Results from a poll that was conducted on 2016 cloud adoption suggested that more than 4 out of 5 businesses or around 84% of UK enterprises use one service or more in the Cloud. That is a healthy adoption rate that has occurred over the past 5 years going from 40% in 2010 up to 78% in 2014.

That trend provides valuable information that shows that the Cloud helps businesses achieve their objectives and goals in addition to their workloads. Also, over 50% of the poll's respondents stated that at some point they will be moving their business completely to the Cloud.

However, the question still stands - is cloud hosting always the best option, or are dedicated servers a viable option as well? We will be examining the advantages and disadvantages of various hosting options that your business can use.

Cloud hosting advantages

No physical infrastructure

The main advantage of cloud hosting is that no physical hardware is necessary. That means you don't need to pay money to purchase physical servers and you don't have to find space for any equipment. Users of the cloud benefit greatly from economies of scale since all of the subscribers share in the procurement costs.

Pay just for what you need

Whenever your data protection, storage, and collection are stored in the cloud, you only have to pay for the amount of server space you actually use. That eliminates having to pay for any idle time and instead be used by the business for other profitable activities.

Flexibility

As your requirements and needs continue to grow, you have complete flexibility so expand your resources. You can easily upgrade your disk space or RAM very easily with just a couple of clicks. Also, software integration is automatic.

Accessibility

Another major benefit of cloud hosting is accessibility. It allows anyone in your business to work at any time and anywhere. Being to access and use data while on the go increases productivity levels that could not be done if you were using a dedicated server.

Recovery and backup

It is also much easier to restore, backup, and store data within the cloud compared to a physical device.

Cloud hosting disadvantages

Data breach

When information is stored in the cloud it is vulnerable to data breaches and you do not have complete control of the security. In the Cloud study discussed previously, 70% of the businesses polled stated they had data security concerns.

Dependent on uptime

You are also very dependent on uptime in order to run your activities. If there is a lot of downtime you can lose potential clients and valuable time.

No or slow technical support

Often technical support is slow with a long waiting period of as much as 48 hours.

Dedicated servers advantages

Control of resources

The major advantage to using a dedicated service to store your business data is that you have full control over your resources. You can customize it to your specific requirements.

Full security compliance

If your business has highly sensitive data that needs to be protected, you can have stringent security measures built and therefore avoid any third party infringement. Over the long run, this can be a very cost-effective option for businesses where uptime is not relied on in order to fully function.

Does not rely on the Internet

You can simply go to your office and start to work since you do not rely on the Internet for accessing your data.

Dedicated server disadvantages

Capital expenditures

Capital outlay is required to pay for infrastructure and hardware.

Requires space

Space also needs to be assigned in a room for the servers and IT support will need to be hired.

Not as flexible

If your company's data requirements change, it isn't that easy or quick to upgrade CPU or RAM and it also relies on technical support and vendors' supply.

The Best Approach To Take

In order to maximize the benefits of both dedicated and cloud hosting, it might be feasible to use a hybrid cloud solution. It is comprised of a public cloud (that is shared by the network's users) and a private cloud (only one enterprise has access to the hosting). Sensitive data is typically stored in the private cloud and the public cloud is used for storing general information. Learn more about GPU Dedicated Server and Citrix Cloud Server.