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Is Cloud Hosting the Future of Business?

August 29, 2016 by Adnan Raja under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

It’s often difficult to tell if a technology is really taking hold, or if news of its trendiness is mostly industry chatter of businesses that are invested and trying to sell their biased perspective. Is cloud the future, or is it just hype?

What is Cloud Computing or Cloud Hosting?
How Fast is the Rise of Cloud, Especially IaaS?
Pros & Cons of Cloud
Strong Cloud Hosting for Your Business

When you search for “cloud computing” on Google, you get 74 million results. Compare that to “dedicated server,” which has only 569,000 results. That gives you a sense of the massiveness of this tech concept. Of course the cloud transcends the datacenter to be a major topic in consumer computing, such as iCloud storage, as well.

To what extent, though, does cloud go beyond being a trend? Is cloud hosting the future of business? Let’s look at what cloud computing is; forecasts on its growth; and pros and cons of this form of computing.

August 22, 2016 by Adnan Raja under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

Small and medium businesses are increasingly adopting cloud, according to a recent survey. In fact, it is almost ubiquitous, with 95% of SMBs now using cloud or planning to use it. As businesses are increasingly using these services, the notion of cloud as a utility is going mainstream.

Business Cloud on the Rise: Survey
Cloud Hosting as a Utility
Business & On-Demand Cloud Hosting

Business Cloud on the Rise: Survey

Almost 19 out of every 20 SMBs currently use a cloud service or are in the planning stages of adopting one, according to a recent survey. Many companies are transitioning to cloud hosting because they are frustrated with their providers of traditional web hosting services.

The poll, from industry research outfit Clutch.co, looked at 300 companies with fewer than 1000 employees. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72%) said that they have switched hosting web providers since 2011. Fully 86% of businesses said that they had problems with their web host within the last twelve months.

August 13, 2016 by Sam Guiliano under HIPAA Compliant Hosting 0 Comments

Following a two-year deceleration of cloud growth, the technology again gathered steam in 2015. With the vast majority of healthcare providers now adopting cloud, it’s become critical to consider risk management for this transition. Here is a five-stage plan to see your organization through.

Slow-Down & Speed-Up of Cloud in Business
Hybrid Cloud and Risk Management in Healthcare
Five-Stage Cloud Risk Management for HIT
Managing HIT risk with Your cChoice of Cloud Vendor

Slow-Down & Speed-Up of Cloud in Business

In 2013 and 2014, there was a slow-down in the previously breathtaking ascent of cloud hosting. However, last year, the industry accelerated again, with 5.4% more organizations adopting the IT method.

Business generally has been moving to cloud, but healthcare companies have been somewhat more hesitant to implement these systems because of concerns with compliance and security. Nonetheless, 5 of 6 healthcare providers (83%) had cloud in place even back in 2014, according to the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Furthermore, Becker’s Healthcare notes in 2016 that “[c]ompared to previous years, providers are more likely to use cloud implementations and leverage mobile and analytics capabilities in the cloud than before.”

August 3, 2016 by Adnan Raja under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

Public and private clouds both have their advantages. To benefit from both of their strengths, many enterprises are choosing a hybrid cloud.

Public and Private Cloud
Why are Some Companies Choosing Hybrid?
Optimizing Agility
Maintaining Compliance
Facilitating Partnerships
Leveraging Real-Time Decisions
Moving Forward with Cloud

Cloud is generally considered a solution that can help businesses control their expenses while giving them the agility to innovate and outmaneuver their competition. The question many organizations have is which type of cloud makes the most sense: public, private, or hybrid. Let’s look at general understandings of the public and private categories and why many enterprises are choosing the compromise of a hybrid.

Public and Private Cloud

Total expenditure on cloud infrastructure is projected at $38.2 billion this year by IDC. This technology is only continuing to grow, so businesses have options – it’s just a matter of deciding which route to take. It used to be that organizations would determine which one of those models made sense primarily based on their industry. Finance companies would generally choose private cloud, for instance. By keeping their cloud in-house, they were able to retain full control of security parameters and know where data was at all times for easier compliance with regulations.

August 2, 2016 by Adnan Raja under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

As businesses tried to determine whether they should continue to keep their IT on-site or process it with third-party cloud hosts, many ended up choosing a compromise: hybrid cloud.

The Hybrid Cloud: What is it?
Why do Some Companies Choose Hybrid?
Hybrid Doesn’t Always Make Sense
Examples of Hybrid Cloud Use
Strong Hosting Partner for Your Hybrid Cloud

For the first few years that cloud was becoming prominent, it was praised by IT and finance professionals. However, those who were working with extremely sensitive or mission-critical systems remained reluctant about the technology. What enterprises started to do was strike a balance and adopt the hybrid model, rather than going all-in with either in-house or public systems.

The Hybrid Cloud: What is it?

A hybrid cloud mixes together public cloud hosting from an infrastructure-as-a-service vendor (a company that provides cloud servers) with a private cloud set up internally. In other words, the public and private cloud systems are distinct and established in separate locations, each with their own data centers and specifications. They interact through an encrypted connection which allows apps and information to flow between the two.

