Managed cloud hosting is a hosting service where a third party manages and provides remote servers, storage, and computing resources for websites or applications over the Internet.
In this digital transformation era, the traditional way of managing IT infrastructure is rapidly changing, and businesses are transitioning to cloud-based hosting solutions.
Managed cloud hosting has become an increasingly popular option for businesses of all sizes as they seek to improve their efficiency, scalability, and security.
In this article, we’ll review what managed cloud hosting is, its advantages over traditional hosting, comparisons with other hosting options, and the situations where it’s the best choice.
Key Highlights
- Managed cloud hosting is a service that outsources the management and maintenance of their infrastructure to a specialized provider
- Benefit include scalable resources, robust security measures, expert support, high availability, and cost efficiency
- Adjust your server capacity to meet changing demands easily, ensuring optimal performance and cost optimization
- Provides enhanced security features, such as firewalls, regular security audits, intrusion detection systems, and data encryption
- Partnering with a managed cloud hosting provider allows you to focus on your core activities
What Exactly Is Managed Cloud Hosting?
Managed cloud hosting refers to a hosting service where a third-party provider manages and oversees the infrastructure and technical aspects of hosting your applications or websites on a cloud platform.
With managed cloud hosting, the provider takes care of the day-to-day management tasks, including hardware, software, network resources, storage, and other components of the cloud ecosystem. This allows you to focus on your core business activities.
By opting for managed cloud hosting, businesses can avoid the costs of setting up and maintaining their IT infrastructure while enjoying the benefits of increased accessibility, flexibility, and reliability.
How Does Managed Cloud Hosting Differ From Traditional Hosting?
Managed cloud hosting differs from traditional hosting in many different ways, including scalability, flexibility, and security. Here are some benefits that managed cloud hosting offers over traditional hosting methods:
Managed Cloud Hosting
As websites become larger, more complex, and require faster processing power, it becomes increasingly important to consider cloud hosting, which provides resources to keep the websites running smoothly.
Scalability
Managed cloud hosting guarantees scalability. This attribute means that clients can promptly increase or reduce their infrastructure on the cloud.
The service provider will help you allocate resources according to your website, so you don’t have to pay for what you don’t use.
That means that during peak seasons, your website will be equipped with sufficient resources to accommodate traffic, and in low seasons, you won’t incur needless expenses.
Flexibility
Managed cloud hosting also offers the flexibility of using any programming language, software stack, or database. You can run multiple operating systems with cloud servers or extend to other services and hardware.
This feature enables clients to scale and customize their website’s infrastructure tailor-made to their requirements, enabling them to meet their business goals without a hitch.
Redundancy and High Availability
With managed cloud hosting, hardware failures are a thing of the past. Managed cloud hosting providers use redundancy to tackle this issue.
Such systems spread storage, processing and memory across multiple servers in different locations. Thereby ensuring that data and services are accessible from anywhere and can recover swiftly from any disaster.
In simpler terms, redundancy provides high availability.
Security
Security is a critical aspect of any website or system. Managed cloud hosting raises the bar when it comes to security.
Managed cloud hosting providers ensure their client’s data is encrypted and stored securely. They also implement strict security protocols to safeguard against cyber-attacks and ensure the smooth running of your website.
Managed Services
Finally, managed cloud hosting relieves clients of some of the most daunting and challenging tasks in running a website.
Managed cloud hosting providers offer services such as automatic backups, server monitoring, and regular software updates. These services free up clients’ time to focus on their core businesses.
Traditional Hosting
Traditional hosting is a method of hosting that relies on a physical server-based infrastructure to provide hosting services. This type of hosting is suitable for websites that require high levels of customization, stable performance, and reliable security.
Cost Structure
Cost is one of the primary considerations when choosing a hosting option for your website.
With traditional hosting, the cost structure is relatively straightforward and transparent. You pay monthly or yearly for the resources you use, such as storage, bandwidth, and computing power.
Traditional hosting is generally more cost-effective than other hosting options, such as cloud hosting, which can be more expensive due to the scalability and on-demand availability of resources.
Server Control
With traditional hosting, you have complete control over your server, which means you can install any software, applications, or services you need to run your website.
You can also customize your server settings and configurations according to your specific requirements, which can be critical in ensuring your website’s smooth performance and stability.
Dedicated Resources
Traditional hosting provides dedicated resources for your website, so you do not need to share resources with other websites or applications.
This can benefit websites requiring high-performance levels or having large traffic. With dedicated resources, you can ensure that your website maintains optimal performance even during periods of high traffic.
Familiarity and Legacy Applications
Many web developers choose traditional hosting because of the familiarity of legacy applications.
There are many legacy applications that are still widely used on traditional hosting platforms, such as PHP and MySQL. These applications have been around for decades and have a strong community of developers who continue to maintain and enhance them.
This means that web developers can easily find support and resources for these applications, making them a reliable and trusted choice for website development.
Management and Maintenance
One of the key benefits of traditional hosting is the ability to manage and maintain your server independently. You have full control over the software and applications running on your server, so you can troubleshoot and fix any issues that arise quickly.
Additionally, traditional hosting providers offer robust management and maintenance services to ensure your server remains secure and stable.
How Does Managed Cloud Hosting Compare to Other Hosting Options Available Today?
