Community Cloud: Definition, Advantages and Disadvantages

Fri Apr 11 2025

You must have heard about the term ‘clouds’ since childhood. But are you aware of the term ‘community cloud’? No? Don’t you worry about it? We are going to discuss a lot of interesting things about the topic “Community Cloud: Definition, Advantages And Disadvantages” here on the CollegeHai platform.

Table of Content

The term is not related to the sky. It is related to Information Technology (IT). But before going deeper into the topic, let us tell you about the things that we will discuss. Let’s have a quick look:

Meaning of community cloud
Some examples
Cloud computing models
Its Advantages
Its Disadvantages

🤔What Is A Community Cloud?

When you go into the job market of cloud computing, the interviewer may ask you to “define community cloud”. Then how would you answer this question? Don’t know? No need to think. You can simply answer it as:

It is a cooperative endeavor in which infrastructure is shared across multiple organizations within a certain community with shared concerns, i.e., security, compliance, jurisdiction, etc.

In Layman’s terms, it is a space where a group of organizations share soft things like data, services, norms, and regulations. But the important thing to note is that all the organizations that are members of the community cloud belong to the same industry.

Furthermore, it maintains a balance by addressing shared objectives, in contrast to private clouds, which are usually only available to one business, or public clouds, which serve a wide audience. Such clouds are frequently run and maintained by a third-party vendor or by the member organizations themselves. They offer safe and affordable solutions designed for different sectors.

⚙️Setting Up A Community Cloud

We have already defined a community cloud. Here are some pointers that a group of organizations or a third party should keep in mind when setting up this type of cloud.

Establishing a transparent governance framework for operations management.
Establishing guidelines for allocating resources to member organizations.
Ensuring adherence to rules particular to the industry.
Putting in place a structure for shared maintenance duties.

🏢Community Cloud Examples

Still you are not clear about the meaning of community cloud? Let’s understand it with some Community Cloud examples divided sector-wise as:

Sector	Description
Healthcare sector	To share patients’ data securely while maintaining Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance, healthcare organizations use these clouds.
Education sector	During covid-19, colleges and universities switched to such cloud platforms for facilitating online learning. Resource sharing and administrative simplification provided by these platforms made lower expenses and improve collaboration.
Finance sector	Financial institutions use this type of cloud to work together on projects and share information to ensure compliance with laws.
Government sector	Government organizations can work together on projects and exchange sensitive data by using a community cloud. For example: the U.S. Department of Defense uses these clouds to handle sensitive activities. Big companies, such as IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft create systems especially for government use.
Research institutions sector	Research institutions can also use such clouds for sharing data.
Businesses/organizations sector	Organizations working in the same sector can increase productivity and streamline procedures using these clouds by sharing data and working together on projects.
IT sector	The IT sector can use these clouds to share program codes. For example: Companies working on Android application development can share codes on such cloud.

🌈Types Of Community Clouds

A Community Cloud in cloud computing is a new term in the IT field. There are public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds. These clouds are safer than public clouds. Private clouds are good for big businesses, whereas public clouds work well for startups. In contrast, for expanding businesses in the legal, financial, educational, and health sectors, using such clouds is an excellent option. Here, we are going to explain to you the different types of community clouds, including:

Ownership-Based

Management-Based:

Shared Resources-Based

On-Premise Cloud:

The participating organizations own and run the infrastructure on their grounds.

Internally Managed Cloud:

The cloud infrastructure is jointly administered by the collaborating organizations

Vertical Cloud:

Businesses in the same sector or industry exchange apps and infrastructure made to satisfy sector-specific needs.

Third-Party Cloud:

The infrastructure is owned and run by a third-party cloud provider, which provides services to the community.

Cloud Controlled By A Provider: On behalf of the organizations, a cloud service provider oversees such cloud.

Horizontal Cloud:

Businesses from various sectors use the same features or services.

⚖️Community Cloud Advantages And Disadvantages

It is said that every coin has two sides, and so do these clouds. On the one hand, it has a lot of advantages; on the other hand, it has disadvantages. And one has to choose something along with its negatives. Let us tell you that one has to ignore negative points if we want to see the good in something. But we must be aware of both the positives and negatives.

