What is Cloud Hosting?

Moving to the cloud brings several benefits, whether you’re a start-up or a long-standing business, employ ten staff or ten thousand. That’s the beauty of the cloud. When done right, it’s tailored to your organisation, allowing you to build a personalised solution to fit your needs.

Flexibility, scalability, and reliability are just some advantages you can enjoy.

So,  how does cloud hosting actually work?

We’ve highlighted how cloud hosting works, the benefits of operating via the cloud and how this can transform your business.

How does cloud hosting work?

Cloud hosting means making services, applications, and websites accessible via the internet. Applications like emails, databases, and intranets are held on a cloud server, which you can access on any device, anywhere with an internet connection.

With traditional web hosting, multiple services are hosted on a single server. This is often a physical server at your location of works or elsewhere using a third-party data centre. Usually, you can only access these servers from your business premises, which presents limitations—especially for remote and hybrid workers.

However, utilising cloud solutions is different. Instead, applications and services are held on multiple virtual servers rather than a standalone, physical device, as you might traditionally expect. These servers aren’t physically located anywhere; they’re hosted in the cloud.

Since there are multiple servers, you can access applications even if one unit fails. This way, cloud hosting significantly reduces downtime and ensures business continuity during disruptions. And, because all your business applications are held in the cloud, you don’t need to be on-site to access them.

Types of cloud hosting

One of the best things about cloud web hosting is its flexibility. But this also means the cloud can work in different ways. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which is best for your business. We’ve offered some options below:

Public cloud

Third-party providers host and manage public clouds. A public cloud involves several shared servers that anyone with an internet connection can access. You share infrastructure with other internet users, which you use through your internet browser. Microsoft Azure is an example of a public cloud with applications and services hosted by a third-party provider, made accessible via the internet.

Private cloud

Private cloud hosting means you don’t share infrastructure with other users. Instead, your cloud is hosted on a private data centre or by a third-party provider. To use it, it requires a specific login and password. And, since it’s private, the cloud is more customisable because you can add and remove applications as you like.

Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud hosting offers a happy medium between both public and private. You may decide to host specific databases publicly while protecting others with higher security through a private cloud. Hybrid clouds typically offer greater flexibility because you can move applications through private and public clouds, depending on your needs. It also lowers costs since you only pay for the databases you host in the private cloud.

Benefits of cloud hosting

Cloud hosting makes every application, service, and platform you need accessible via virtual servers. Aside from ease of use, the cloud offers many benefits, including increased scalability, reliability, and flexibility. Let’s look at some of them in detail:

• Scalable – Since the cloud relies on virtual hardware, it’s easy to scale up or down. As your business grows, you can easily add to your cloud platform to include more servers without any on-site physical hardware changes.
• Flexible – Cloud hosting allows you to build a solution to fit your business – add, remove, and change specific applications and services as needed.
• Reliable – With greater computing power, cloud hosting is much more reliable than traditional hardware. If any server experiences downtime, it can simply use another server to continue to provide you with the same services. It’s also designed for high traffic, so latency and bandwidth issues are minimised.
• Secure – Cloud hosting has advanced cybersecurity features like firewalls to protect sensitive data. It also allows you to create data backups, which you can rely on if any data is compromised or lost.
• Accessible – Staff can access the cloud from anywhere with an internet connection, which means you don’t need to be on-site to get onto your work emails. Teams can use your cloud from anywhere if they have the necessary logins.
• Cost effective – Flexibility to create your solution means you only pay for the applications, services, and servers you need.
• Agile – Everything is accessible in the cloud, removing the need for on-site hardware. This means switching applications, upscaling your solution, and upgrading your infrastructure is easy with minimal business disruptions.

If you’re looking to move to the cloud, Fabric IT can help. Our IT experts work with you one-on-one to help build, create, and manage your personalised hosting solution with the world’s leading cloud platform, Microsoft Azure. We’ll guide you through each step, from migration to ongoing security management, to ensure you have a fully functional, customised cloud solution fit for your business. To get started, speak with a member of our team on 01625 443 110 and see how we can help your business.