When Should You Use Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting offers you a scalable, secure, and fast hosting option for those who demand flexibility and transparency from their host. It’s a relatively new style of hosting but will give your medium to large-scale website the support it needs.
You’re here because you’re trying to decide if cloud hosting is right for you. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Below we explore the basics of cloud hosting, what kind of business would be a good fit, and who should use a different kind of web host.
The Basics of Cloud Server Hosting
Cloud server hosting is a more premium hosting choice that offers high levels of performance, security, and unlimited scalability. By running your website on a cloud host you have the ability to scale up server resources at a moments notice in order to meet demand.
With cloud hosting, you’re not limited to the resource restrictions of a single server. In theory, you could scale your site to almost any level of resource use and high traffic levels without experiencing a dip in service.
Cloud hosting can utilize the resources of multiple physical servers; it’s like linking together multiple VPS into a single large virtual dedicated server.
When Should You Use Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting is an extremely flexible hosting solution. It supports companies like Netflix, who demand high performance, bandwidth, and 100% uptime, all the way down to startups that are just starting to scale their traffic levels and services.
As a result of its flexibility cloud hosting is available at multiple levels, from enterprise organizations to individuals who run high traffic blogs.
At the higher level, cloud hosting can be great for organizations who need to have near perfect uptime and want to grow their servers as they see fit, without experiencing any delay. Working with a high-quality cloud hosting provider can offer you solid security, and very speedy site performance.
Cloud web hosting is also a great fit for website owners that experience a decent level of traffic and see traffic spikes that tend to slow down their sites, or even bring them offline. If you’re getting higher levels of traffic you also have the option of a dedicated server and a virtual private server, but these options might not offer you the scalability you’re looking for.
Also, depending on the provider you choose you may need varying levels of technical expertise. With HostGator’s cloud hosting you have access to an intuitive control panel that even beginners can use. However, some hosting providers may require a deeper level of technical knowledge to manage your cloud servers effectively.
Who Should Use a Different Style Of Hosting?
Cloud hosting isn’t perfect for every kind of website owner. For example, if your site is currently running on a shared hosting plan and you never exceed the limits of your service or run into any issues with website performance, then you can probably stay put.
Even without cloud web hosting, you can optimize your website’s performance through things like caching plugins, image optimization and utilizing a CDN. These three things alone will greatly improve your performance without you having to upgrade your plan. As a general figure, if your site doesn’t receive over 100,000 visitors per month, then you probably have no need to upgrade your plan.
However, if your site has traffic levels that are under this figure, but you do get large traffic swings, then you might want to consider it. For example, let’s say you’re about to run a huge sales promotion and you’re expecting your website traffic to surge 4x during this promotion, then you’ll want a hosting environment that can handle this without your site going offline.
Is Cloud Hosting Right for You?
However, if you do receive a high volume of traffic and want a host that’s flexible and transparent with its pricing, all while being very secure and high performing, then cloud hosting could be a great match.
Kevin Wood writes about technology and human potential. You can find him at his virtual homes Wooden Writing and Counter Culturist.