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There are a variety of hosting providers available in the market. When you start a website you most probably go for shared hosting as it is best suited to newly born websites and more affordable. But once your website starts growing and you need a more powerful hosting solution, cloud hosting is the best pick for you.
Cloud computing brings more control and easy scalability with it. Furthermore, most cloud hosting providers like gotomyerp offers the flexibility of resource. It gives you some control over the cost by adding only the resources that you need. For example, if you just need more storage or memory you don’t have to upgrade the whole plan.
Another noteworthy reason to go for cloud hosting solutions is the dedicated environment. Unlike shared hosting, you don’t have to share your resources with other accounts on the same server. Cloud hosting provides a completely separate virtual environment that allows full control over resources and better monitoring as well as security.
Where on shared hosting you are dependent on just single server cloud hosting works differently. In cloud hosting, the servers are connected so to act a single machine. This means your online project is not dependent on just a single server so you get more stable performance.
The businesses have realized the potential of cloud hosting and the benefits come with it, so most businesses migrating to cloud computing. However, there are lots of hosting providers in the market and of course, you are not going to try every web host in order to find the right one for you. Alongside many other factors, it also has a significant impact on your business success so you should take this decision in a hurry.
So in this guide, I will discuss 7 crucial factors you must look at when choosing a cloud hosting provider.
Management Level
A cloud hosting provider may offer different management levels with its cloud hosting services. There are mostly two management levels i.e. self-managed and managed. So if you don’t want to get into the fuss of server configurations and technicalities then a managed cloud hosting plan is a hassle-free solution. It is often referred to as the ideal solution for websites and applications need more power. With managed cloud hosting the company provides enhanced support services. It means in the case of any problematic situation the company support department will take care of that. This allows the users to spend more time on their project development rather than managing the server.
On the other side, self-managed provides you more control by providing server root-level access. The user will be able to easily install or uninstall the operating system without requiring any permission which is good for developers. Furthermore, self-managed plans are usually less expensive than managed cloud hosting because in self-managed the company provides very basic level support services.
So while selecting your cloud hosting you should be careful whether you need hassle-free services or open environment cloud hosting. Usually, if you are not a tech-savvy guy and searching for an easily scalable solution it is wise to choose managed services.
Supported Operating Systems
Cloud hosting provides users a dedicated environment where the user has complete control over the server. However, you cannot go carelessly while choosing a cloud hosting provider for your project. The company may support both (Windows and Linux) or a specific operating system. Just take the example of a well-known DigitalOcean cloud hosting provider but it only supports Linux distributions. So if you want to host Windows then you need to look at best DigitalOcean alternatives.
For users who want to make use of ASP.NET and MSSQL, they need to check whether their selected cloud hosting provider allows you to install the Windows operating system or not.
Scalability options
Having sufficient availability of hosting options permits you to easily and most importantly quickly avail more resources. Instant scalability is the beauty of cloud hosting that save your website from a possible outage that may otherwise occur due to resource shortage. So when you are evaluating a cloud hosting make sure the company is offering enough rooms to accompany your growing hosting needs.
Security
While operating online you need to understand how crucial security is for your website or application. A good cloud hosting provider maintaining tight security measures to make your data secure. The company may select out of the two approaches. The cloud hosting provider adopts the basic level security while leaving most of the parts in the user’s hands. While there are also companies which take care of security and make sure secure cloud hosting services. Typically, with managed cloud hosting the company provides enhanced security, free backups, and security monitoring tools.
While selecting a cloud hosting provider you should ask the company regarding security measures like physical (security guards, biometric access, CCTV monitoring) and server level (web firewall, SSH access, API) security. Also, most cloud providers mentioned their security measures on their website.
Data Center Locations
The reason why data center locations are so important that it has an effect on the website loading speed. The closer the data center where your website or application is hosting the faster the data will travel between server to users. For example, if your targeted audience is in Germany then you should choose a data center located in Frankfurt.
Furthermore, in the case of disastrous situations like if a storm hit a data center then having multiple data centers allows the company to ensure the continuity of services from a separate data center.
Therefore your selected cloud hosting provider should provide a significant number of data center locations. The giant companies like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud platform offers its customer’s wide choice of data centers.
Pricing Structure
And of course, price is one of the most important considerations. A company may offer you different pricing structures like hourly, monthly, annual, or pay-as-you-go. Thanks to the companies and the competition, now you can take benefit from cloud hosting at relatively affordable prices. So if you want cloud services for a short duration then you should look for whether the company offers hourly/monthly billing or not.
Support
Nothing is perfect and this is so true in the case of technology. It means there are pretty high chances that you may face some problems from time to time. So the cloud hosting provider you choose should offer friendly and easy to access support services.
Generally, there are three support channels like Live Chat, Phone, and Email. Before selecting a hosting provider you need to check for the ways the company is delivering support services. Companies mostly maintain the “Support” page on their websites where you can find out the ways through which a company is providing support services.
A problem can arise anytime so the vendor you choose should provide 24/7/365 technical support. There are also some companies that offer amazing performance but their support services are available to help during specific hours. There is nothing wrong even if the company offers customer support during specific hours but having 24/7 technical assistance will be handier for you especially for beginners.
Besides offering multiple support channels and 24/7 technical support, your vendor should expeditiously respond to your problems or queries. To check the response time you can contact them like using live chat.
Bottom line
I hope you find this guide helpful to find out the right cloud hosting provider. There are tons of considerations, however, above I have mentioned the most crucial factors that you should take into account while selecting a cloud hosting provider.
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