Cloud hosting: All you need to know about it

The fact goes without a saying that cloud computing has been a game changer in the transformation of the digital space. Using this new trend, users can work from remote areas, share information, send messages to each other, and retrieve data without any obstacle. If you are relatively new to the concept of cloud, here is a brief and informative guide about cloud hosting service.

What should you know about cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting is a powerful and smart technology that performs on the code of shared storage and processing. When you invest in cloud hosting, you don’t host the data on a single server. Instead, you host it on multiple servers which safeguard the information from any kind of issues like system failures. You also get to enjoy automated data access while choosing cloud hosting. Broadly speaking, there are three major kind of cloud hosting services: public, private and hybrid cloud.
 
Public cloud – This cloud infrastructure is available on the internet and is open to all. These environments are quite economical and also easy to setup. The only major concern for this environment is that you can’t expect any kind of customizations. This doesn’t prove to be beneficial for business purposes at times.

Private cloud – If you are looking for tailor made solutions that would be perfect for your exact business needs, this would be the ideal choice for you. This can be owned and operated by a single user and you can have complete control over your data. By opting for this type of hosting, you can also enjoy improved security for your data.

Hybrid cloud – This is a perfect combination of both the type of hosting. While ensuring complete control over data just like a private cloud environment, this also offers the software as a service so that it can be used as public cloud. Cloud is a smart technology that offers companies complete control over their business data in such a way that they don’t need to worry about it. Instead, they can concentrate on their core functions and improve the organizational profitability and productivity.

However, it’s needless to say that in the present scenario, it’s a must for businesses to opt for cloud hosting so that their business data is properly taken care of.

What you need to learn about the virtual blind spots of a data centre & how to avoid those?

There is no doubt regarding the fact that virtualization is one of the major trends of cloud computing since the last decade. By differentiating the elements of the computing platform, the users have gradually done away with the traditional model of ‘one app, one server’. Instead of following the conventional process, they have moved to virtual machines so that they can realize the full potential of both their employees and their servers. Simply put, ignoring the benefits of virtualization is no longer an option for any organization that belongs to the competitive industry.

Since many of the machines handle traffic on a single server, it has quite a remarkable downside, i.e., traffic visibility. Since the VMs are built on depending on a lot of factors, it can turn out to be a problem to analyse the packet flow or trace a packet. It’s an important task as this helps understand exactly how a network is actually performing at a given point of time.

In most of the deployments, the lack of visibility into the virtual data centre security and performance might not become absolutely apparent until and unless it’s too late. For instance, when a vital performance problem occurs, especially with a mission critical networked application, it becomes difficult to track the exact problem due to lack of visibility. This is why administrators should make the right choices in network architecture. This will help them achieve the complete business benefits of virtualization. In this way, they can also meet the demand of packet-level visibility.

As far as avoiding the virtual blind spots is concerned, gaining access to the packet-level data is only half of the mission. In order to ensure end to end visibility into both the virtual and physical infrastructure, the traffic that comes from the virtual data centres must be analysed, filtered and broadcasted. This ensures the full suite of performance security monitoring tool of the company receives exactly the packet flow at the right time. This helps organizations do their job in the best possible way and in a timely fashion.

Avoiding the virtual blind spots is a concern for the entire data centre industry and hence, the largest data centres of the industry are investing in network monitoring switches. This is basically an emerging class of technology which connects the data centre network with the monitoring tools efficiently. Just as that of a physical network, load balancing and filtering for packets is extremely critical in a virtual environment as well. This is where the network monitoring switch helps one best as its job is to deliver exactly the data that is needed for analysis to each of the network tools.

This helps improve the overall productivity of the data centres by making all the monitoring tools run more accurately and more efficiently. There are many other benefits of this kind of an environment. Make sure you have a thorough knowledge of all these so that you can make utilization of all the features in the best possible way.

What are the potential security issues of cloud computing and how to overcome those?

In the present time, Cloud is undoubtedly one of the most talked about topics of the IT industry. No matter whether you are associated with a small business organization or a large scale enterprise, you must have heard about the importance of adapting cloud for improving the business processes. Well, there is no doubt regarding the fact that cloud is a boon for small as well as medium scale business enterprises as it allows them to cater to a large number of audience at a minimum cost. Cloud computing is basically the practice of using a wide network of remote servers that are hosted on the internet. These servers are used to manage, store and process data.

