Cloud Hosting Vs Dedicated Servers – Choosing the Right Option
Introduction
Choosing the right hosting solution depends on your business. Having said that, to give you a heads-up to make the right choice, we will take a look at the differences and similarities of cloud hosting vs dedicated servers.
Similarities Of Dedicated Servers And Cloud Hosting
Both cloud hosting and dedicated servers provide reliable, powerful, and comprehensive server environments. They can run the same services and apps and use the same control panels. They can also use similar operating systems, plus they have similar server administration. However, despite all these similarities, there are a range of differences which can make one to support your business than the other.
Cloud Servers Characteristics
One major difference between a dedicated server and cloud servers is that the former uses a virtual machine for hosting, while the latter uses a physical one. Meanwhile, a cloud server needs a physical server to run on, with both the physical machine and the virtual server being independent of each other.
The virtual server can be moved to any location with downtime if there is a hardware failure. This is why so many web hosts offer 100% uptime guaranteed by SLAs. More so, a new virtual server can be created and deployed very quickly. Plus, whenever it is needed, additional computing resources, such as RAM and storage, can be assigned to it. In this regard, cloud hosting shines over dedicated servers.
Scalability is another advantage of using cloud hosting solutions. Businesses with the demand for more computing resources can have them instantly without any delay. This will enable businesses to deal with big data analysis and unexpected web traffic spikes. What does this mean? It means there would never be a time that the demand on resources would outstrip its capabilities.
Dedicated Servers Characteristics
Simply put, dedicated servers are physical computers. All the resources they come with are for your use. One reason why it is quicker to deploy cloud hosting over a dedicated server is that users have the ability to choose the right hardware configuration, including the RAM and the type of RAM, the CPU model and the number of cores, and the size of the hard drive. As the name suggests, with dedicated servers, you have the ability to control the configuration of your machine.
Dedicated servers can be used for hosting databases, large websites, and web applications. They are also used to store sensitive data. Compared to cloud hosting, dedicated servers are not part of the network where hardware is shared by different users.
Cloud Hosting vs Dedicated Servers – Conclusion
Cloud hosting and dedicated servers both provide the resources to run critical applications and large websites. Cloud servers are less expensive, quicker to deploy, and easier to scale. On the other hand, dedicated servers are highly powerful, built to specification, and offer increased security. Both hosting solutions offer high availability.
What’s your experience using any of two solutions? Let us know in the comment section.