Choosing the Right Cloud Hosting Service Provider
The word “Cloud” has flooded the online world in a very short span of time. So have the providers of Cloud Hosting trying to design the best architectures to best suit customer needs. We get to hear something newer and better about it with each changing day. With all the attractive adjectives used, many providers try to boast about their Cloud offering to attract customers.
But, various factors and aspects must be considered before choosing a Cloud offered by a particular hosting provider. Though we must also consider the fact that a perfect Cloud is yet to evolve and certain unpolished aspects still remain with the offerings. Hence, it becomes even more crucial to find an appropriate Cloud Hosting provider for your business.
In one of the previous articles, we had taken a look at a List of Cloud Hosting Solutions that are available. It is important to chalk down your requirements and prioritize things based on your IT requirements. This should help you negotiate with the hosting provider with finding the right kind of service at the most appropriate price. Based on the agreements you may then proceed with the implementation of your business over the Cloud.
More-or-less the basics of choosing the host still remains the same except for few additional aspects.
Following is a list of aspects which must be considered while short-listing a particular affordable web hosting provider for your business website :
● Hosts Reputation over the World Wide Web : Try and peek into the past of the hosting provider. Check for the reviews from the existing customers, try to find out what users are speaking about a particular hosting company. It can be further helpful to go through the knowledge-base and blog of the hosting company, it can give you a fair idea about the knowledge that they posses. Community forums and social networking profiles can be considered as well.
You must also consider the fact that you wouldn’t find a single host who doesn’t have a negative review from a customer. Hence you must really use all your smartness to short list the best host for your business.
● Network and Server Security: It is better if you are able to dig into the architecture of the Cloud, ofcourse you need to be technically sound to understand that. This should give you an idea about the quality of the cloud. Try to get in touch with a technical person from the hosting company and throw him certain questions related to the Cloud Security which you are already aware of and judge their competencies. If you are satisfied with the answers, you may ask your other queries which you are not know to. This would be helpful with decision making about the quality and security of the Cloud.
● Flexibility : The host must be capable of serving your custom requirements. Moreover, they must offer you the privileges of creation and management of VM’s. They should also have flexible payment cycles such as Monthly, Semi-Annual or Annual. It is notable that most service providers would pass you certain discounts if you pay upfront for a longer tenure at one go, hence enabling you to save money.
● Costs : Cost is a vital aspect to be considered as well. Prior to choosing a particular company, you must also compare the cost at which the services are offered. Preparing a comparison chart containing a list of features and its pricing should help you take an appropriate decision. If you are planning for an implementation in the near future, this chart can also help you fix a budget for implementing the Cloud.
● Disaster Recovery: Disaster recovery is a crucial part for a business. It is important to check with a host about the disaster recovery measures they have in place. The host must have a properly laiden strategy to tackle and raise from a disaster.
● Failover Architecture : Most of the Cloud Servers have a failover architecture (atleast most claim so). It is important for you understand how has the strategy of failover been implemented by the provider. Try and compare their strategies with your requirements and only proceed if they match to a large extent.
● Cloud Trial : Request a host to offer a test account for a limited time to test your applications and website. Or you may try and seek a host that offers a 30days money back guarantee. This would enable you to try the services offered by a host for a month, if you feel satisfied with the performance, you may continue using their services or withdraw incase they fail to live upto your expectations. It gives you a fair chance to test the platform based on your requirements and achieve the best performance for your business website.
These simple pointers should help you find the best hosting provider for your website and avoid any set-backs in future.