While the hype about cloud computing is completely justified, there are also a lot of concerns regarding security issues. One of the main reasons of the security issues with cloud computing is the great exposure that it gets. Since more data is transferred online, the chances of security breaches get higher. But this should not restrict the organizations from opting for cloud solutions. Instead of that, they should address the different security concerns individually and check how they can manage the risks more effectively. Here some of the most obvious security issues are discussed, going through which will enable you to understand how to overcome these issues –

·         Lack of control – The IT security experts who are most efficient to interact with the servers get extremely anxious while moving to the cloud. This is mainly due to the lack of control that they sense for not being physically present at the location.  However, this is not quite the case as the professional service providers usually have a very strong sense of responsibility. In fact, when the IT team of a company gets rid of the task of solving the hardware problems, they can be allocated for more productive functions. They too, will be able to utilize the extra time for log analysis, compliance management and threat remediation.

·         Loss of ownership – There is a common perception that when the data is stored in the cloud, the organization loses its ownership to a great extent. At times, professionals are also worried about the compliance implications for different standards like PCI-DSS and HIPAA. However, how much control of the data will be with you completely depends upon the partner that you choose. Just as you need to select a contractor to work on your premise, you have to be very wise while selecting a partner for a cloud solution. Make sure you check whether the service level agreement (SLA) offers full ownership of data or not.

While these are the two most important security issues with cloud computing, lack of maturity is another concern. There is a common belief among most business leaders that cloud is not mature enough to deal with the security demands that has been increasing at a constant pace. However, if you can choose the right cloud solution, you can rest assured of the required maturity. 

Top 2 aspects of cloud computing you need to consider before investing in cloud

If you are planning to invest in a cloud computing environment, you are not alone. In the present era, majority of business owners prefer to invest in cloud and data centre services in order to provide their customers with improved services. Although the large enterprises can plan to invest in personalized data centres, it’s hardly possible for SMEs. However, in order to cater to their target audience in a better way, they need to upgrade the quality of their services and products. This is where a cloud solution seems to be the most reliable option.

With the emergence of big data, each and every company needs a proper data storage facility in order to continue with their business initiatives properly. Cloud is a cost effective solution to store all the business critical data securely. But is it completely secure to store your mission critical data in cloud? Well, that is where you need to do a thorough research on your own business requirements and identify what kind of a cloud solution can meet your needs. At the same time, you should also be aware of the probable risk factors while investing in a cloud solution as this will help you deal with the situations tactfully in future. According to the industry experts, there are some aspects that you need to consider thoroughly and then determine whether or not you should opt for a cloud based solution. Here are two of the most relevant aspects of storing data in cloud that you should give a thought well in advance –

·         Shared access – If you decide to store data in a public cloud environment, then this is one of the most vital aspects that you should consider. This is because multi-tenancy is one of the core features of a public cloud environment. This means multiple customers, belonging to different domains, share the similar computing resources. If you are going to store valuable business data in a shared server space, make sure you know all the intricate details of a server. Additionally, consider using a VPN tunnel as it helps protect the public cloud data, in order to safeguard the valuable data perfectly.

·         Virtual exploits – All the large cloud service providers use the technology of virtualization. However, this holds the risks that are posed by virtual machines. Moreover, there are certain exploits who target the visual server hosts and the guests. Basically, there are four major virtual exploit risks including guest to guest, server host only, guest to host and host to guest. While these are the major probable risks, most of the times these are unknown. Therefore, most service provider don’t count these in the risk model that they plan to handle.

If you are planning to invest in a cloud environment, make sure you have a clear understanding of all the core features of it. This will help you make a better utilization of the service you invest in. 

What are the reasons behind so much buzz around Private Cloud?

If you are the owner of a SMBU or you run a large scale enterprise, you must have felt the requirement of a cloud service. However, if you don’t have a very clear idea about cloud service, you must know about private cloud at the first place. This is a specific model of cloud computing which involves a secure and distinct cloud environment. This type of cloud environment is designed in a way so that only a specific client can operate. Just like some of the other cloud models, the private cloud model, too, provides computing power in a particular way. The service is provided within an environment with the help of a pool of computing resources.

Over the past few years, the popularity of private cloud has sky rocketed, and there are significant reasons for that. The most remarkable feature of this type of cloud environment is that only a single organization can access this. If you would like to know the reason behind its popularity, here are some of them –

• Improved control – Since a private cloud is accessible only to a single organization, it ensures added control over the system. If you opt for a private cloud environment for your business, you will be able to configure it according to your own requirement. You can also manage it on your own terms and ensure a customized network solution.
• Higher privacy and security – Unlike public cloud models, private cloud models ensure that all the valuable information and operations are kept absolutely secure. This added security is ensured using a lot of techniques like distinct pools of resources, on-site internal hosting and dedicated leased lines.
• Cost effective option – By implementing a private cloud model you can utilize your resources better within the organization. Since resources will be available to the individual business functions or departments, they will be able to respond to any sort of demand promptly. Although this type of cloud environment is not as affordable as that of public cloud services, it helps make better use of the available computing resources. With this environment, you can be assured of minimized investment into unused capacity.
• Integration with public cloud – If needed, you can integrate the existing cloud environment with the public one and create hybrid clouds. In this system, the non-sensitive functions are placed on the public cloud, ensuring the best possible efficiency.
• Cloud bursting – If you have been looking for cloud bursting services, opting for a private cloud environment might prove to be quite beneficial for you. There are many providers who allow you to employ cloud busting in a private cloud environment. In order to provide more free space within this type of cloud environment, the service provider moves certain functions, basically which are not so sensitive, to a public cloud. This ensures the sensitive functions that require a lot of space to function properly, have enough space.