Advantages of such clouds include fast setup, cost-effectiveness, enhanced collaboration/cooperation, high availability, security, control and transparency, and increased productivity. Disadvantages of these clouds include restricted access, complexity, increased reliance, data breaches, limited customization, dependency on internet connectivity, and increased conflicts.

– Let’s have a look at the community cloud advantages and disadvantages in detail.

Advantages

Disadvantages

A group of organizations works in the same space. Not every member company has to set up a separate cloud. So, it saves time.
These are more cost-effective than private clouds. A group of organizations share its resources, data, and laws/regulations on the same platform. This relieves them from bearing the expenses of setting up a personal/private cloud.
Community boosts collaboration among organizations as they share cloud infrastructure and resources more effectively.
These clouds work on the shared principle. So, it has a high availability of infrastructure, resources, and services.
These clouds provide services to specific groups of organizations rather than the general public. Accessibility to data and systems is tightly regulated, which improves security.
These clouds are better than public clouds in terms of control and transparency. Private clouds are costly, and public clouds do not have privacy. Hence, most organizations prefer such clouds because services are shared with a closed group of organizations.
In such clouds, a group of organizations share resources, data, infrastructure, and services. It increases the productivity of a particular organization.

One of the main disadvantages of adopting this kind of cloud is that users or members who are not part of the group or community cannot access it.
It is challenging to manage such clouds since each organization is responsible for defining governance rules, regulations, and procedures and ensuring security, compliance, and performance.
Each group organization bears responsibility for the seamless operation and maintenance of the cloud infrastructure.
The risk of data breaches or unauthorized access is higher in a community cloud environment due to the shared nature of resources and potential vulnerabilities.
Organizations may have less control over the infrastructure and configuration of a community cloud compared to a private cloud, limiting their ability to customize the environment to their specific needs.
Such clouds rely heavily on internet connectivity, so any disruptions or outages can impact access to data and applications.
Due to the sharing of resources and decision-making power, some internal conflicts or disagreements may arise between the organization within a community.

✅Conclusion

In the end, we can conclude that the Community cloud is the space where a group of organization/businesses (working for the same goals) can share infrastructure, resources, and data. It has many advantages but we cannot ignore its disadvantages. We will suggest that you should choose the community cloud in cloud computing based on the company’s requirements as per the budgets, privacy, and security.

❓Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)

1. What is the main problem with using the cloud?

Such clouds require an internet connection, so disruptions or outages can impact access to data and applications. Another problem may be related to security and privacy issues.

2. What are some real-world examples of industries or sectors that benefit from Community Cloud deployments?

Hospitals, the government, the education sector, information technology, and businesses are using these kinds of clouds and getting benefits from them. To know more in details, you can search for “Community Cloud Examples by CollegeHai”.

3. Is a Community Cloud suitable for my organization, and how can I determine if it’s the right choice?

Yes, it is the best choice for your organization if you want to use maximum resources and infrastructure within a closed community of organizations. Additionally, if you want to save your money and time, you can pick the option of using such a cloud rather than a private cloud.

4. How is data security and privacy maintained in a Community Cloud environment?

Strong security measures are used to maintain data security and privacy in such clouds, such as encryption, high control, data isolation, ongoing monitoring, etc.

5. What are the advantages of using a Community Cloud for businesses and organizations?

There are several advantages of using these clouds for businesses and organizations, such as fast setup, cost-effectiveness, enhanced collaboration/cooperation, high availability, security, control and transparency, and increased productivity.

6. What is a Community Cloud, and how does it differ from other types of cloud computing models?

Community cloud refers to the cloud infrastructure where more than two organizations share resources and services according to common operational and regulatory requirements. In the public cloud, security issues occur, and private clouds are costly. So a new cloud came into existence where a group of organizations collaborate for common interests, and share services.

7. What are the types of community clouds?

There are six types of clouds, i.e., On-Premise Cloud, Third-Party Cloud, Internally Managed Cloud, Cloud Controlled By A Provider, Vertical Cloud, Horizontal Cloud.

Like what you see? Share with a friend.