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Think back to the office of 2019 – it’s almost completely unrecognisable compared to today’s working environment. The past three years have seen the rise of remote working, as well as the emergence of big data technologies and SaaS solutions.
As a result, most businesses have now migrated at least part of their workloads and applications to the cloud. Demand for managed cloud-based hosting, in particular, is growing – this market is forecast to grow from $86.1 billion in 2021 to $237 billion by 2032.
Not all clouds are the same
Public cloud resources are provided via the internet and are owned and operated by third-party providers such as AWS or Azure. Businesses often use public cloud services on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis, paying only for the CPU time, bandwidth and storage capacity they actually use. The public cloud is often regarded as the most accessible solution for businesses – thanks to its unlimited scalability and minimal maintenance requirements.
In contrast, a private cloud refers to cloud services and infrastructure maintained on a private network using dedicated hardware and software. Although it requires significantly more maintenance and monitoring, a private cloud provides businesses with greater control over their IT infrastructure – particularly in terms of security, costs, etc.
As the name suggests, hybrid cloud infrastructure incorporates elements of both public and private cloud. It enables businesses to choose their storage – whether on-premises, with hyperscalers or with local cloud providers – in a way that meets the performance requirements of a given workload. For example, many businesses use the public cloud for day-to-day workloads and the private cloud for storing sensitive data.
Why are businesses turning away from the public cloud?
Following the initial rapid reallocation of workloads and resources, many businesses are (at least partially) reversing this decision. According to a 2021 IDC study, 80 per cent of respondents have recently repatriated workloads from public cloud environments.
Why is that? Primarily because many businesses have found that the public cloud has not delivered the promised cost savings. Whilst the public cloud may be more cost-effective for meeting occasional peaks in demand, it can quickly become expensive when handling massive, year-round workloads – particularly when management fees and non-fixed billing models are taken into account. Secondly, many businesses now choose not to store sensitive data in public cloud environments, as the hardware is often shared across multiple companies.
Is having your own data centre infrastructure a better solution?
Not necessarily. It may be worthwhile for large, global enterprises to invest in their own data centre infrastructure – as this allows them to benefit from economies of scale and maintain full control over operations. However, this is prohibitively expensive for most organisations, particularly SMEs.
What’s more, determining network, IT and storage requirements based on applications and data is time-consuming and requires a team of in-house experts. Again, this is simply unrealistic for most small and medium-sized enterprises.
So what is the alternative?
This is where managed hosting comes into the picture. To create a bespoke cloud solution, managed hosting combines dedicated servers and hardware with management by an external service provider. Managed hosting also includes ‘value-added’ services such as backup and disaster recovery, load balancing, security services, physical protection of data centres, maintenance and monitoring.
Managed hosting ensures that businesses’ cloud-based infrastructure is managed to the highest standards. Furthermore, as it does not require in-house cloud expertise or intervention, managed hosting gives IT teams the freedom to focus on internal projects and processes.
All in all, managed hosting offers businesses the best of both worlds: a low-maintenance service that operates in a private or hybrid cloud environment – with customisability, reliability and scalability built in right from the start.