These are some of the key reasons why there is so much buzz around private cloud. If you are looking for a secure, yet cost effective cloud solution for your business and would also like to enjoy the benefits of virtualization, opting for a private cloud environment would be quite beneficial for you.

Top 3 significant business problems that you can solve using a cloud hosting solution

Over the past few decades, cloud computing has contributed to the improvement of the IT industry to a great extent. It not only provides immediate access to a lot of tools and resources, but also enables the users to pursue their goals that are extremely complicated in nature. Keeping a close eye on the rapid increase in the demand of cloud solutions, the service providers are refining their solutions based on the exact business needs. This, undoubtedly, is a great scenario for the entire industry and companies can capitalize on the advancements of cloud computing in this way.

All businesses, irrespective of their size, language, or industry, face certain problems that are similar in nature. For instance, it’s common for all those professionals who hold a managerial post, to ask questions like how to balance the budget. This is where a cloud solution helps well. Although it might seem initially that there is no direct connection between the ground level problems and a cloud solution, this helps you solve all these problems from a very basic level.

Here are some of the basic business problems that can be solved with the help of a cloud hosting solution–

• • Lack of security – Although many consider cloud hosting as not so safe an option for information storage, it’s a highly secure option for storing important data. There are certain advance features which help increase the privacy of the important business data. With proactive security engineering measures, all the sensitive business information remains absolutely secure. With a robust cloud hosting solution, the integrity and confidentiality of data remains intact. Once you invest in a hosting solution, you can rest assured of the security of data.
  • Deficiency of storage space – Cloud hosting is space saving and there is no doubt about that. While storing all the important documents in their physical format, you are surely going to run out of space after a certain point of time. Moreover, if you attempt to store all the documents in a single place, and in an organized way, you must appoint someone to keep a close eye on all the documents and maintain those properly. This will not only cost you a lot of money, but also a considerable amount of space and time. This is where relying on a cloud solution seems to be a wise decision as you can store unlimited amount of data in a cloud environment, without worrying about its security.
  • Problem in collaboration – There are times, when you need to collaborate with a group of team members who are working from a remote location. With the help of a cloud solution, you can easily share documents and files with employees, working from different locations, and thus, collaborate with them easily. This also enables all the employees to access the important information as and when needed.
  
  
  These are the most common and relevant business problems that can be solved with the help of a cloud hosting solution. So if your business is facing any of these troubles, this might be the high time to invest in a cloud hosting solution.

Have you considered these benefits of cloud storage for your business?

Cloud computing as well as cloud storage is quite a well-known topic of the IT industry in the present era. Right from the small scale business owners to the large enterprises, everyone is aware of the fact that opting for a cloud based solution will prove to be beneficial for their business in a number of ways. This is why a lot of business owners have migrated to cloud based environment over the past few years. Well, there are significant reasons for such a trend. After all a cloud environment enables the small and medium scale business owners to continue with their business ventures. With a cloud based solution, these businesses can store their vital data securely, without spending a lot on private servers.

Cloud storage is basically a service that allows the users to store different files over the web and thus enables them to access those files from anywhere, at any point of time. In this service all the data are remotely managed, backed up and maintained. According to a recent survey that was conducted with over 800 business owners, located across the globe, the number of enterprises that have been benefitted through cloud adoption, has been doubled over the last few years. It has also been predicted that by 2017, the market of public cloud services will probably exceed $244 billion. If you are not sure whether or not to invest in a cloud based solution, here are some of the most significant benefits of cloud storage –

·         Disaster recovery – This is probably one of the most important aspects of a cloud based storage. For any business, having a strong emergency backup plan is extremely important and a cloud storage offers an easily accessible back up plan. Once you store some data in cloud, you can rest assured of its back up files. This ensures you don’t have to worry about the security of the important data.

·         Saved bandwidth – While running a business, you need to be calculative enough to measure in what ways you can cut the operational costs and invest the saved amount of money in some core functions. With a cloud storage, you can simply send a web link to the recipients through your mail, instead of emailing the files to the individuals. In this way, all of the recipients will be able to access the same information and at the same time, you will be able to save a considerable amount of bandwidth.

