What Are The Advantages to Cloud Server Networks?

A cloud server is a virtualized server that powers storage resources and shared computing resources. Cloud server networks provide nearly unlimited resources and diverse capabilities.
The virtualization technology allows the demand for a particular set resources or network to be spread over multiple servers at the same time. This allows for maximized security and practically no down time.
In addition, customers do not have to worry about upgrading, as the hosting environment’s unique features are highly scalable and can leverage all size networks and sites.

Advantages of Cloud Servers

• Route traffic automatically around network outages
• support for multiple public IP addresses
• unlimited free private bandwidth
• R1Soft Backup Servers
• IP network brownouts are effectively managed
• continuous identification and selection of the most favorable path
• Do not need to acquire and keep your own network and server
• Scalability: add RAM, CPU capacity, storage, as the applications, data, or website traffic grows

Its flexibility, reliability, and affordability makes Cloud Server networks very beneficial for any e-commerce site which is why cloud servers are now in great demand.
Functionally unlimited power & storage. Use-based billing, like a utility. Rapid deployment speed. Unparalleled flexibility.
The hype around the cloud isn’t new, but the reality is that it still offers incredible advantages for the right applications.

Defining the cloud

It’s always worth clearly defining the cloud, since it’s such a slippery concept: the cloud is a set of virtualized servers.
This means the cloud “server” isn’t confined to one physical box, but is instead a software-defined set of computing resources. It’s a virtual tool, specifically designed to meet the needs of your unique application.
This means that you leverage the distributed computing power of multiple servers—rather than relying on one server to perform your needed tasks.

Who avoids revenue loss with cloud hosting?

The number one reason for businesses to utilize cloud hosting as revenue insurance is to thwart downtime caused by surges in traffic and computing loads.
During a spike in activity, resources can be rapidly allocated to cope with the strain. Since bandwidth and capacity are functionally limited with traditional servers, there’s significant lag in getting new servers online.
With a cloud model, bandwidth and capacity are constantly available at a moment’s notice.
Avoiding revenue loss by facilitating rapid expansion for seasonal businesses continues to be a growth area for cloud service providers.
So who benefits the most from cloud services? Organizations with business models that rely on high-traffic periods.

Some examples of organizations who benefit from cloud:

• Tax preparers
• Seasonal tourist businesses
• Colleges & universities
• Florists
• Sports teams
• Ticket and reservation providers
• Rental agencies
• Development and marketing agencies
• Medical providers

Through a cloud model, the initial investment in IT infrastructure is lower and the payoff is immediately tangible.
Since the service is funded like a utility (you pay for what you use), businesses that experience drastic shifts in revenue can avoid spending large amounts of capital and reduce their overall operating costs.
That isn’t to say the cloud is always less expensive—in fact, that’s patently false. Cloud computing can be far more expensive than traditional dedicated servers when they’re mismanaged, and not every business can properly leverage the overall reduced cost of cloud hosting effectively.

Pay for what you use: more about billing & the cloud

While Amazon’s (awesome!) marketing makes the cloud seem cheaper by every metric, this isn’t actually the case.
Since cloud hosting is based on a contracted usage model, it can wind up being orders of magnitude more expensive than traditional dedicated servers. As we’ve explained elsewhere, the cloud is really an evolution of dedicated servers, but the brunt of the capital investment is borne by the hosting company instead of the individual business.
By paying for what you use, a smart organization can reduce their operating costs. They can rapidly experiment with the intention of failing fast—for example, deploying a new application or service for a limited time as a test case, testing different landing pages or scaling up their business during a push for more sales.
The cloud model also allows for smaller businesses to access powerful resources for short amounts of time at a very low cost. This can be extremely useful for things like market research and other projects that require computing power and bandwidth out of the scope of their budget, but without investing in costly servers.
But as we’ve hinted at – the pay-per-use model can mean that overspending is easy. It’s crucial to understand how to effectively manage your cloud. If that’s too daunting, GigeNET offers managed cloud services that can help alleviate the stress of gambling with your budget.
Some businesses find the unpredictability of cloud billing to be a hassle and instead opt for managed services or a dedicated server—it’s worth having a candid discussion with an expert systems architect before you jump into something expensive that seems like a good fit.

The technical benefits of cloud computing: uptime, uptime, uptime

There are practical real-world benefits to utilizing the cloud, which we absolutely don’t want to downplay. These include:

• Routing web traffic around network outages and bottlenecks
• Avoiding hardware outages through distribution of resources
• Multiple public IP addresses for redundancy
• Management of IP network brownouts
• No need to navigate the procurement process for servers
• Powerful scaling capabilities
• Continuous best-path network routing

For each instance, you gain uptime and operational stability. It’s generally intuitive—distributing your data over multiple servers means you aren’t susceptible to a single point of failure crippling your organization.

A hidden benefit of cloud computing: highly redundant backups

The other benefit of distributing data in a cloud service model is that your data is distributed across many servers.
While it’s advisable to use redundant backups (like combining R1Soft backups and RAID arrays), the cloud is generally much safer because of its many nodes. Additionally, since the cloud’s servers are kept off site, your data is protected from on-site disasters, power outages and downtime.
The cloud, however, is not automatically a method for backing up your valuable data. We’d recommend investing carefully in a backup service that can meet the specific needs of your business instead of imagining that the cloud is foolproof. There have been cloud failures at scale, even for providers like Google, so ensuring that you have your own unique backup strategy is crucial to data security.
However, the cloud model still offers a kind of simple backup that can help reduce downtime significantly, particularly if your current server hardware is outdated or unreliable.

Dare to compare: GigeNET’s competitive cloud services

We’ve developed our cloud to compete with the big cloud providers. We’ve been developing and refining our cloud capacity for nearly a decade—we were early adopters.
If your organization needs the flexibility and reliability that a cloud service offers, contact one of our expert systems architects today for help with planning and implementing an ideal cloud solution.
GigeNET has been in business for more than 20 years, and our goal to is to make the internet better for everyone. We aim to be your hosting partner for life, and have the servers & talent to back up our claims.
Try GigeNET cloud for yourself.