Cloud hosting certainly isn’t a new technology – the principle of an interconnected computer network was first suggested in the 1960s – but it has evolved rapidly over the last two decades, with the industry now offering a multitude of cloud solutions. Cloud hosting can be used in many ways within a business’s infrastructure, whether your entire infrastructure is on the cloud, you adopt a hybrid cloud solution, or your infrastructure is primarily on-premise with some cloud-based services. For details on how cloud technology works, read our insight ‘What is cloud hosting?’.
Cloud hosting brings a wealth of benefits to your business – in this insight we give an overview of a selection.
Scalability
Cloud infrastructure is easily scalable – you can reactively adjust the amount of computing resources available to match your current business needs. Whether your business experiences sudden spikes in traffic or gradual, planned growth, the cloud can accommodate these changes. As cloud infrastructure supports virtualisation, additional virtual machines can be allocated to you, rapidly increasing capacity compared to adding additional physical servers to an on-premise environment.
Unlike traditional hosting models where a significant upfront investment in hardware and infrastructure is required, cloud hosting allows you to pay only for the resources you actually use. This pay-as-you-go model is particularly beneficial for handling unexpected surges in traffic, ensuring your website remains operational without any performance issues. By scaling resources up or down based on demand, the cloud provides both financial flexibility and operational efficiency, making it an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes.
For more details, take a look at our insight ‘What is cloud scalability?’.
Uptime
Downtime is a significant concern for the majority of organisations. If your site or application experiences downtime, the consequences can range from customers moving to a competitor in the eCommerce sector, to prevention of patient care in the healthcare sector. Cloud can offer higher reliability than on-premise infrastructure, with high-availability platforms. When you are seeking a cloud provider, you should check what their service level agreements (SLAs) for uptime are – at Hyve we offer a 100% network uptime SLA.
Cost efficiency
The cloud saves businesses money as they don’t need to spend on hardware, facilities etc. The pay as you go billing structure also means that you don’t overspend on resources that aren’t being used.
When you use cloud hosting services through a provider, where you essentially rent equipment from the provider, rather than an on-premise solution, or an internal cloud solution (built and managed in-house with your own hardware), you switch from a capital expenditure (CapEx) to an operational expenses (OpEx) model. On-premise or internal cloud infrastructure comes with a significant CapEx of the up-front purchase of hardware and facilities, and CapEx costs further down the line when these need upgrading. Cloud hosting through a third-party provider removes these CapEx costs, instead using an OpEx model of regular billing. Read more on how this can provide savings in our insight ‘Optimise your CapEx and OpEx – migrate to a managed cloud solution’.
A cloud provider with a consultative approach, such as Hyve, understands your unique business needs, and can design a solution which optimises your budget and resources.
Working with a managed service provider (MSP) can bring further savings. Rather than recruitment and salary costs for an in-house team to manage your infrastructure, the provider handles the day-to-day monitoring, maintenance and security. A managed provider will also provide support, meaning that in the case of an issue with your cloud platform, this can be resolved quickly and efficiently, reducing the chance of any cost of any downtime or data loss. An MSP can also support in other often overlooked ways which can lead to savings, including increased efficiency, and providing expertise and experience.
Performance
Cloud hosting can offer great server performance with powerful processing power, CPUs and SSD drives. When hosting your cloud infrastructure with a provider, the responsibility for maintaining and upgrading hardware falls with the provider, rather than your own business. You can benefit from the most up-to-date equipment, maximising performance, without having to purchase and deploy it yourself.
Cutting-edge Security
There is a common misconception that cloud is less secure than on-premise infrastructure, however, with the correct provider and configuration, cloud solutions can incorporate the latest security technologies. Cloud infrastructure can offer a full security suite, including measures such as firewalls, VPNs, SSLs, DDoS protection, intrusion prevention and more. Depending on your provider’s security offering, these measures can be added to your solution depending on your individual requirements. If you are dealing with particularly sensitive data for example, you may look into a more comprehensive security stack.
To ensure the top data protection and security compliance for your cloud infrastructure, you should look into your provider’s credentials. You can start by checking for certifications such as ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 27017, PCI DSS and Cyber Essentials.
Range of options
Depending on your business needs, there is a large variety of options for your cloud infrastructure. Multi-tenant solutions such as public cloud or our enterprise cloud, where resources are shared among multiple users, can be a cost-effective option, or if you need the increased security of your own dedicated hardware, you can opt for a single-tenant solution, such as private cloud or dedicated servers. To combine the benefits of different hosting environments, you may also consider a hybrid cloud solution, mixing on-premise, private cloud and public cloud infrastructure to suit your needs.
You also have the choice of managed or unmanaged cloud solutions. In managed cloud, a services layer is added, so you benefit from partial or complete management of your platform by your provider. In unmanaged cloud, the provider provides the core cloud services, but you are responsible for the management. Find out more in our insight ‘Managed vs unmanaged cloud’.
Why choose Hyve for your cloud hosting needs?
We offer a range of managed cloud services, all benefitting from industry-leading hardware and software, high-availability, and security services for premium performance. Our customer-first attitude and extra-mile support give you peace of mind and allow you to focus on what you do best – running your business.
We take a consultative approach, working with you to understand your needs and build the best solution for you. For an initial conversation, fill out our contact form and one of our experts will be in touch.