It’s critical to understand that hybrid is not one cloud with public and private aspects but two completely different clouds joined together, notes James Sanders of ZDNet. “This allows organizations to store protected or privileged data on a private cloud, while retaining the ability to leverage computational resources from the public cloud to run applications that rely on this data,” he says.

July 27, 2016 by Sam Guiliano under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

The Internet of thing is growing at a breathtaking pace. That means connectivity at both home and work will become more and more complex. As the IoT makes computing increasingly complicated, some say we should be concerned primarily with the backend rather than interoperability.

Speed of IoT Growth
A Jumble of Disconnected Cloud Services
The Issue of Interoperability
Changing the IoT Standardization Focus to the Backend
Cloud that Meets Rigorous Standards

Speed of IoT Growth

The Internet of things is expanding at a rapid rate as enterprises and vendors are becoming more aware of the possibilities presented by this all-inclusive approach to connectivity. The IoT market was forecast last year by IDC to grow at a whopping 16.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2014 and 2020, rising from $655.8 billion to $1.7 trillion. To put that into perspective, it’s nearly as fast as the growth of public cloud, which is predicted by IDC to achieve a 19.4% CAGR between 2015 and 2019; and keep in mind that much of that public cloud growth will actually be because of the growth of IoT.

July 22, 2016 by Adnan Raja under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

<<< Go to Part 1

4 – Datacenter Cost of Ownership
5 – Enterprise-Grade Data Protection
6 – Datacenter Equipment Requirements
7 – Support from the Developers
8 – Enterprise Authentication
Developer-Friendly Cloud VPS

4 – Datacenter Cost of Ownership

Van Vugt says that Linux is free; the operating system itself is free. Nonetheless, you have to pay for the resources to run any program, of course. Plus, you typically will have to buy a high-end copy of Linux for the datacenter since free versions won’t necessarily meet your needs. That’s because free versions don’t have guarantees, essentially. In that sense, it should be understood that both Linux and Windows both come at a cost to business.

Typically, a business wants high reliability in their IT, high reliability that is also affordable. While the Linux OS won’t itself cost you anything, you’ll probably want a support package (or to go through a cloud hosting company). If you are deploying a server within your own datacenter, it often makes sense to get one from a firm that offers enterprise packages with support.

Linux is more affordable than Windows. That’s just a straight fact, because the Linux OS is free. Windows, on the other hand, charges a license for each user. It’s simply a different model.

July 21, 2016 by Adnan Raja under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

When you spin up a cloud server, a basic and immediate question must be answered first: should you use Windows or Linux? Let’s compare the operating systems, both based on popularity and with a thorough discussion from experts on both sides of the aisle.

Which Server OS is Winning?
Is Linux or Windows Server Better, Though?
1 – Functionality
2 – Stability
3 – Specific Application to Cloud
Spinning Up a Cloud VPS

Which Server OS is Winning?

Typically, when people think about the two top operating systems, they think of the client-side rivalry between Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s OSX. However, on the server side, things are a little different: instead of a battle between huge tech corporations, it’s a battle between two tech approaches. Windows Server represents the proprietary side, and Linux represents the open source side.

July 19, 2016 by Sam Guiliano under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

Go to Part 1 <<<

Let’s Make Some Magic with the IoT (continued)
Internet of Things Too Powerful for Cloud?
The Ability to Process Data in All its Diversity
Different Types of Standards
Security in the IoT
The Automation of Things
Cloud VPS to Fuel Your IoT Transition

Let’s Make Some Magic with the IoT (continued)

Cloud technology was designed for an Internet of Things world, argues Jamie Carter of TechRadar. The structural approach to computing makes it much easier to achieve interoperability between many different devices and systems, a feature that becomes increasingly complex but nonetheless fundamental as the IoT expands.

Cloud has been growing incredibly as businesses have shifted from entirely Windows environments to Mac and mobile, according to CSID chief innovation officer Adam Tyler. He adds that the technology will become even more prevalent as the Internet of Things continues to build.

June 22, 2016 by Sam Guiliano under Cloud Hosting 0 Comments

The cloud and Internet of Things are often referenced in conjunction. The IoT is considered an application of cloud computing by many. While the Internet of Things does require the cloud to operate, its scope and power will have a major impact on how cloud computing develops.

Deep Connection between Cloud and IoT
Big Data of Things will Empower the Cloud
Let’s Make Some Magic with the IoT
Harnessing the Internet of Things with Cloud Servers

Deep Connection between Cloud and IoT

Every January, one of the biggest tech events in the country is held in Las Vegas: the Consumer Electronics Show. As expected for the 2016 event, there was an increasing amount of cloud discussion among companies and attendees. The majority of new electronic products, ranging from vehicles to kitchen appliances, are integrated with the cloud. Gradually the technology is becoming more ingrained throughout industry and, in turn, throughout our lives.

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