·         Wide accessibility – All the files that you store in a cloud storage can be accessed whenever you need to. Since you store all these files in a space that can be accessed over the web, there is no limitation regarding when or from where you can access these files.  Right from the day to day business records to the important organizational data, you can save anything and everything in a cloud storage and access it as and when required.

These are some of the most important benefits of a cloud storage solution that you need to consider if you are planning to invest in such a solution.

4 reasons that will inspire you to move to cloud

Over the past few years, businesses, belonging to different industries, have gradually shown interest in cloud services and there are significant reasons behind a trend like this. According to industry experts, the rate of cloud adoption has grown faster than what was anticipated previously. Apart from ensuring increased efficiency and improved cash flow, cloud offers a lot of other benefits. No matter whether you have just started a business venture, or you have been associated with a large scale business organization since long, it’s never too late to opt for a cloud service. Whether you are looking for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or you are planning to invest in a solution like Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), the outcome of investing in cloud computing is pretty obvious. Not quite aware of the exact benefits that you might get to experience after opting for a cloud computing solution? Here is a list, highlighting the most significant ones; take a quick look –

·         Application of fresh software – When you invest in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), you can use the latest versions of all the applications that are needed to run the business operations smoothly. As all the applications are upgraded immediately, this ensures you can enable your employees with all the new functionalities and features. As a result of this, the overall productivity gets increased significantly. More interestingly, the software upgrades are released at frequent intervals and this helps improve your business functions to a great extent.

·     Flexibility of cost – When compared to a traditional method or an on premise solution, the cost of a cloud computing solution is quite flexible. As an organization, you need to pay only for the infrastructure and server capacity as per the usage. For instance, when you are expecting high traffic, you can provision more capacity, and then again, de-provision the same when it’s no longer required. With a traditional computing solution, you will have to buy the additional capacity to accommodate the high traffic.

·           Effective disaster recovery – Investing in a robust disaster recovery solution is a must for every business organization, but for small and medium businesses, it’s often not possible to make this additional expense. However, with cloud computing, it has now become possible for SMBs to implement recovery and backup solutions. These solutions not only help avoid the up-front investment, but also help save a great deal of time, which can be further used for the productive activities.

·           Improved collaboration – One of the most amazing benefits of investing in cloud computing is that it helps ensure better collaboration. Since all your team members can access, share and edit documents from any location, at any point of time, it helps them perform better. With a cloud solution on board, you can rest assured of improvement both in terms of quantity and quality. As they can access cloud based workflow as well as some file sharing apps, it will help them follow the updates in real time.

Considering these four major benefits of opting for a cloud computing solution will surely motivate you to invest into one. However, make sure to plan the implementation of a solution like this well in advance. 

How to choose the most reliable cloud application hosting provider

There is no doubt regarding the fact that moving some of the business operations like document storage and email to the cloud definitely helps organizations streamline the workflow and cut the costs to a great extent. This is also a great strategy to eradicate the requirement of hardware and in-house IT professionals. In fact, cloud also makes it simpler and easier for the remote employees to communicate with the core managers and access all the vital information and collaborate amongst themselves. Probably it’s the small and medium scale organizations that benefit the most from cloud application hosting. This is beneficial since the small and medium scale businesses get a scope to focus on their core businesses.

In the present time, designing and building mobile applications has turned out to be an obvious trend for almost all the businesses. This is why investing in cloud application hosting has become a basic need for all the businesses. If you are looking for cloud application hosting providers, be ready to check out several options. There are many service providers who offer end to end cloud application hosting services. However, if you are not sure how to select the most reliable service provider, here are some tips that you should definitely follow –

·         Check the pricing structure of the service provider – As a user, you should be very clear about the pricing structure that the service provider follows. Be sure to check if the organization with which you are going to sign the deal offers a pay-as-you-go model. You should also check if there are any initial upfront costs, which are not usually charged by the large scale organizations. From the outset, the pricing structure should be pay-as-you-use and it should also be able to add the services as and when required.

·         Find out the location of the data centre – This is probably one of the most important factors that you should consider right at the beginning. You should start thinking about it well in advance as this affects the security of your mission critical data to a great extent. Before signing the deal with the service provider, you should definitely check whether or not it is located in a safe zone.

·         Verify the security of the cloud environment – Security, is indeed a major consideration for selecting a third party cloud service provider. Check if the service provider follows the standard security measures and update those consistently. This ensures that your mission critical information remains safe and secure. Make sure you are completely comfortable with the cloud providers’ approach to security.

These are some of the most important tips by following which you will be able to choose the most reliable cloud application hosting provider.

How Beneficial is The Cloud for your Organisation?

Two decades back, before major search engines were launched, would you have believed if someone told you that you’d have information at your fingertips, in the cosy comfort of your home?

