Hybrid Cloud Hosting - Enabling Small Businesses to Access Cloud Hosting

In the past, the latest advances in IT technology have typically only been accessible to larger businesses with big budgets and the means to implement fresh hardware.

This has made it difficult for smaller firms to keep up with corporate competitors, because early adoption of cutting-edge systems has not been feasible.

However, when it comes to cloud computing and hybrid cloud hosting in particular, the same situation cannot be said to exist. Instead, hybrid cloud hosting is enabling small businesses to access this advanced type of IT solution without the usual barriers to entry blocking their path.

A hybrid approach to cloud computing is particularly beneficial to small businesses because it enables them to adopt certain aspects of the cloud while still retaining the autonomy and security that comes with running an in-house server or a private cloud set-up.

You can adapt to the cloud on an incremental and iterative level, harnessing public servers and colocation hosting solutions to whatever degree feels most appropriate, from both the point of view of practicality and affordability. So, what are the main benefits to hybrid cloud hosting and why should small businesses consider migrating to this type of solution?

Flexibility

This is the most oft-quoted benefit of cloud computing and the one that is perhaps easiest to grasp, hence its relevance. While on-premises infrastructures are limited by the hardware resources that you have available to you, the cloud is restricted in no such way.

Instead, your business can invest in as much or as little capacity as is required at a given time, while still allowing you to add elements later on when your need grows. This means you do not have to blow your budget on an in-house set-up that will be used at its full potential in five years' time, but in the short term will be a costly and overpowered excess.

On the other side of the spectrum, those businesses that find themselves stifled by an infrastructure that cannot cope with their current workload will find the flexible, scalable nature of hybrid cloud hosting to be particularly beneficial.

Security

Another area in which small businesses need to invest but may lack the means to do so is security. Protecting mission-critical apps and data from the advances of dangerous outside sources is essential, but difficult to achieve without a decent budget.

With hybrid cloud hosting you can keep your data protected either on your own private server or in a public space, where it will run behind a resilient firewall and be subject to round-the-clock monitoring in order to ensure that its integrity is not compromised.

While there are some cloud solutions that rely upon multiple users sharing the same physical hardware, you can invest in independent server set-ups that are remotely hosted so that only your business has its data stored upon it.

This should give peace of mind to those who are particularly concerned about the perceived, if sometimes overstated, problems with security in the cloud. The real reason for small businesses to adopt a hybrid cloud hosting solution is that this is a technology that has long-term benefits on top of its short-term advantages.

The problems facing you in terms of how much data you need to handle and what apps are required to power your business today are not going to go away. They will only become more pressing with time and the companies that choose to adapt and harness a more flexible, less restrictive form of IT will be able to compete, while those that hesitate now could suffer in the long run.

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This article was provided by Daisy Group - a leading provider of cloud hosting solutions.