More and more medium-sized companies are considering renting IT resources from professional hosting service providers instead of buying them and having their own specialists maintain them. Others are already a step further and are already using the computing power and storage capacity of an externally stored server. Two business models are particularly widespread: dedicated and virtual server hosting. With both alternatives, a customer rents IT resources such as web space, RAM, or CPU power from a specialized web host in graded service packages for monthly fees. There are only differences with regard to the exclusivity of the hardware components provided: With virtual server hosting, several customer servers share the resources of a powerful, physical machine. A dedicated server, on the other hand, is only available to a single customer with all its hardware components. This offers unrestricted performance, extensive configuration options, and maximum security. Due to these advantages, the dedicated server has long been considered the ideal web hosting model for companies.
But not every company wants to implement complex web projects with predictable resource requirements. Dedicated server hosting often does not meet the demands of modern IT, which has to react quickly and easily to current requirements. More flexible cloud hosting can help here. The relatively new hosting concept is based on a cluster of several interconnected servers that make IT resources available as needed. This is a clear advantage over classic web hosting models. Four points are particularly important when deciding on cloud hosting.
1. Cost Reduction
Probably the biggest advantage that flexible cloud hosting brings with it is the immense cost reduction. Cloud computing offers the opportunity to cover the resource requirements for new projects cheaply using virtualized servers instead of investing in your own IT infrastructure. With cloud hosting, customers only pay for the service they actually use due to minute-by-minute billing. Very different from classic web hosting models, which also incur permanent fixed costs if the server is hardly used. In addition, the effort for maintenance, repair, and inventory of your own IT infrastructure decreases, since a large part of the required hardware is provided by the hosting service provider.
Cloud hosting also enables smaller companies to use IT resources that were previously only accessible to large companies, which is why cloud technologies are very popular with small and medium-sized companies, as the graphic below shows. The cloud also makes it easier for start-ups to enter IT-intensive business areas.
2. Flexibility and scalability
Through virtualization, cloud hosting enables IT resources to be adapted immediately to a company’s current needs. This is particularly relevant for web projects with fluctuating visitor numbers. If the traffic in an online shop increases tenfold due to seasonal business, the performance features of a cloud server such as RAM, CPU, or web space can be expanded with just a few clicks. But constantly growing projects also benefit from the cloud hosting model. If a web project exceeds the performance peaks of a dedicated server, a move to another machine becomes unavoidable. With the cloud server, on the other hand, additional resources can be used at any time and almost unlimitedly added. This is made possible by virtualization based on a tightly networked server cluster. User data is not stored on a single physical machine but distributed across multiple servers. If demand falls, the additional capacities booked can be reduced without delay. Empty costs can be avoided in this way.
3. Reduced development cycles
The flexibility of the cloud pays off, especially for start-ups and the development departments of large companies. With the server cloud, the investment costs for pilot projects remain manageable, since the resources required are sourced as needed. In addition, new applications can be tested and marketed much more quickly. Instead of tasking the IT department with the time-consuming and costly acquisition of new hardware, cloud hosting offers developers the option of using any number of test servers with individually scalable features in the virtual environment. In addition, cloud hosting allows you to benefit from backups thanks to a redundant server architecture. In this way, various development stages of a web project remain accessible. All of this has an effect in the form of reduced development cycles, which not only give companies a head start over the competition but also bring significant cost savings.
Data Security and Availability
Because the IT resources of a cloud server are made available by a large number of physical machines, cloud hosting users benefit from comprehensive server hardware redundancy. This ensures that more than one backup copy of the user data is stored on the servers in the data center at all times. Any failures of individual hardware components such as hard disk crashes do not affect data security or the availability of the resources provided. For medium-sized companies, the outsourcing of IT services to professional hosters also offers the advantage that they benefit from technical processes and security procedures that cannot be implemented internally with their own resources. The provision of server hardware resources also entails legal requirements for IT providers themselves. Specialized web hosting service providers therefore continuously invest in ensuring data security in accordance with national legal requirements and international standards.
The environment also benefits from cloud hosting
Cloud hosting not only offers you immense advantages. The environment also benefits from the joint use of individual components of the IT infrastructure. In a data center that is designed to provide cloud servers, processes for power supply, cooling, and fire protection can be implemented much more efficiently than would be possible in an in-house server room. Numerous hosting companies also rely on climate-neutral electricity from renewable energies to supply their data centers.