3 Things to Consider when Choosing Cloud Web Hosting Provider

3 Things to Consider when Choosing Cloud Web Hosting Provider Choosing a suitable hosting provider may be a difficult task for anyone who has recently decided to expand their online presence, for business or private purposes. Now that the era of cloud technology brought significant improvements in the way web applications are hosted and streamed, it may be quite confusing to figure out exactly what each provider offers. First of all, you need to make sure you’re aware of the differences between privately hosted website and cloud hosting. The latter has become popular several years ago with the growth of latest computing technologies, where the infrastructure is stored on remote server farms. The reason you hear so much about this is the fact it offers maximum uptime and low prices, which has made a true little revolution in the world of web hosting. As opposed to self-hosting or dedicated server, cloud hosting means an external company is partly responsible for your data.

 However frightening this might sound to you, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing, as long as you consider the following issues and choose wisely. Reliability Precisely because of the fact that you don’t have a direct control over the servers your data is stored at, you need to inquire how reliable you host is or is said to be. What amount of uptime does each provider offer? Some of them will guarantee up to 100% uptime, which is not very likely to be true, considering the fact they all need to have scheduled network maintenance at least once a year. However, anything close to this digit may work very well and you should definitively skip providers that either conceal a true digit or offer less than 99% uptime. In addition, make sure you inquire about exact security measures they use to prevent unauthorized access to their servers or other fraudulent activities. Features Though most of the cloud web hosts offer feature-rich services, you need to look for the one where you get exactly what you need. If you intend to develop your website or run a big business through it, you need to know all the possibilities right at the beginning, as this may be a long-term commitment. 

Apart from disk space and bandwidth, you must make sure you check exactly how many email accounts you get, what scripting languages are supported and what backup plans each provider has. Bear in mind that providers will not always provide all these information on their websites, so if you need to contact customer support directly to find out about these, you should definitively do that. And, of course, make sure customer service is always at your disposal. Costs Pricing plans are probably the major thing vendors use to attract potential customers. Thanks to the cloud, they have the possibility to offer pay-per-use models with different degrees of disk space and bandwidth provided. Certainly, you’ll choose the pricing model that best suits your own needs, but what you may need to inquire about additionally are the possible hidden or side costs. These may refer to extra charges in cases of disaster recovery or domain name extension. Also, take time to read company policies to find out whether you get a refund in case of network downtime or a disaster.