Benefits of Moving to Cloud Hosting


The cloud was originally intended as a more accessible and convenient means of storing data, but it has grown into something more. Cloud computing technology is important to solve numerous issues facing businesses today. It enabled fast information exchange, gave rise to social networks, streaming services, etc. With external content storage, users are no longer tied to store everything locally. This extended into cloud gaming, cloud rendering of 3D animation, and cloud audio/video editing. And there's probably a lot more to come. 

Businesses seem to be more and more willing to transfer their workloads to the cloud. However, the increasing popularity of this technology means that users do not always distinguish between clouds and similar solutions, such as VPS hosting. In this article, we explain what is cloud hosting and its benefits for business. 

What is cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting involves utilizing a set of interconnected servers. This means that the site is connected to the cluster, which uses the resources of a centralized pool, rather than to a single server. Therefore, even if one of the servers fails, the other will replace it immediately and everything runs steadily. Hardware resources are available virtually, and customers can use them when necessary.

Cloud hosting is suitable for a variety of sites but is the most profitable for extremely popular ones, like e-commerce and lead generation platforms, large sites with highly variable traffic. Easy scalability makes cloud hosting perfect for online media, typically bringing more traffic after a certain event.

Benefits of cloud hosting

Constant availability. The site is accessible 24/7. Hosting uses the resources of two or more servers at once.

High flexibility. The customer can choose exactly the configuration of resources, which would meet the needs of sites.

High reliability. Thanks to a network of servers, the site will work with maximum stability. One or more servers can provide computing resources. In addition, there is a regular backup. Other servers, if necessary, can restore backups. This scheme eliminates website downtime and inaccessibility.

Save by paying for what you use. Website owners pay only for the resources they need. If running out of them, it is possible to simply improve the configuration. Therefore, there is no need to buy redundant IT assets.

Cloud hosting vs VPS

Management. With VDS infrastructure customers get complete administrative rights and manage their resources just like with physical servers.

In the clouds, the customer’s rights are limited. The technical specialists of the provider carry out all settings.

Scalability. Any business can grow over time and face the need for more computational resources. On the other hand, consumption might need to be reduced. When using VDS, the amount of resources can be changed simply by switching to a new tariff plan. But the tariff capacity is often slightly higher than required, which means that resources will be idle.   

With Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), scaling is much easier and faster. You can increase capacity independently at any time, without reservation, and choose any configuration to meet your challenges. In addition, the client only pays for the resources that are actually used.

Reliability. When a trusted provider supplies the VPS services, the system is quite reliable and ensures high uptime. However, in case of technical issues, the entire server crashes and it can take a long time to restore operation. Cloud services are more reliable. If the server fails, users will not even notice it, because the traffic is automatically redirected to another working resource. Virtual servers in the cloud are completely isolated and do not affect others. Therefore, the infrastructure is very stable and fault-tolerant.

Security. Information security is a major focus of attention in both cases. First of all, on the data center level. With VPS, the client's data is stored on one server, the root access allows for full-scale configuration of security features. On the other hand, in case of an attack on one VPS, the neighbors on the server will be affected as well.

The cloud distributes resources across different physical servers, which means that parts of the data may be stored in different locations. This complicates the process of data protection, but users are completely isolated. There is also an additional layer of protection for the cloud infrastructure itself.

Cost. There is no principal difference in the cost of the services, it is more a matter of payment models. When using VPS services, you pay a specific amount according to the selected tariff. If you consume less in the end, the cost still does not change. 

In the cloud, you only pay for the actual resources you consume. Some providers even offer an hourly billing model.

Conclusion 

As you probably see, there is a difference between cloud hosting and VPS, although the technologies have similar features. Cloud hosting offers the following options:

  • All applications and solutions run on the cloud network rather than on local servers.
  • Resources can be scaled depending on the amount necessary for the user.
  • Support for SQL (including MySQL) and NoSQL databases is available.
  • All solutions are automated and are managed through APIs, mobile applications, and web portals.

Cloud hosting is a perfect solution for businesses. You can use it to send or store emails, use web applications, organize sites. Cloud servers help ensure that your site runs smoothly and is always available.


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author: Martin Evans
published: 09/10/2021
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