What is cloud hosting?
Cloud hosting is a type of web hosting that houses applications and data on a number of remote servers connected to create a virtual cloud. The remote servers are managed and maintained by the vendor, with access to your software and applications available via the internet. This results in greater reliability, flexibility and scalability. It’s an alternative to traditional hosting, whereby one or multiple applications are housed on physical on-premise servers located within your business, or on the premises of a 3rd party hosting provider.
In this article, we will explore how cloud hosting works and if it could be a good fit for your needs.
How does cloud hosting work?
Virtualisation is the key to cloud hosting. It’s a technology that divides a single physical server into numerous virtual machines. We call these cloud servers. These connect to form a single network that can host things like websites and software applications. The structure of this cloud configuration is interconnected. As such, it is sometimes known as cluster server hosting.
The underlying infrastructure of cloud hosting differentiates it from more traditional hosting. The classic approach to hosting is more centralised, using a single server to store multiple websites and software in one place.
Key Benefits of Cloud Hosting
- Traffic Load Balancing: When a website or application experiences increased demand, the infrastructure spreads that throughout the cloud servers. This ensures the site continues to perform properly as the visitor numbers increase.
- High Uptime: If a server fails, the other servers can compensate for it to keep the website or software operating. For this reason, cloud hosting has greater reliability than traditional web hosting, which has to rely on a single server being available constantly.
- Security: Cloud hosting is less vulnerable to physical malfunctions and disasters with multiple servers deployed in a virtual environment. It is also more resistant to DDoS attacks due to the load balancing feature.
- Scalability: Cloud hosting means webmasters have the power of multiple servers for things like storage, bandwidth and computing power. Additional resources from the virtual environment can be pulled to remove limitations and support growth.
- Cost Savings: Cloud-hosting eliminates the need for on-premise servers which can be costly to purchase and maintain. Cloud software applications offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are also kept up to date by the software vendor, reducing costs associated with upgrades.
What types of websites benefit from cloud hosting?
Common website types that use cloud hosting include news outlets, e-commerce stores, social networks, search engines and other high-traffic websites. Software applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Service Management (CRM) like NetSuite are also an excellent fit for cloud hosting. Essentially, if your website gets a large volume of visitors or you need reliable round the clock access to your software, cloud hosting is a good option. The bandwidth, processing power and disk space are ideal for handling greater demand.
The architecture of cloud hosting makes it easier to adapt surges in traffic or increased demand for resources. Load balancing will protect the virtual server from becoming overwhelmed by traffic spikes. What’s more, sites that need to protect sensitive data have the option of using a private cloud. This usually provides a dedicated cloud infrastructure to prevent unauthorised parties from gaining access.
For the above reasons, cloud hosting usually costs more than shared or VPS hosting. These hosting types are usually a better fit for small-medium sites
What are IaaS, PaaS and SaaS?
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are cloud-based business models, providing infrastructure, platforms and software via the cloud.
IaaS is a good alternative to buying on-premise IT systems, while PaaS provides cloud-based frameworks on which developers can build applications. SaaS is a way for companies to access sophisticated software like NetSuite ERP without having to invest in and configure lots of on-premise infrastructure and buy expensive software licences.
All of these benefit from the unique infrastructure of cloud hosting. They are transforming the way individuals and companies operate. Businesses of all sizes are searching for innovative ways to optimise workloads and improve the end-user experience and cloud hosting is playing a significant role in that.
With that in mind, there has been a significant trend towards Anything-a-a-Service (XaaS) in recent years. This recently new approach involves businesses moving all of their operations to the cloud, bringing a wealth of benefits and opportunities.
You can learn more about a move to the cloud in our article Moving Your Business To The Cloud.
Why choose Eventura for your digital transformation journey?
Eventura have been helping businesses in their digital transformation journey for two decades. From the implementation of industry-leading ERP solutions such as Sage 200 and NetSuite, to helping them move their entire operations to the cloud and away from costly and restrictive on-premise solutions.
As well as being NetSuite Solution Providers, Sage 200 Partners and Microsoft Gold Partners, we also offer a wide range of managed IT services, meaning we can take your business as a whole and help it achieve digital transformation.
If you would like to speak to one of our experts, you can request a free call back here.
