Private cloud and virtualisation on VMware, Hyper-V and Proxmox
A private cloud is virtualised computing, storage and networking dedicated to one organisation, on its premises or in a colocation facility. Arke Technologies (Pty) Ltd, in Johannesburg, designs, builds and manages private and hybrid clouds on VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and Proxmox for mid-sized and large organisations, public bodies and schools across South Africa.
What is private cloud? Virtualisation in cloud computing, explained
To define private cloud simply: computing, storage and network capacity pooled for one organisation and handed out on demand, with the self-service and automation of public cloud but on hardware nobody else shares. In cloud computing terms, private cloud is a deployment model, not a product. It can run on your premises, in a colocation facility or on dedicated hardware hosted for you.
Virtualisation makes it work. A hypervisor, such as VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V or Proxmox VE, divides each physical server into virtual machines, each with its own operating system. Clustered, the hosts share storage and move running workloads between them, and a virtualised network (VMware NSX, Hyper-V virtual switches or Linux bridges) moves switching, routing and firewall rules into software, where they can be changed and audited like any other configuration. Private cloud storage sits on a shared array, on a hyperconverged layer such as vSAN or Storage Spaces Direct, or on Ceph.
A private cloud example: a municipality could run its billing, GIS and file servers as virtual machines on three hosts in its own server room, with replicas in a second building. A private cloud computing example in education: a university could offer its departments a catalogue of approved virtual machines, each charged back to a cost centre. What private cloud services add to a room of servers is the management layer: templates, quotas, monitoring, patching and capacity reporting.
Virtual private cloud: why an AWS VPC is not a private cloud
A virtual private cloud is a logically isolated network inside a public cloud. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) is the best known: each AWS VPC is your own address space, subnets, route tables and security rules on AWS's shared infrastructure. Azure calls the same thing a virtual network; Google Cloud also calls it a VPC.
So a private VPC in Amazon is private networking on public cloud, not an Amazon private cloud. A private cloud on AWS, in the strict sense, means dedicated hosts, VMware Cloud on AWS, or AWS Outposts hardware on your premises.
AWS VPC cost is often misread. The VPC itself carries no charge; NAT gateways, every public IPv4 address, VPN connections, interface endpoints and data transfer do (AWS VPC pricing, September 2026). We design VPCs within our AWS services and virtual networks within our Microsoft Azure services.
What a private cloud costs, and what drives the price
Last reviewed: September 2026.
Hardware: hosts, storage and switches, and their refresh cycle.- Hypervisor licensing: VMware per-core subscriptions, Windows Server Datacenter per core, or an optional Proxmox support subscription.
- Guest licences: Windows Server, SQL Server and backup software; see Windows Server upgrades.
- Power and cooling: a 600 W server costs about R1,226 a month in electricity at R2.80/kWh (Server Hub, September 2026), before cooling and UPS.
- Hosting: colocation fees, if the cluster lives in a facility.
- Management: monitoring, patching and support under your SLA.
We quote the design and build as a project and the running of it under your SLA, both after an assessment. Where a steady workload would cost less in public cloud, or the reverse, the assessment says so, and cloud cost optimisation keeps both sides in check.
Risks, and how we prevent them
- Ransomware aimed at the hypervisor. Attackers target ESXi and Hyper-V hosts directly. We isolate management interfaces, require multi-factor sign-in and keep backups an attacker cannot delete; see ransomware protection.
- A single point of failure. Spare host capacity, redundant storage paths and dual power feeds.
- Licence surprises. Renewal and true-up dates sit in the asset register and are reviewed before they fall due.
- Full datastores. Snapshots carry an expiry, and capacity is reported monthly.
- Load-shedding at your site. UPS capacity sized for a clean, ordered shutdown, or to bridge to a generator.
- Knowledge in one head. Runbooks, diagrams and credentials held in a vault you own, and tested recovery through backup and disaster recovery.
Governance, compliance and procurement
- One SLA: incidents prioritised P1 (critical outage) to P4 (low-impact request), with response and resolution targets agreed to your business impact; a monthly service review and report; logged, approved changes; ITIL-aligned practice.
- POPIA: section 19 security safeguards, with data kept on your hardware in South Africa and access logged.
- King IV, PFMA and MFMA: records of architecture, changes and access kept ready for audit and for the board's technology governance under King IV Principle 12.
- Procurement: Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (sworn affidavit available on request); CSD number, SARS tax compliance status and company documents available on request; SBD forms completed where a bid requires them. Buy through our proposal and SLA against your purchase order, a quotation or a tender response; see procuring from Arke.
Continuity: scale, handover and exit
You own the hardware, the licences, the administrator credentials and the documentation: architecture diagrams, runbooks and an asset register. Adding a host or a site is a change to the SLA, not a new supplier. If you leave, exit terms written into the SLA from the first day hand everything over in working order.
