with logged, reviewed access.
Replication options
Between UK sites for disaster recovery.
Immutable backup
Ransomware-resistant backup with scheduled restore testing.
Hybrid integration
Runs alongside public cloud and Microsoft 365 as one estate.
Where this fits
Common scenarios where this service delivers measurable value.
Regulated sectors
Finance, legal, healthcare and public sector supply chains.
Client assurance
Contracts requiring documented isolation and UK residency.
Sensitive data
Workloads that cannot sit on shared public infrastructure.
Consolidation
Replacing multiple ageing on-premise server rooms.
Common questions
Explore related services
Talk to us about private cloud
A short call, no obligation.