Cloud Computing has been developed with the intention of offering users a centralised location for the storage of all of their digital content, whether this be simple Word documents or multimedia videos and audio files so that this content can be accessed from a variety of different devices including mobile phones and desktop computers. eUKhost offers one of the most practical and affordable UK Cloud Hosting platforms for small businesses; our eNlight Cloud offers businesses can opportunity to develop a stable platform on which they can host their website, with this being based around the cloud so that you are able to reap the benefits of a dedicated hosting environment accompanied by the uptime that the cloud can provide. Choosing the cloud as your hosting platform of choice can provide you with the reassurances such as:

• The eNlight cloud has been designed to offer up to 100% guaranteed uptime and eUKhost believes that this is achievable by monitoring servers and networks around the clock as well as building in fail-over protection
• Higher levels of security can be provided by a cloud virtual machine and when you are going to be handling the personal information of your visitors, you should endeavor to develop a hosting environment that is secured to PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards as this will reduce the possibility of customer information being exposed to hackers if they were to ever gain access to your VM
• The resources of eUK eNlight virtual machines can be expanded with just a few clicks so that you can create additional capacity for your website if the server that it is hosted on is experience high loads because of an increased volume of visitors.

When compared to a UK dedicated hosting service, the cloud will always come in cheaper because it is a virtual hosting service that is shared with many other users. The amount of money that you spend on a web hosting service should be deeply scrutinised because it is important for your website to be able to pay for itself and stand as a profitable entity; if your website is providing sales, but isn’t profitable then you should look at the amount that you are spending on web hosting and if the usage of your website doesn’t necessary show a clear need for the form of web hosting that you are using then it may be of benefit to consider a cheaper web hosting plan. The eNlight cloud remedies this by enabling you to specify the precise
resource allocations that you would like with your virtual machine(s); there is always the option to enable auto-scaling to scale resources without the need for any manual intervention.

If you are looking for a cloud computing solution that can be adapted to suit what your business is seeking then eUKhost’s eNlight platform can provide virtual machines tailored to meet their intended use.

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated hosting provides a physical server that can be configured with resources as you wish and eUKhost provides varying resources and units of these to choose from during the order process so that you can develop a dedicated server to match your budget. Even though a dedicated server on its own may not be able to provide 100% guaranteed uptime, there are certain configurations that aren’t available with cloud hosting that can be used to introduce a more stable hosting environment; these methods include:

• Server mirroring can place two servers together with one being the master server and the second being the slave server; the slave server is designed to be an identical copy of the master server so that in the event that the master server fails, the slave server is able to take its place by adopting all of the data, roles and IP addresses assigned to the master server
• Load balancing can be deployed using multiple servers to ensure that the load placed on your website is distributed across several servers as opposed to a single server so that a new level of scalability can be introduced and the stability of your web application improved.

eUKhost’s 24×7 support team are able to provide load balancing, mirroring and other configurations as you wish, free of charge as all of our dedicated hosting services are provided as fully managed. If you are unsure as to how an advanced dedicated hosting configuration can benefit you then you should contact our support team as they can then advise you as to the best way in which your hosting requirements can be met.