Managed hosting services are really a market that is booming right now, according to industry analysts. What is this option all about? Why are companies choosing it more frequently? Generally speaking, with public cloud, you are getting an environment that is significantly safer than what most organizations would be able to design on-premises – simply because of economies of scale.
Cloud infrastructure growth rapid, with managed hosting a major component
An August 2015 report by Research and Markets found that the market for infrastructure-as-a-service was set to hit $109 billion last year. It was projected to almost double by the end of the decade, reaching $206.9 billion. According to this analysis, each of the industry’s segments will contribute to the growth, with the largest source of revenue coming from the manufacturing and finance industries during that fast expansion. Many customers of cloud infrastructure companies will use managed hosting services, according to the forecast – which will result in a breathtaking compound annual growth rate for managed cloud of 16.2% through 2020.
As seen in those statistics, firms are turning to these hosting plans in greater numbers. They are able to use these plans to establish enterprise-grade computing systems that are based on operational rather than capital expenses. Like traditional legacy systems stationed on-premises at companies, this infrastructural option can be used to achieve all of the business’s digital needs, such as service delivery and collaboration, leveraging the speed and reliability of cloud.
Managed packages have become more popular as firms have realized it’s the best way to take advantage of cloud and grow their businesses.
What is managed cloud hosting exactly?
Managed cloud hosting essentially allows companies to access equipment, databases, and apps through a remote connection to servers in extremely secure data centers.
“[B]efore considering costs, the key focus of managed cloud hosting is on security and consistent availability,” notes Techopedia. “Managed cloud hosting includes the safety and dependability of private cloud hosting but is as cost effective as a public cloud.”
Why, specifically, do businesses choose managed cloud?
Here are some of the primary reasons that companies are implementing managed cloud solutions:
1. Faster development of the environments
Managed hosting plans are being improved quickly. Simply put, there is a substantial amount of focus on them by service providers because it’s such an in-demand and increasingly trusted market. The vendors watch the use of these systems and strengthen them to get more business.
“The management of these solutions by the service providers is enabling the solutions providers to improve the design and deployment of these solutions,” says Pankaj Sharma of Tech.Co. “They are able to get technical information on the design of the cloud solution, the user end, and the underlying application programming interface.”
2. High-availability
Availability of these systems is particularly strong. Multiple redundancy is achieved through many different servers and storage protection for various safeguards.
3, Automated failover and balancing
Cloud machines are better prepared in the event of host failure. Why? Because there is immediately available infrastructure to pick up the slack. Balancing of resources and failover are achieved automatically, at the level of the virtual server. Management and updating of software can also be set up to occur automatically, although everything can be further safeguarded (in addition to the computing protections) through a two-decade dedication to credibility and providing that critical layer of business-essential managed services.
4. Network security
VLANs (virtual local area networks), safeguarded firewalls, and Intrusion Detection Systems (aka Intrusion Prevention Systems) can be implemented with cloud servers to create an extremely secure, state-of-the-art-ecosystem.
5. Distributed rather than centralized architecture
Managed cloud gives you full access to the distributed architecture of a cloud network. That act of distribution results in the cloud’s incredible reliability and speed. How is it incredible? It often exceeds the speed of supercomputers (according to Geoffrey Fox, PhD, of Indiana University – home of internationally recognized supercomputer Big Red II).
6. Affordable
The costs of a managed cloud are as effective as most public clouds. The resources and also the services are billed per usage.
Data Encryption in a Managed Cloud Solution
Data encryption can be achieved in more than one way, but it is the encryption key management that remains a challenge for many companies hosting resources in the cloud. It can be incredibly easy to suddenly have hundreds or thousands of keys that need managing. In fact, the entire information technology industry accepts that cloud key management is critical to the security and encryption in the cloud.
By integrating your encryption key management solution with your cloud management solution, you can leverage built-in automation features, such as support for automatic file system decryption and backup encryption. This also removes the need for administrators to handle actual keys, which greatly reduces the chances of keys being lost or stolen.
If you are looking for a solution to your cloud key management dilemma, these are some aspects to keep in mind:
- The keys should be securely encrypted themselves.
- Each tenant should have its credentials encrypted with a different set of keys.
- Never store the keys in clear text on a file system.
- Application administrators should only be able to see unencrypted passwords if a user explicitly shares that data with them.
- Always securely delete keys from the memory once you are finished with them.
Regardless of how you decide to handle your encryption key management, plan ahead before you have problems.
Finally, did we mention that it’s safe?
Finally, VPS hosting is a way that companies can get the same level of security and protections as they would on a private dedicated machine, “with a better and more cost-effective package,” says Techopedia. “Organizations that use managed cloud computing can focus on business operations, rather than addressing server glitches and downtime.”
That is the beauty of economies of scale.
Are you interested in checking out ultra-fast, fully customizable managed cloud hosting plans? At Atlantic.Net, our managed cloud clients have included Puma, Hilton, Samsung, and Kia Motors. Learn more. >>>
