A private cloud is a type of cloud computing that provides scalability and self-service capabilities like a public cloud but within a proprietary infrastructure dedicated to a single organization. It is a single-tenant environment where the organization does not share resources with other users. Private clouds can be hosted internally or by third-party providers and offer increased security, performance, and customization compared to public clouds but at a higher cost and with less scalability. Common types include virtual private clouds, managed private clouds, and on-premise private clouds. Major vendors include Cisco, Google, AWS, IBM, and Microsoft.