Fast forward to the year when social media websites/apps were released, and user-generated stories took on the world by the storm. You could connect and communicate with people, and information was stored on the server for everyone in your network to see. Today, the world has moved on from the local server and local infrastructure to a more virtual server and virtual infrastructure. Cloud has truly transformed how people share information, retrieve data, work in remote, and send messages to each other. With the cloud, the digital transformation was finally initiated.

For the uninitiated, we will take you through the basics of cloud computing, and the different cloud hosting services available to make your life comfortable and easy.

Cloud hosting services

Cloud hosting can be simply called an on-demand technology that works on the principle of shared storage and processing. The physical grid principles have been taken to the virtual world to ensure multiple computing resources share the hardware, and function with speed.

When you are hosting on the cloud, you are not hosting the data onto a single server but on multiple servers, thus safeguarding your data from system failures and other issues. Automating data access is another virtue of cloud hosting.

There are a multitude of cloud hosting services and cloud hosting providers that you need to take a look at, understand, articulate and assess for your needs. Majorly divided into three, public, private and hybrid, we will take you through each of them individually.

Public cloud: Available on the Internet, this cloud infrastructure is open to the public. It is easy to setup, highly economical, and comes with affordable bandwidth costs. You can opt for the pay-per-use model, which will allow you to pay for the services you use. The only fallback of this model is the fact that it follows the principle ‘one size fits all’, which may not be the case for your organisation.

Private cloud: Unlike the public cloud, the private cloud is owned by a specific company, and it offers the cloud computing benefits along with complete control over your data. Large enterprises opt for private cloud as they view it as enhanced security for their data and enterprise. The assets are singularly stored within the firewall strictly compiled by the enterprise.

Hybrid cloud: As the name suggests, it is a hybrid between the private and public cloud. It offers data control akin to private cloud, while keeping with the software-as-a-service principle of the public cloud. It takes the best of both the worlds, to offer extensive control and better data management to enterprises.

Benefits of cloud to organisations

With every technology that has come into existence, extensive opportunities have been created for businesses, and business models have evolved for better revenues and profitability.

·         Reduced investments: When you are opting for the cloud, you are opting to pay for whatever service you would be using. Most often, enterprises need to invest in infrastructure that would be deployed on their premises. With the cloud, the cost and efforts involved in setting up the IT infrastructure are reduced, thus reducing the overhead costs in a major way. This, in turn, helps you fund your team and projects, thus increasing chances of profitability.

·         Easy scalability: Upgrading a physical system requires a lot of effort from the team. You will have to develop and deploy the applications on the premise, and even deploy the hardware accordingly. That’s not the case with the cloud. The server and infrastructure are virtual which means scalability is definitely not your headache anymore. The development is easier on the cloud, making creating applications faster, and the performance testing easier for you.

·         Easy maintenance: You are on the cloud, which means you don’t really need to invest time or effort in maintaining the infrastructure. Moreover, the systems and applications on the cloud undergo automated updates, which reduce your need to interfere and test or update the application or system on a regular basis. Downtime of the system can harm the company’s reputation, and even cause abandonments. With the right cloud hosting providers, you don’t need to worry about that, as now you won’t be facing any downtime.

·         Transformed disaster recovery: Backup is a major trouble with people, and most people don’t attempt to take regular backup of their data, which could cause sudden loss of data. The process of backing up data manually is time-consuming and pretty expensive. To avoid the costs and time involved with backing up data, and to prevent the losses that are likely to occur with data loss due to unforeseen disasters, the cloud is the best path for enterprises. This will schedule auto-backup, and store your data to the server. The centralised database will possess all your data and is regularly synced, based on the intervals you have suggested. This makes life hassle-free for companies.

With the technology provided by cloud service providers, companies need not worry about their data and infrastructure and can concentrate on their core, bringing in more productivity and profitability to the organisation.

Linux managed server or Windows managed server: Which is more apt for you?

If you are running a business, you would surely like to maximize the scope of profit. In order to achieve this, you need to maximize the scalability, value and performance of the infrastructure that you are using. At the same time, you should also be careful enough to improve the user experience. If you are puzzled to run a lot of critical applications, you should opt for managed hosting server. It’s a solution that has been designed in a way so that it works for specific business needs and the particular infrastructure of a business.

Wondering why you should opt for managed hosting server? Well, there are multiple reasons. With these services, you don’t need to worry about managing the platform, and you can also access the latest technological advancements without paying the upgrade costs. While the benefits of managed server are quite obvious, you need to choose between a Linux based solution and a Windows managed server. While choosing between these two, you need to consider which would be more relevant for your business and the jobs that you are going to perform.

Here are some of the factors that you need to consider while choosing between these two –

·        Security – One of the most important aspects that you need to take care of while choosing a server is security. Both Windows as well as Linux managed servers need very strong security protection. Hence, make sure you investigate what security measures are provided by the service provider. Before you sign up for the service of any service provider, be sure to check the security measures thoroughly.  

