What is managed cloud hosting?
Web Hosting Blog
When trying to find a cloud hosting provider, you’ll often come across the term ‘managed cloud’, but what does it actually mean? And why is so much more expensive than non-managed hosting? In this blog, we’ll discuss what you get with managed cloud and how it can benefit your business.
Before we look at managed cloud, let’s have a refresher on what cloud hosting is:
What is cloud hosting?
Unlike traditional hosting solutions, which use a single server, cloud hosting consists of multiple servers (called nodes) and external SAN storage. Installing virtualisation software, like VMWare, onto the nodes converts the physical hardware into cloud-based platforms.
A cloud platform should have no single point of failure. Suppose any of the hardware fails for any reason. In that case, the virtualisation software automatically moves your cloud software to an unaffected node, giving you peace of mind your cloud server will remain online.
Its unique infrastructure allows you to add and remove resources whenever you need them, making it very scalable and flexible.
What is managed cloud hosting?
Managed cloud hosting is a cloud server that your hosting provider manages. They will perform operating system patches, server monitoring, backups etc.
Benefits of managed cloud hosting
Monitoring
Server monitoring ensures that someone is alerted if there is a problem with the server. If there is a change in the server resources, services and/or websites, you or your hosting provider can react to resolve the issue swiftly.
Server resource monitoring is a great way to identify if the server is performing over the normal expected capacity and will trigger alerts if there are any server issues or if you are under attack from a 3rd party.
Reliability
Due to its unique infrastructure, cloud hosting is the most reliable type of hosting. With other forms of hosting like dedicated servers, your data is stored in a single hosting environment. If this environment has a hardware failure, it will negatively impact your website. But, that doesn’t happen with cloud hosting because of its unique infrastructure. If any part of the hardware is affected in the cloud hosting environment, your server will automatically move, keeping your site up and running.
Disaster recovery and backups
Even though cloud hosting is secure, you still need to backup your data and have a disaster recovery strategy in place.
You can implement a disaster recovery strategy on your own, but it’s not that straightforward. Regular backups are needed to ensure a copy of your data is always up to date. So, if data loss occurs, you have the latest copy of your server and files ready.
With Managed Cloud Hosting, your hosting company will take care of creating, maintaining, and updating backups, making your life simpler and giving you more time to focus on your business.
More time to focus on matters to you
The time you spend backing up your site and maintaining its security measures is time you can spend on your business.
The biggest benefit of managed cloud hosting is that it takes server management off your hands and allows you to concentrate on what matters to you, growing your business.
Why is cloud hosting more expensive?
When you’re searching for a hosting service, price is a significant factor in choosing which one you pick. But, as with everything, you pay for what you get. Plus, managed hosting plans are usually more expensive, as you get so much more with them.
Many of the tasks and tools mentioned in this blog should be performed by people with expertise in that area, for example, server monitoring and malware scanning. If you’re not an expert in web hosting, you’ll need to pay experts to do these jobs for you if you want a secure and reliable website – which isn’t cheap.
Plus, these aren’t one-time costs – you might need to hire an in-house expert to manage your hosting, which will end up costing you more than a managed cloud hosting plan.
You also need to factor in the time you will spend maintaining your server, if that will take you away from revenue-generating activities, and how much that will impact your business long-term.
Overall
Managed cloud hosting isn’t the cheapest option, but if you want to keep your server in tip-top condition, with no stress, it is the best choice.
CWCS offers a range of managed cloud hosting plans to suit every business. If you want to find out more, you can talk to one of our cloud hosting specialists today.