Cloud Hosting

Cast your mind back to the office of 2019 its almost completely unrecognisable compared to todays working environment.

The last three years have seen the rise of remote working, as well as the emergence of big data technologies and SaaS solutions.

As a result, most businesses have now migrated at least some of their workloads and applications to the cloud. In particular, were seeing a growing appetite for managed cloud hosting a market which is predicted to grow from $86.1 Bn in 2021 to $237 Bn in 2032.

Not all clouds are created equal

Public cloud resources are delivered over the internet, owned, and operated by third-party service providers like AWS or Azure. Businesses often procure public cloud services on a pay as you go basis, paying only for the CPU cycles, bandwidth, and storage they consume. Public cloud is often seen as the most accessible solution for businesses thanks to this unlimited scalability and the minimal maintenance needed.

By contrast, private cloud refers to cloud services and infrastructure that are maintained on a private network, using dedicated hardware and software. Though it requires significantly more maintenance and monitoring, private cloud offers businesses superior control over their IT infrastructure particularly when it comes to security, costs etc.

As the name suggests, hybrid cloud infrastructure takes elements of both public and private cloud. It enables businesses to select storage whether on-premises, from hyperscalers or local cloud providers to match the performance needs of specific workloads. For example, many businesses use public cloud for day-to-day workloads and private cloud to house sensitive data.

Why are businesses turning away from public cloud?

After an initial rush to migrate workloads and resources to the public cloud, many businesses are (at least in part) reversing this decision. A 2021 IDC study found that 80% of respondents had recently repatriated workloads from public cloud environments.

Why? First and foremost, many businesses found that public cloud didnt deliver promised cost savings. Though public cloud can be more cost efficient when catering to occasional demand spikes, it can quickly become expensive when handling huge, year-round workloads particularly when you factor in management fees and non-fixed billing models. Secondly, many businesses are now choosing not to store sensitive data in public cloud environments, since hardware is often shared by multiple companies.

Is owned data centre infrastructure a better option?

Not necessarily. Largescale, global businesses may find it worthwhile to invest in their own data centre infrastructure as theyd benefit from economies of scale and total control over operations. But this is prohibitively costly for most, especially SMEs.

Whats more, figuring out networking, computing and storage needs based on applications and data is time consuming and requires a team of in-house experts. Again, this is unrealistic for most small and medium-sized businesses.

So, whats the alternative?

This is where managed hosting comes in. To create a bespoke cloud solution, managed hosting combines dedicated servers and hardware with management by an external service provider. Managed hosting also includes added value services like backup and disaster recovery, load balancing, security services, physical security for data centres, maintenance, and monitoring.

Managed hosting gives businesses peace of mind that their cloud infrastructure is being managed to the highest standards. Plus, since it doesnt require in-house cloud expertise or intervention, managed hosting gives IT teams freedom to focus on internal projects and processes.

Overall, managed hosting offers businesses the best of both worlds. A low maintenance service that operates on a private or hybrid cloud environment with personalisation, reliability and scalability built in from the start.

About the Author

Jake Madders, Co-founder and Director at Hyve Managed Hosting. Hyve Managed Hosting is a fully-managed, UK-based hosting provider with a genuine passion for technology. Adopting a customer-centric approach, Hyve delivers a range of hosting services, from mission-critical private cloud and managed cloud, to colocation and security services. Hyves engineers become an extension of any business, excelling in tailor-made 24/7/365 support and centralised management.

Featured image: Adobe Stock

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Cloud: Why are more businesses turning to managed hosting? - TechNative