Cloud Hosting vs. Dedicated Hosting: The Best Answer Is Both

Data is the most important asset for any business in the world. And it is growing at an exponential rate. It is the basis on which every decision is made that determines the success or failure of an enterprise. That means that the way that an enterprise stores, manages, and deploys data is also critical. There is already 2.7 zettabytes of data in the digital universe, which is a truly unimaginable number just a decade ago.

But how do we manage all of this data? It can be difficult to parse through the different kinds of hosting options that are available and what the right solution might be for each unique situation.

Our major options.

Two of the major hosting options that most organisations will need to weigh are cloud hosting and dedicated hosting.

Dedicated hosting is when an individual organisation buys a server that it maintains and updates for its own personal use. The organisation will have a set amount of CPU, RAM, drive space, and bandwidth that is determined by the server.

Cloud hosting provides virtual server space (often in an on-demand, as-needed basis) as a service. Unlike dedicated hosting, cloud hosting is supported on multiple, mirrored servers by a third-party. Public cloud hosting services offer elastic services that can near-infinitely scale up to meet an organisation’s needs.

Cloud hosting and dedicated server hosting both have their strengths and weaknesses. Here are their four biggest differences:

• Dedicated hosting offers greater customisation.

Dedicated server hosting is built from the ground up for you (and maybe by you), which means that you can have whatever your heart desires. With dedicated hosting, organisations can deploy the world’s best technology as well as massive storage capabilities – but that doesn’t mean you have to. It’s just an option. Everything is an option with dedicated hosting, which is why we like it so much.

Public cloud hosting, on the flipside, is a one-size-fits-all service in the sense that you can’t customise the service you get. You can customise (read: determine) the amount of storage you’re using on a cloud hosting service, but not the performance parameters like you can with dedicated hosting.

• Cloud hosting service offers greater scalability.

The cloud’s the limit. Since cloud hosting is built upon virtualised servers, an administrator can spin up a new virtual server in a matter of seconds to meet new demands, to run tests, or to host beta projects. It can be given more resources as needed. And when the need is gone? The server can be deleted just as quickly. Cloud hosting really offers greater flexibility and scalability for organisations that are looking for that innovative edge. You’ll never be held back with cloud hosting for lack of infrastructure.

• Dedicated hosting offers greater security.

Dedicated hosting is usually considered the safer, more secure route to take, which can be incredibly important in certain industries like finance, medicine, and law. Also, since dedicated hosting can be customised and the security measured customised, dedicated hosting might be the only choice for organisations within industries that have strict compliance regulations to meet. Often public cloud solutions will not meet these types of compliance issues.

We’re not saying that cloud hosting is not safe – far from it. Cloud hosting brings you an experienced partner that deploys security measures that are effective for all but the most sensitive data.

• Cloud hosting offers a better price (sometimes).

Public cloud hosting when compared to dedicated hosting generally comes out as more cost effective. Dedicated hosting inherently has more expenses associated with it from the initial investment in infrastructure to the IT personnel required to maintain and update the server, it can get pricey. What dedicated hosting offers in exchange is greater performance, customisation, and security. The cost of public cloud hosting is often low enough that even the smallest businesses can afford to get in the game.

Hybrid IT is the only way to move forward.

No matter how great both cloud hosting and dedicated hosting are, they will always have a few gaps that will be lacking if you only choose to employ one solution. That’s why we think the best solution the hybrid approach.

Hybrid IT is what it sounds like – a hybrid of both traditional hosting solutions like dedicated hosting as well as cloud hosting. Hybrid IT can be combined in endless options to allow organisations to mix-n-match to create a highly unique, but effective whole solution. Dedicated servers and cloud servers can work in a beautiful symbiosis.

No need to worry about security issues with the cloud. Keep that sensitive data on a dedicated server. No need to worry about running out of bandwidth on a dedicated server. Move that work to the cloud.

Hybrid IT offers what dedicated hosting or cloud hosting alone cannot – a truly customisable, performance-driven, cost-effective solution for each and every business, regardless of the situation.

If you want to see how hybrid IT can revolutionise your organisation, speak with us today.