·     Cost-effectiveness – Finally, this is another most important feature that you need to keep in mind. Quite obviously, cost effectiveness has always played a major role whenever it comes to opt for a service or buy a product. Remember that for using Microsoft products, you need to pay a certain amount while you can use Linux for free.

·      Scalability – If you need to choose between these two software, you should check the scalability of both the models. For instance, keep this in mind that software that are Linux based are not necessarily compatible with the different Microsoft technologies like .NET. On the other hand, software that are Windows based are usually compatible with Linux features like MySQL and PHP.

·        The language of development – While choosing any of these two servers, you should keep in mind the development language. Most of the Linux hosting environments generally use a MySQL database. If you are planning to use applications that are based on ASP .NET or SQL server, you should opt for a Windows managed server. Make sure whichever you opt for, you check the minimum hosting requirements that are required for running the application. Consider asking your team of developers to specify the minimum requirement.

Once you consider all these, you should be able to determine the more suitable solution for your business. Apart from these factors, you should also check out the performance issues and stability of both the solutions. 

Follow these 3 tips while choosing a cloud service provider for your business

Over the past few years, the entire IT industry has witnessed a huge revolution, in terms of storage and cloud computing. With the increased amount of data, it has become almost impossible for businesses to store the required data on their own and this is why they prefer to opt for cloud based solutions. While the benefits of cloud computing are quite obvious, you might not be able reap the maximum possible benefits if you can’t choose the right cloud service provider. It’s undoubtedly true that opting for a cloud storage solution helps improve the productivity of the developers and also boosts up the time-to-market. But then, finding the right service provider is important in order to ensure the best possible benefits.

While looking for a cloud service provider, you should keep your exact requirements in mind. Not all businesses have the same requirement and this is why you should opt for a solution that fits your requirements best. Here are some helpful tips that you should follow in order to find the right cloud service provider –

• Mitigate the risks – First off, you have to accept the fact that your data is not completely safe anywhere. This is why it’s essential to define the level of risk that you can afford and ask the potential providers whether or not they will be able to satisfy it. Most of the standards and qualifications are quite transparent and these can be easily audited. Make sure the service provider offers PCI and HIPPA compliance. You should definitely check your individual requirements as well. Be sure to sign the deal with a service provider who will be able to minimize the risks to a great extent.

• Find out the right locations – Try to figure out where exactly you would require the Infrastructure as a Service. If your business application crunches the data of customers who are largely based in a particular location, you might consider hosting the data differently. In some situations, there are certain legal implications that you have to take care of. Hence, while selecting the cloud service provider, make sure you are clearly aware of the location well in advance. This will help you avoid the legal hassles in future.

• Be sure about the SLA – Service Level Agreement or SLA is one of the most important factors that you should check for on the very first go. You should note that cloud SLAs vary to a great extent. This is why you should take the SLA as the very starting point and get it clarified by your legal team, section by section. Consider using the customer references and their individual experience with SLAs. Be sure to have a list of questions related to the SLA and treat it as a negotiation.

These are some of the most important tips that you should keep in mind while choosing a cloud service provider. Apart from these, you should also calculate and compare the price that the service providers ask for.

Top 3 Facts of Cloud Security That You Need To Remember

Security is one of the most integral aspects of cloud computing and if you are planning to invest in it, you should have a clear knowledge of all the probable security issues of cloud computing. In fact, in the present scenario when most of the business owners are not sure about whether or not to invest in cloud, security is one of the biggest concerns that they worry about. Till date, there are many business owners who think that on premise is a safer and better option as compared to a cloud based solution. In fact, there are also many entrepreneurs who think that cloud is probably the least safe place on the earth to store one’s important documents.

However, talking about cloud security, it depends on the perception of the individual organization and the leadership skills of the leading professionals of the organisation. It’s the responsibility of the management professionals to determine whether or not a cloud deployment is the right strategy for the organization. In general, cloud adoption is growing at a rapid rate and hence, it’s important to know the different aspects of cloud computing security.

·         Cloud security is one of the top concerns of 2015 – According to the studies, conducted during 2015, cloud security has been one of the major concerns of the IT executives, over the past few years. Apart from these, a number of researches were conducted which show that thirty six percent of the IT executives mentioned security as their first priority, while thirty one percent of them mentioned cloud to be one of the first initiatives that they would like to take.

·         Public vs. private is not the end of the story – One of the major concerns regarding cloud security is the level of security offered by the public cloud and private cloud. While it’s true that a public cloud environment offers more control over the data and better compliance to PCI and HIPPA standards, there are also certain advantages of opting for a public cloud environment. Basically the security issues get determined by the overall cloud strategy that an organization adopts and also by how the managers are using the technology.

