Cloud hosting is a popular solution for companies looking to modernize or add functionality to their IT environment. This article discusses why a company should consider cloud hosting and the key characteristics that distinguish the top cloud hosting companies. We’ll conclude with a brief overview of some of the top cloud hosting companies in the market.
What is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting is a service offered by cloud service providers (CSPs) that provides customers with a reliable, flexible, and scalable IT environment. Companies of all sizes can leverage the benefits of cloud hosting to run small websites or large, enterprise-scale applications.
CSPs typically address customer hosting needs with virtual servers running on cloud resources. The client interacts with this virtual environment rather than physical hardware. Deploying a network of virtual servers enables the CSP to balance workloads to optimize performance, scale resources to handle changing requirements, and maximize uptime with enhanced redundancy and failover capabilities.
Sometimes, a customer may require dedicated hosting, which the provider can furnish with physical servers in the CSP’s data center. Customers may have specific requirements that demand specialized hosting, such as employing GPU servers to support AI development or isolated servers for highly sensitive applications.
Why Engage a Cloud Hosting Company?
Companies engage a cloud hosting company to address various issues affecting their on-premises computing environment. Organizations may find it impossible to meet evolving business requirements and remain competitive using their existing IT infrastructure. Businesses commonly use cloud hosting for the following reasons.
Scalability
Customers can automatically scale resources like storage and CPU capacity up or down to meet current business requirements efficiently. Teams always have the precise amount of resources to optimize the IT environment. Growing companies and businesses with fluctuating or seasonal demands significantly benefit from cloud hosting scalability.
Cost savings
Companies can enjoy substantial savings through pay-as-you-go models that work together with scalability to control the cost of cloud resources. Customers don’t need to pay for idle resources as they are scaled down and out of their environment. Cloud hosting clients achieve additional savings by eliminating the need to purchase and maintain hardware to support IT requirements.
Data protection, compliance, and security
Most CSPs offer native backup and recovery options to protect customer data. Companies can access enhanced security measures such as data encryption and intrusion detection to safeguard the environment. CSPs promptly install patches on infrastructure components to address potential security vulnerabilities. Many providers offer compliant hosting options for companies subject to regulatory standards like HIPAA or PCI-DSS.
Improved system availability
Cloud vendors build enhanced resiliency into hosting solutions, utilizing global data centers and redundant infrastructure. They provide failover capabilities that improve system availability and minimize downtime, often offering 99.9% uptime. Companies improve competitiveness and customer satisfaction by ensuring systems remain available.
Access to advanced technologies
Businesses can gain access to advanced technologies through cloud hosting offerings. Teams can use automation capabilities to streamline tasks and minimize errors and oversights. Cloud hosting supports agile development to address emerging business trends quickly. Companies can use the power of cloud hosting for advanced AI, machine learning, and analytics solutions.
Greater focus on core business activities
Organizations can focus on core business activities without worrying about maintaining the hosted IT infrastructure. The increased focus may result in improved competitiveness and an increased ability to satisfy customer demands.
Key Factors in Selecting a Top Cloud Hosting Company
Company decision-makers must consider multiple characteristics to select a top cloud hosting company. Making a poor choice will minimize the value of the hosting solution and may not successfully address business requirements. The following are the most critical factors to evaluate when choosing a cloud hosting partner.
Reliability
Organizations must prioritize reliability when choosing a cloud hosting company. A reliable CSP should offer high uptime guarantees of at least 99.9%. They should provide customers with financial protection through strong service-level agreements (SLAs). Decision-makers should look for redundant infrastructure and failover procedures to ensure uninterrupted system availability.
Performance
Cloud hosting performance can be affected by the infrastructure components used in the solution. Better performance will be available from providers using modern CPUs, SSD storage, and optimized network options. Customers may want to minimize latency by working with a CSP that offers nearby data centers.
