Information technology rules the world. All the businesses today, irrespective of their size, are hosted over the World Wide Web through dedicated servers. Manual management of data had become a textbook phenomenon today, and one of the biggest concerns for any organization hosting its confidential information over the servers, is the prompt management and operations of the latter.
The best three ways for hosting company confidential data is by utilizing cloud computing, collocation and managed hosting techniques. This article focuses to compare the salient features of each of the three methods.
Cloud Computing:
In the cloud environment, Virtualization of servers happens and one physical machine gets shared by many customers with an option to scale up and down as needed. Cloud computing is ideal for startup companies when they do not know the exact requirements of their servers. The cloud computing technique is best for business environments that have different scaling needs on a regular basis.
For example, if the business normally requires 30 servers in the day time and 100 servers for a few hours in the night. This requirement can be well met by by the utilization of the cloud computing techniques. Cloud services also offer best infrastructure backup. i.e., while it replicates the data in the database, it does not turn on all the other servers until and unless another facility goes down. On an average, this method seems to have a higher latency rate compared to other hosting platforms.
Collocation:
Collocation deals with the physical facilities relevant to the IT environment. This hosting solution places the servers in a secure and remote location and allows businesses to avoid unnecessary expenses of constructing and maintaining physical areas to house the data.
Companies can lease out space for IT assets, while they still own the hardware. Benefits of collocation include:
- The data centers facilitate a high level of security on-site through amenities such as CCTVs, biometric security practices, constant monitoring systems etc…
- They have better connectivity and ensure uninterrupted conducting and handling of critical business processes.
- Owing a space for servers can be quite costly, especially when companies would require 24×7 services. The capital inquired in this can distract mainstream business operations. Collocation removes the need to actually own a business space for servers.
Managed Hosting
Managed hosting extends the facilities of collocation further and it eliminates the need to own a physical facility and to maintain an IT infrastructure. These dedicated servers used in managed hosting are set up, secured, monitored by the service provider and leased to clients.
These companies also offer setup and configuration of hardware and OS, hardware replacement, technical support, updating and monitoring services etc. They also offer excellent peace of mind for the business and no additional charges are incurred in times of repair and replacement as well.
Management of IT infrastructure is secured with managed hosting and proves to be a professional approach for the company, allowing them to concentrate on other core jobs. There is also no need to appoint and train professionals for this purpose. Also, there is an option to pay for what is used under managed hosting.
All these three methods are advantageous in their own ways, and it is the choice of the companies to choose the best option based on the requirements of their business processes.
