Once in a while, as you go about the routines of a normal workday, a number jumps out of the stream of consciousness and catches your attention. That’s exactly what happened today while one of our support engineers was working with a client on a new application. When checking system status he suddenly realized the client’s private cloud had been running continuously for almost two years.

While two years uptime in IT isn’t earth shattering, in the realm of cloud computing two years uninterupted service is noteworthy. IMHO that’s particularly true in a week that’s seen a couple private cloud announcements hard on the heels of another recent cloud outage. Private clouds aren’t simply about network addresses, they’re about control. It’s about giving the operations team the ability to affect uptime for their application.

It’s sometimes hard to remember that when we originally introduced the concept of private clouds many folks scoffed. Blog posts declared “If it’s not public, it’s not a cloud!” As this cloud turns two, though, pressure from users has made the need for security and control of operations clear. More vendors are looking to offer private clouds and the resulting competition will produce better services for clients. Next year, as this cloud turns three, I expect we’ll see a much broader set of applications in the cloud as a result.

Just in case you’re wondering if this cloud is an anomally, the second longest continuously running AppLogic private cloud is at 559 days . . . and counting.