If your company is like many businesses, you’ve relied on traditional website hosting for years. Perhaps it’s worked well so far, yet you’ve seen the fees grow as your company has grown. The “cloud” has become the latest buzzword, yet you may be wondering whether your company—and your website—could benefit from moving to the cloud.
Faster Database Management
Let’s face it. No matter what custom or out-of-the-box script your website uses, you’re gathering a tremendous amount of information. From logins and passwords to addresses and orders, your databases are chock-full. Every time your website needs to load data to complete a script or display information to a visitor, databases on a traditional host can move slowly. Cloud databases, however, provide advanced indexing and caching to speed things up. You’ll also find even more options as to the types of databases your business can use.
Ease of Scalability
Traditional hosting servers may lag when it comes to application development. You have your choice between a hard-disk drive and a solid-state drive (SSD), and although SSDs are faster, they tend to come with a high price. The same is true when you’re looking to purchase a PC.
Cloud computing doesn’t just rely on a single hard drive, however, and when you need to add more space, cloud web hosting offers the scalability and flexibility to make this simple and not a hassle. If you rent a dedicated server and need more space, processor power or bandwidth, you’re out of options since you’re using everything there already is. Because cloud technology is based on virtualization, greater flexibility is available.
Quick user Experiences
Speed is also important on the consumer’s end. Your customers want to view their profiles, check out from your store and contact you, if necessary, as efficiently as possible. When your website apps and cloud databases work together to make this possible, you’ve got a chance at winning a customer’s loyalty. If your website runs too slowly, you’ll be driving users to your competitor’s site instead. That’s one of the reasons page load speed is factored into Google’s PageRank algorithm.
Saving Money and Increasing Access
Unlike traditional website hosting, cloud hosting typically requires that you pay only for the storage you’re using. You’re not going to be talked into paying for a plan that far exceeds your business’s needs just because it helps another company’s bottom line. You want dependable service when it comes to database hosting, but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg to get it.
Allowing your employees to access company data in the cloud also offers benefits. As more companies move to a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model, mobile apps allow smartphones and tablets to access databases, email and websites no matter where your employees are located.
Just as the PCs of yesterday evolved to the systems of today, the move from standard web hosting servers to a cloud-based strategy is a step forward when it comes to database capabilities, user experiences, and cost benefits. Examining these advantages can help your organization determine if they’re ready to take on a cloud-based solution.
