Cloud Hosting

Cloud web hosting is no more considered a futuristic technology, as it is now becoming a very serious alternative to conventional servers and turning out to be a cost-effective storage solution, which is not just flexible, and reliable, but also scalable at the same time!

While there are issues like privacy concerns with the technology, there are a large number of benefits of cloud website hosting that are converting the critics into enthusiasts at a fast rate.

Here we mention some of the most important benefits of cloud hosting -

Cloud hosting is capable of handling immense server load effortlessly...

This is achieved with the help of additional updates, adding hardware, and the use of technologies related to loading balancing. There is no worry about the website going down due to a particular server crash, which was hosting your website, as there always are other servers picking the slack at the right time. It means that a website hosted on cloud infrastructure has very rare chances of crashing out.

Cloud hosting makes use of centralized management of network services and servers, which makes things very easy to manage and ensures impeccable operation without compromising on the quality.

Cloud hosting services are billed just like an electric meter, which means you pay for what you use and nothing is spent towards any sort of monthly rentals; this is probably the biggest advantage of cloud hosting. With the help of this technology, the websites that see variable traffic no longer need to cough out cash on dedicated resources like high bandwidth and server space.

In this system, you get billed for the amount of traffic you receive, and the number of resources you use rather than a very high predefined limit.

As there's a vast network of servers, the user can have almost infinite hosting solutions whenever the need arises... In other words, you can create servers with as much capacity as you want; these can also be accessed through online control panels, for example, API services.

Deploying cloud hosting solutions is like a cakewalk, and it can be done at a fraction of the cost that you'd shell out on an identical on-premise hosting solution. You don't need anything like hardware, implementation, or software licensing. To top it all, you do this in a record time that can not be beaten by any other kind of hosting solution.

The use of virtual pooling of available resources makes the entire system very efficient and the performance of individual resources like software, servers, and networks also adds up to the performance.

By outsourcing the server and storage needs to a third party, which offers cloud hosting, a company can free up the internal resources and reduce their burden. This way, it can make use of the resources in a more efficient manner for its core operations without worrying about storage and servers.

Just as in the case of other conventional forms of hosting, cloud website hosting providers also offer 24x7 customer support, which is extremely important in this type of service.

Well, it is an old thing to say that cloud computing has numerous advantages right from being inexpensive, scalable, elastic to be quick. But, one of the least discussed advantages, despite being a very important one, is how it has changed the disaster recovery process for big and medium-sized enterprises.

Disaster recovery is now obviously more inexpensive, and it helps in lowering the pressure on enterprises to bring in the right disaster recovery plans for their entire infrastructure. This is yet again a strong reason for you to offer cloud hosting solutions to your clients if as a web hosting provider you want to cater to big enterprises or companies that deal with risky and confidential data. With cloud computing on your side, you can now offer much faster recovery to your clients at a much smaller cost compared to what you would have to spend on the regular disaster recovery process.

So, what is it that makes clouds different in terms of disaster recovery? We know that cloud is based on the concept of virtualization and its route to disaster recovery is very different. In a virtual environment, all of the servers along with applications, operating systems, data, and patches are encapsulated in just one virtual server or one software bundle. This virtual server can be easily backed up to an offsite data center and can be spun upright on one of the virtual hosts in just a few minutes.

As this virtual server is independent of any hardware, the applications, operating system, data, and patches can be accurately and very safely transferred to any data center from any data center without the need of reloading every server component. This drastically cuts down the disaster recovery time when compared to the conventional methods in which the servers are required to be loaded again with applications and operating systems and it should be properly patched to the last used configuration that is in production before all the data is restored.

When you introduce the concept of online connectivity between two different data centers plus the cost-effectiveness of this form of disaster recovery to your clients, it would only astonish them for good. You should know that in such an environment there is no room for tape backups as they can't be justified in terms of recovery speed and cost-effectiveness.

With cloud computing, disaster recovery also becomes very easy and viable, since all the backups can be taken within no time. As there is SAN-to-SAN replication involved in between the sites, disaster recovery for hot sites with a short recovery duration also becomes a cost-effective and attractive option. This was something rarely available with conventional disaster recovery methods because of the testing and cost challenges.

Yet another big advantage of cloud disaster recovery is its ability to deliver multi-site availability. SAN replication provides a very rapid fail-over along with offering the ability to come back to the production site after a disaster event or disaster recovery test is done.

So, isn't it quite evident how disaster recovery with cloud computing can be very advantageous to enterprises! And, if you haven't tried out its benefits, it's about time you started testing waters and made a switch to cloud-based systems.

So, what does all of this mean to a cloud hosting provider? Well, it simply means that the benefits of cloud website hosting aren't unknown to your potential customers anymore, and you won't have to convince your customers to opt for cloud hosting. Therefore, this is just the right time to enter the cloud market if you've any plans of doing so over the next few months, or even perhaps a year or two!

Diane H. Wong, writer, DoMyWriting

Originally posted here:
Benefits of cloud website hosting - ITProPortal