Setting your business up online and starting that journey can be incredibly intimidating and overwhelming. After all, you’re doing more than just setting up a website, you’re also creating a whole new platform for interacting with your customers. And this interaction means that you’re collecting data from your customers, data that needs protecting. So, not only do you have to think about all the design aspects of your website, but you also have to think about hosting and the types of servers.
The right server can make or break your online presence. But many people just starting out on their internet journey have no idea what a server even is, or what we mean by hosting, let alone knowing how to choose the right one for them. This is where we can help. Here at catalyst2, we offer high quality web hosting for all of our customers, offering a range of server configurations, including cloud hosting.
What is Cloud Hosting?
You’ve probably heard the term hosting during your research, but what does that actually mean? Well, we are web hosts. That means that we have the facilities to host your website, helping you to create and maintain your website, making it accessible to anyone on the internet. We use servers to house and run your website, keeping it safe and maintained while online.
We use severely different types of servers depending on your needs, but one of our most popular servers options is our cloud hosting. Cloud hosting is different from our dedicated or flexible servers, both of which offer you the services of an entire server. Instead cloud hosting uses an electronic structure to store data across multiple servers.
These servers work together like one large server to store, process and secure your website data. This has a number of advantages compared to the other servers that we offer, which has made cloud hosting one of the most popular services that we offer. It is particularly popular amongst those who are just starting out with their business.
What Makes a Good Choice for your Business?
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Flexible Solution
When you’re first launching a business, flexibility is the key with everything. Flexibility with orders, your scheduling and with your online presence. You’ll want to be able to access your data, applications and email from anywhere in the world because you might not know where you’ll be from one day to the next.
While more traditional servers are tied to a fixed location meaning that you can only access them from certain locations, cloud hosting offers you flexibility. You’ll be accessing your web hosting over the internet, meaning that any PC or mobile device can access the information you need. So, wherever your business might take you, you’ll always be in complete control of your website and your data.
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Offers a Lower Risk of Server Downtime
While dedicated servers are renowned for the space and the fast download speeds they offer their users, there is always a risk of down time. Should something go wrong, the server will need to be taken down and righted before going back online. While we offer back up servers to limit this downtime, it is still an unavoidable part of working with a dedicated server. And, as any business owner knows, downtime only damages profits and brand image.
However, cloud hosting works slightly differently. Instead of being connected to one singular server, the system is made up of multiple, interconnected servers. This means that there is no one point of failure. Even if one server goes down, another will take over the control, keeping everything running smoothly. As a result, your website will stay up and running while we endeavour to correct any issues within the system. And this uptime will only benefit your business.
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Affordable Choice
If you’re just setting out with your business then your funds are probably going to be quite tight. But skimping on costs can end up damaging your business when something goes wrong. You want a high quality server at an affordable price. And your ideal solution, as you might have guessed, is cloud hosting. Most startups don’t need an entire server to themselves and will operate very smoothly on a cloud server; though you can always upgrade your server as your business grows.
Cloud hosting is a far more affordable option for those initially starting up their businesses because you’re not paying for an entire server. Instead, all you’re paying for are the services and resources that you’re actually using. You’re not investing into infrastructure and you’re not paying for resources that you’re not using; which is perfect because every penny that you have as a start up matters.
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Incredibly Secure
Many assume that cloud hosting is somehow less secure than more traditional servers, perhaps because they assume that it’s easier to secure a singular server. But this is not the case. In fact, cloud hosting is actually incredibly secure. We have built up the infrastructure to include multiple layers of security, including data, network, application and physical security.
Additionally, there are options for encrypted solutions, automatic backup recovery, firewalls, identity management and data isolation. We really do offer the whole package when it comes to security. This means that you and your customers are both completely protected from accidental damage and malicious attacks.
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Environmentally Friendly
Many small businesses are making great strides in being more environmentally conscious, being careful to make sure that materials and packaging are sustainable sourced and that services are run with as much care as possible. You might not have considered the impact that your website might have on the environment but if you’re looking to keep your carbon footprint low, then cloud hosting is the way to go.
Traditional servers actually use a lot of electricity and have a particularly high carbon footprint. But cloud servers evenly use resources, helping to save energy and keep carbon emissions to an all time low. Working on cloud hosting is a great choice for your business and for the planet.
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Choose what you Can Use
Cloud hosting is particularly popular for small businesses because it’s completely scalable. Like we mentioned earlier, you won’t be paying for resources that you don’t use. This means that it’s easy for you to allocate the resources you need while your business is small and slowly increase it when you need it. This is also really useful if you have a seasonal business that sees a lot of traffic at one particular time of the year.
You can increase your resources for those months and then drop it back down again when your customer base dies down. On the other hand, it is harder for move up and down the scale of traditional servers, which have rigid specifications and limited resources. This means that you can’t quickly ramp up the resources you need for a few months before returning to a cheaper package.
Interested in Learning More about Cloud Hosting?
If our cloud servers sound like the right choice for you, then you should definitely get in touch with our team today. We would be happy to answer any questions you might have about cloud hosting and how it can benefit your business and help you to set up your very own cloud-hosted website. We look forward to hearing from you.