  

·         The growth of cloud security market – According to the market report that has been created based on multiple researches, the market for the different security services and products is growing at an exponential rate across the globe. At the same time, it has also been found that the demand for cloud-based security solutions is leading the industry. According to the prediction of the industry experts, the market size for cloud based security solutions will reach around $9 billion by the end of 2019.

These are the major security concerns of cloud computing that every business owner should be aware of. Apart from these, it should also be kept in mind that over the past few years 43% of the companies experienced data breaches, and they had to suffer the obvious consequences of this data loss as well. This is why it’s important to be aware of the ongoing market trends and take a wise decision.

Reference URL - http://www.techrepublic.com/article/cloud-security-10-things-you-need-to-know/

What is The Smart Way to Find the Best Yet Affordable Dedicated Server in India?

There are certain signs that indicate the success of an online business. These include huge volume of traffic, high transaction volumes and increased number of customers. These clearly indicate that the business needs to scale up to a great extent. If your business has been undergoing such a phase, and you are still struggling with a shared server hosting, it might hamper the growth of your business to a significant extent. In a situation like this, opting for a dedicated server is the best possible solution for each and every business. This is a new age hosting solution which is considered to be perfect for e-commerce websites and large scale businesses that experience heavy traffic. The dedicated web servers are powerful solutions for all the requirements of your online business. It offers a robust and unparalleled hosting environment for all the critical websites and complex e-commerce applications.

With the help of lots of hosting service providers, it’s no longer difficult to find an economical as well as a good quality dedicated server in India. If your business is based in India, and you are looking for affordable dedicated server hosting service, it won’t be difficult for you to find one. For different types of hosting services and data centre, India is probably the best place to explore as you can find lots of cost-effective solutions. But then, are you sure that you will be able to choose the most suitable dedicated server solution for your business? Well, here are some of the most useful tips that you should follow while looking for dedicated server hosting service –

• Choose the operating system carefully – While choosing a dedicated server, you have the option between Linux and Windows when it comes to choose the OS. While Linux is ideal for PHP and Java, Windows is considered best for .NET. Hence, you should be careful enough about your exact requirement while choosing a server. If in a doubt, you can always ask for professional help and get experts’ advice for the hosting solution. If you are planning to run a website that is extremely rich with resources, be sure to choose the most powerful and fastest processor that you can afford.

• Look for 24X7 customer support – When it comes to a dedicated server solution, it’s extremely important to look for a solution that comes with thorough technical support. Make sure you will always be able to reach a point of contact who will help you solve any problem that you are facing with the server. Remember that the response time needs to be very quick. Hence, try emailing or calling the service provider before signing the deal. This will help you get an idea regarding how fast they will be able to get back to you.

Be sure to consider other important factors like the annual maintenance costs and service durability of the server before investing. Make sure whichever solution you choose, you would be able to continue with that comfortably enough in the long run.

VPS Hosting: How It Can Be The Best Bet For Business Organizations?

VPS hosting has undoubtedly become one of the most popular web hosting services that businesses opt for. Since the virtualization technologies help increase the functionality and performance, it’s quite likely that the popularity and demand of VPS hosting will continue to increase. There are several reasons why organizations should choose VPS hosting as a service to host their applications or websites. Right from achieving a lower carbon footprint to ensuring utmost scalability without any hassle, a VPS hosting service offers you a lot.

If your business is based in India and you are looking for a reliable VPS hosting service, you can be rest assured of getting high quality services. This is mainly because for VPS hosting, India is considered to be one of the most reliable places as there are many hosting service providers who offer VPS hosting and you will get to choose the services from a wide range of options. If you are also looking for Windows VPS, India is the right place to explore. You can always check the offerings and quotations of multiple service providers and then choose one that seems to be the most economical.

If you are still wondering why exactly you should opt for a VPS hosting service, here are some of the reasons –

• Scalability as per requirement – If your business website can experience different flow of traffic at different points of time, smooth scalability is something that you must opt for. When you host your website or application with a VPS hosting account, the entire environment is hosted within a container. As this container is allocated a definite amount of resources, you can easily make use of those resources as and when required. For instance, if you need to upgrade the RAM quickly, in order to handle a heavy surge of visitors, you can easily do that with just a few clicks.

• Environment friendly option – Over the past few years, green hosting and environment friendly technologies have become quite popular and there are reasons for that. When possible, it’s important to do whatever you can in order to reduce the carbon impact and the overall detrimental impact on the environment. With the help of a VPS hosting account, you will be able to do the same. Moreover, with a VPS hosting server, you will also be able to make better usage of all the resources.

