Moving to cloud’ is the buzzword which is gaining prominence day by day. Let’s try and understand through this post as to why everyone seems to be moving to the cloud.
What is moving to cloud?
In simpler terms, moving to cloud is simply migrating your data, applications, email or software to cloud hosting where it is accessible from anywhere across the globe.
Few examples of cloud applications in our daily lives – reading books on Kindle paperwhite, Google drive and listening to the tunes that are on your computer at home through your cell phone.
Cloud makes applications accessible anywhere on the go and this and much more that it offers, make our daily lives more convenient, and it certainly can do wonders for your business.
Why your business needs to move to cloud?
- To meet growing hosting needs of the customers.
- To provide easy solutions and more developed hosting environment for the growing business needs.
- To counter the limitations of traditional hosting, which I have discussed in detail below.
Why go for cloud hosting over traditional hosting?
Cloud hosting provides a spectrum of benefits, including but not limited to-
#1 Increased Server uptime
Server uptime is directly proportional to the performance of your website. Cloud hosting provides maximum network uptime and guarantees no single point of failure.
As it is a system of interconnected servers so if at any point, one server is unable to take your request then another one out of the multiple servers will take over the workload of the failed server by default.
Whereas, in traditional hosting, a single server set up risks hardware failure and downtime for your website and applications.
#2 Pay for the resources as per your needs
In cloud hosting model you do not have to worry about the capital expenditure as you don’t need to invest in any infrastructure and OPEX is also lesser as you just need to pay only for the resources/services which you actually utilize.
Whereas in traditional hosting model you need to pay a fixed mount for the services whether you utilize them or not.
#3 Increased security
In traditional hosting you share the resources and CPU needs with other websites on the same server or maintain a private dedicated server to secure sensitive information which costs too high.
Cloud hosting comes with such an infrastructure that secures your data at various levels-network, data, application, and physical security. Cloud service providers ensure data safety through customer’s identity management, proper data isolation and storage segregation, secure and encrypted solutions, firewalls and backup recoveries.
#4 Scalability of resources
Instantaneous allocation of resources with the emerging needs of the website is quite easy and simple with cloud hosting.
A cloud hosting set up allows sites and accounts to add or reduce resources like bandwidth, storage, RAM etc. from the bank of resources maintained by the network of multiple servers.
Whereas physical machine in a traditional hosting set up has limited resources and rigid specifications. So you cannot ramp up the resources immediately on the server whenever the need arises for the same.
#5 Independence of location
Traditional hosting servers are confined to a fixed place and thus, you need to be specific while choosing your server as the location of server plays a great role in the loading speed of a website.
Whereas cloud hosting servers are present across the world. They are accessible globally via an internet connection and with any device-PC or mobile.
#6 Increased Group collaboration
Cloud computing allows for access anywhere on the go. Employees of an organization can work on the same documents and even share applications, regardless of the location where they work from.
For example, you can access data from home, or even if you are on tour with Office 365-a business productivity suite that enables faster and smart working and also flexibility in work practices.
But you cannot enjoy this feature of team collaboration in traditional hosting.
#7 Backup and disaster recovery
Cloud hosting provides disaster recovery feature as data is automatically backed up in inter -connected server (cloud being a multi-server setup).
Traditional hosting does not offer disaster recovery as there is only one single server where you can host your data and applications. You need to arrange for backup of your data yourself.
#8 Latest technology
Cloud hosting leverages latest technologies. It allows you to customize and integrate your software applications, as per your needs and preferences of your business. This may include upgrades to servers, latest versions of software and computer processing power.
With traditional hosting you cannot upgrade, customize automatically.
#9 Environment friendly
Cloud servers are utilized up to full capacity which minimizes the idle time and saves energy of both company and environment.Cloud hosting eliminates the need of maintaining in house servers, reducing carbon emission.
#10 Performance
The site hosted in a cloud environment performs far better than that hosted on a traditional server set up. For those who require speed of loading page, flexible and immediate resource allocation, disaster recovery plans, energy saving and climate friendly server set up and above all, more in less prices, then cloud is a perfect solution for them.
If you can think of any other benefit of cloud hosting over traditional hosting, feel free to add to the list.