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting involves multiple websites sharing the resources of a single server. This affordable option makes it ideal for small businesses or personal websites.
However, since all websites share the same resources, it can lead to performance limitations. You could experience slow load times and limited disk space or bandwidth usage.
Additionally, shared hosting may not allow for much flexibility and customizability since multiple websites use the same resources.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that it involves multiple websites hosting on a single server.
However, VPS hosting partitions a physical server into multiple virtual servers, providing dedicated resources and enhanced performance.
Each website hosted on a VPS has its own virtual environment, ensuring they don’t interfere with each other’s performance. VPS hosting is an excellent option for businesses looking for scalability and control. It allows businesses to upgrade resources and customize server configurations easily.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated server hosting provides businesses with exclusive access to an entire physical server. This ensures maximum performance and control over the server’s resources.
Dedicated server hosting is an excellent option for large businesses or companies that require high levels of control over their server configurations. Businesses can tailor hardware, software, and network configurations to their specific needs.
Additionally, dedicated hosting allows for optimal website security, as there are no other websites interacting with the server.
Colocation Hosting
Colocation hosting involves businesses owning and maintaining their own servers while housing them in a data center facility. This option lets businesses control their infrastructure, including hardware, networking, and software configurations.
However, colocation hosting requires substantial investments in infrastructure, human resources, and maintenance. As a result, businesses may face higher upfront costs and incur additional expenses relating to upkeep, security, and power.
While colocation hosting offers high control and direct access to physical servers, businesses must manage their infrastructure independently. This can be challenging for smaller businesses or those without in-house IT staff.
Hybrid Hosting
If your business requires a customized infrastructure, hybrid cloud hosting may be the best option.
Hybrid hosting is a combination of different hosting environments, such as dedicated servers, cloud hosting, and colocation. This allows businesses to leverage the benefits of multiple hosting options.
Hybrid hosting is ideal for businesses that require scalability, as they can allocate resources as and when needed. Hybrid hosting allows businesses to scale quickly in times of high demand.
However, with hybrid hosting, businesses need to manage multiple hosting environments simultaneously, requiring a skilled IT team. This can be a significant challenge for businesses that do not have an in-house IT department.
When Is Managed Hosting the Best Choice to Consider?
As a web developer or website owner, you may have experienced the challenge of deciding which type of hosting to choose for your site or application.
This could be due to the wide range of web hosting providers available on the web. If you’re spoilt for choice, here are five scenarios when managed hosting is best to consider.
Complex or Resource-Intensive Applications
If you’re running a complex web application or website that requires a lot of resources, managed hosting might be the best option.
Your provider will ensure that your website or application runs smoothly and can handle high traffic without any performance issues. Additionally, your provider will also offer support for any specific software you might need to run your application.
Businesses that host complex or data-intensive applications such as e-commerce, customer relationship management systems, or content management systems, therefore, require managed hosting.
Growing or Scaling Businesses
If your business is growing fast, you might want to consider managed hosting. As your business grows, you’ll need more resources, and your servers will need to scale.
Growing businesses require more resources to handle increased traffic and user demand. Managed hosting providers offer scalable hosting solutions that can expand to accommodate your business growth needs.
You can concentrate on growing your business, knowing that your hosting provider can handle the peak traffic loads.
Limited IT Resources
If you have a small team and limited IT resources, you might want to consider managed hosting. According to a 2022 IBM report, 69% of teams lack the necessary skills to manage cloud workloads.
Managed hosting providers have expert teams who can take care of performance monitoring, server configuration, backup and recovery, security and patch management.
This can free up your IT team to focus on other critical tasks, such as developing new applications or improving your existing ones.
High Security and Compliance Requirements
When you deal with sensitive data such as personal records, financial data, and business-critical information, security and compliance become crucial.
Managed hosting providers can meet these requirements by providing advanced security features, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and data encryption.
Plus, they can ensure your servers comply with various industry standards such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR.
Focus on Business Continuity
If your business depends heavily on your website or applications, you might want to consider managed hosting. With managed hosting, you can ensure high availability and uptime for your applications.
Managed hosting providers offer disaster recovery and business continuity services. In the event of a disaster, you can continue your business operations with minimal downtime and data loss.
24/7 monitoring ensures that any disaster is detected on time and quickly addressed to maintain business continuity. Since your provider takes care of data backup and disaster recovery, you can focus on keeping your business up and running.
Conclusion
Managed Cloud Hosting is a powerful hosting solution that offers superior performance, scalability, and security. It’s designed to take the burden of technical details off your shoulders, leaving you with a stress-free and efficient website management experience.
With Managed Cloud Hosting, you can have peace of mind that your website is always up and running, secure, and ready to meet all your business demands.
Remember to choose a reputable, experienced, and responsive managed cloud hosting provider that aligns with your goals and offers transparent pricing, flexible plans, and reliable support!
Next Steps: What Now?
Now that you know all about managed cloud hosting, here are the practical steps you can take from this guide:
- Get managed cloud hosting from the best-managed cloud hosting providers of 2023.
- Get cheap cloud hosting from the best cheap cloud hosting providers.
- Learn different Cloud Hosting Types and how they work.
- Find out Why Cloud Hosting Is Right for your business.
- Know how to choose between VPS or Cloud Hosting.
Further Reading – Useful Resources
Here are more useful resources to help you learn more about managed cloud hosting:
