The division of cloud types includes public, private, and hybrid versions.
The public cloud is made up of companies that provide internet-based services for multiple customers. For consumers, you have heard of or possibly used Dropbox, iCloud, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, and more. Often these products are also offered as a solution for businesses in an expanded feature version. For dedicated business use services include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and so forth. The public cloud is provided by a pay-per-use model billing model. A company would only pay for its current needs. Billing for the services is based on resources that can be scaled to fit demand.
The private cloud has only one user company or group of related companies that access it. For companies in industries where privacy is important either due to regulations as well as the sensitivity of data. Companies that would use the private cloud would include banks, and other financial institutions, as well as medical, and related companies that must ensure confidentiality. The resources in a private cloud belong to the company using it.
A hybrid cloud is a combination of private and public clouds. Companies use this method to keep much of their needs on their own equipment, and then when workloads increase, move the excess to a third-party public cloud. A hybrid cloud can be used to reduce costs, as increased workloads are only shifted to third-party clouds without purchasing new equipment to handle the increase. Growing companies can use the cloud to scale up as expansion occurs, and scale back if demand decreases. An example of a company that is a good candidate for cloud is one with seasonal requirements that has workload needs that peak and decline.