Pricing models
Organizations using cloud hosting resources must understand the provider’s available pricing models. While companies may prefer a pay-as-you-go option, reserved instances may offer a more economical cloud hosting solution in some cases. Companies must consider additional fees, such as those for support or data transfers. Some CSPs may provide trials for evaluation before committing.
Scalability and flexibility
Companies must ensure that the selected CSP offers the scalability and flexibility they need to address potentially evolving business requirements. Essential features include horizontal scaling to automatically add additional instances and vertical scaling to increase resources on a specific instance. Automatic load balancing should be employed to adjust workloads to optimize scaled resources.
Security and compliance
Businesses must ensure their cloud hosting partner provides strong security to protect systems and data. Customers should insist on hosting solutions that encrypt data in transit and at rest. The CSP should deploy access controls and firewalls to prohibit unauthorized resource access and protect data privacy. Companies handling regulated data should look for hosting solutions that are certified compliant with the appropriate standards.
Ease of use
The teams using the cloud hosting resources must have a user-friendly interface for managing them. CSPs should offer an intuitive dashboard to streamline resource management. Companies should have access to templates or predefined procedures to deploy instances to address business requirements easily.
Customer support
Teams must be confident in their CSP’s availability and level of customer support. Look for cloud hosting companies that provide 24/7 live support via phone or chat. Companies can protect mission-critical applications with response time SLAs. A knowledge base or other self-help options can save time and promote more effective use of cloud resources.
Reputation
Organizations should favor CSPs with a proven track record of successfully helping address IT issues similar to theirs. Decision-makers should consult reviews and case studies to ensure the selected CSP can handle their requirements. The chosen provider should demonstrate financial stability and have a good reputation in the industry.
Six of the Top Cloud Hosting Companies
The following six cloud hosting companies meet the abovementioned criteria and offer their customers the expected benefits of a cloud-hosted environment.
Atlantic.Net
Atlantic.Net offers high-performance cloud hosting solutions that teams can implement in 30 seconds. Pricing options include on-demand, one-year, and economical three-year tiers for Linux and Windows hosted servers. They also offer a limited free tier for a year. The company uses enterprise-grade SSDs for high-speed performance and guarantees availability with a 100% uptime SLA. Cloud hosting options include dedicated and GPU-based servers to address your unique computing requirements. A dedicated technical team with decades of experience is there to help with 24/7 support.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS is a diverse hosting provider with a cloud spanning 114 Availability Zones in 36 geographic regions. This diversity allows companies to locate cloud workloads near business locations. AWS offers broad options to address a company’s IT requirements, including shared, dedicated, and GPU servers. The wealth of information on AWS websites can be overwhelming and may require some experience to navigate effectively.
Microsoft Azure
Azure is a cloud platform focused on supporting the Microsoft IT solution ecosystem. The company offers a pay-as-you-go or a free 30-day option, useful for evaluating the platform. Azure provides many tools for building advanced AI applications to solve business problems. In addition to Windows environments, Azure supports Linux, Oracle, and SAP in the cloud.
Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform provides many advanced AI tools to streamline application development. The company offers advanced machine learning and analytics capabilities for business insights to improve competitiveness. Pricing options include pay-as-you-go options, where you only pay for the necessary resources.
Akamai
Akamai acquired Linode in 2022 to increase its capability to provide a developer-friendly, distributed platform for building, running, and securing cloud applications. They offer shared and dedicated CPU options and premium instances for consistent performance. Akamai’s customers can leverage GPU-powered servers for advanced workloads like machine learning, requiring parallel processing capabilities.
Oracle Cloud
The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure provides cloud services that support multi-cloud, hybrid, and dedicated environments. The Oracle Cloud spans 50 interconnected geographic commercial and government cloud regions. They offer a wide range of cloud hosting options featuring competitive pricing plans. Customers can start for free with a $300 cloud credit to test applications on the platform.
This information should help you find the right top cloud hosting company for your company’s unique business requirements.