• Cost effective solution – Over the course of time, VPS hosting has become quite cost effective and therefore, small and medium sized companies can easily opt for it now. Since the virtualization technologies have advanced a lot, the prices have slashed down to a great extent and the same trend is expected to continue in the future. Even if you are just starting with a brand new website, you will be able to opt for this smart solution. However, be sure to check out the prices quoted by different service providers and the offerings they are providing. Sign the final deal only after comparing different price ranges.

These are some of the most important reasons why VPS hosting is considered to be the best bet for organizations of all sizes.

Choosing A Dedicated Server: A Detailed Study

The benefits of a dedicated server is well accepted by all the business owners, no matter whether they are owners of SMBs or they run large scale organizations. When it comes to scale up your business, dedicated server is probably the best possible hosting solution that you can opt for. But then, choosing the most suitable yet cost-effective dedicated server for a business often turns out to be a complicated task. In fact, it also takes a lot of time to search through the different available options and then figure out the most apt one. However, even if the task is time consuming and quite complicated, it’s of crucial importance to make the right selection. After all, investing in a dedicated server is indeed an expensive affair and that’s why, you need to be extremely attentive to all the details.

Right from technology and business requirements to compliance and budget, there are thousands of factors that one needs to consider while making a selection for a dedicated server. It’s expected that most business owners are familiar to this process. But then, are they aware of all the minute details that are integral part of this planning? Here is a detailed study regarding the several aspects that business owners should consider while choosing a dedicated server –

Business requirements – To begin with, it’s an established fact that no two businesses have similar requirements and hence, every organization should focus on their own specific requirements while making any kind of investments. However, there are some requirements that are common with most of the organizations. For instance, disaster recovery, high uptime, security and e-commerce are few to mention.

• Security – While storing your mission critical data in a third party dedicated server, you should check its security thoroughly. It should be equipped with software and hardware firewalls. It should also have protection against the different types of distributed attacks.

• Disaster recovery – No business would like to lose their mission critical data due to a disaster and hence, checking the disaster recovery plan well in advance is extremely important. Be sure to check whether or not the hosting service provider follows a proper disaster recovery plan and if the other team members are aware of that plan properly.

• High uptime – If your website or application is accessed by a large number of visitors, high uptime is going to be a vital business requirement. Make sure the service provider will offer high uptime.

• E-commerce – If you have been running an e-commerce website, you need to be a little more specific about your requirement. Be sure to check if they will offer safe and secure access to dedicated servers and complete integrity of data.

Budget – Well, this is undoubtedly one of the most important factors that you need to think of right at the beginning of the plan. But then, there are several types of costs that you will experience while purchasing a dedicated server. Moreover, there might be a significant difference between the initial cost and the Total Cost of Ownership. Hence, it’s advisable to check out all the break-ups minutely.

• Setup fees – Although most of the service providers configure the servers for free, it’s advisable to count this cost within the budget.

• Monthly rental fee – Quite obviously, you should start the consideration with this. Check the different plans along with their monthly traffic. Be sure to include this in the entire budget.

• Price for upgrades – In case you are planning to install some kind of upgrades like additional hard drive or additional memory, you should estimate its cost separately. Moreover, you should also keep in mind the maximum capacity of the upgrade of the motherboard and of the initial chassis. With some of the hosting providers, you might have to check these prices from the sales process.

• Fees for software licensing – It’s advisable to consider certain additional cost for virtualization or database software and proprietary operating system. However, in case you are using an open source environment, this factor should not impact your decision to a great extent.

• Price to manage extra traffic – You might come across certain service providers who will offer unlimited traffic. But then, there will be high chances that they will put some limitations on bandwidth. Don’t forget to check what amount of traffic is allowed in the monthly plan that you are subscribing for. Consider comparing it to that of the expected traffic and then check how much extra you might need to pay for surpassing the traffic limit.

Technology – Technology is definitely one of the most important factors that you should consider while making a choice for a dedicated server. There are several factors that you need to think of –

• Performance – One of the main reasons to invest in a dedicated server is to improve the performance of your website or application, isn’t it? Hence, it’s important to check the efficiency of the server. In fact, if you are planning to conduct virtualization, video transcoding or chat or game servers, it would be advisable to opt for a multi-processor server.

• Database server and web server – The type of server you should choose depends entirely on the technology stack. In case, the architecture is built upon Windows, Ruby, Java etc., you might require a server that has plenty of RAM.

• Bandwidth – In case you are planning to host multimedia like flash videos or high quality images, you should be extra careful for the bandwidth and the uplink speed. If you think what the service provider is offering would not suffice your requirement, consider asking for extra bandwidth and check its price accordingly.

These are three of the major considerations that you need to make while investing in a dedicated server. Be sure to check the pricing and offers with more than one service provider so that you can have a fair idea regarding the ongoing market trend. This will also help you make the best possible decision.