Cloud
Cloud-based services for businesses
Many businesses are moving away from having servers located on premise. This is because it can potentially lead to a single point of failure (for example: what if my office burns down, or is burglarised?). This has led to the rise of the “Cloud”.What is the cloud
The cloud will often give added features and more redundancy than a single server hosted onsite, as large businesses such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon have massive farms of servers that cluster together to provide virtual servers.Virtual servers are run on bigger and more powerful servers. This allows businesses to start a new server with the click of a button with the same if not more reliability and redundancy than one physical server onsite.Cloud-based services are cheaper
Cloud providers reduce upfront cost as their services come without the upfront cost of buying a server, and can be easily upgraded in an instant by deploying more virtual CPU power, RAM or disk space.Cloud providers can also offer a wider range of services as most traditional hardware devices like firewalls, load balances (a device that splits traffic to go to multiple servers instead of one) have also been virtualised in the cloud.Advantages of cloud-based services
Extension Technology offer management, and deployment of cloud-based services. This is similar to managing an onsite server, and there are many other features which can be set up. These features include virtual desktops in the cloud. A virtual desktop allows users to login from anywhere, on any device and go straight into their work desktop.As a business you want the most efficient economical way to maintain, grow, and scale your business. There are many advantages of cloud-based services, especially for small to medium sized businesses. Here are 6 of those advantages:1. Massive economy of scale
Using the cloud allows you to achieve a much lower variable cost. The sheer volume of people using cloud-based servers translates into a lower pay as you go price compared to scaling the hardware you would need to do it yourself.2. Capital expense becomes variable expense
Leading on from our last point, cloud-based servers eliminate guess work. Instead of having to invest in physical servers guessing how big you’re going to get, cloud servers allow you to grow as you need, when you need.3. Reduce the cost of running and maintaining data centres
The money that would go into buying and maintaining physical servers and data centres can be better deployed in other areas of your business. By having your computing needs in a cloud-based server you can focus on your customers without worrying about having to buy new servers and maintain the ones you’ve got.4. Increase agility and speed
Having a cloud computing environment makes applications, and other new resources easier to get. Instead of waiting weeks for a new piece of software, you can get it with the click of a button. Thereby providing your team with the ability to move quickly, experiment easily, and in the process making your business more agile.5. No longer need to guess capacity
Who knows how big your business will grow? Before cloud-based services, you would have to make a decision based on the possibility of what was going to happen. Sometimes this pays off, and other times it results in you being stuck with expensive applications and infrastructure you didn’t quite need yet. With cloud-based servers you get simply acquire what you need as and when your business needs it.Cloud-based server options
We offer cloud solutions on both Azure (Microsoft) and AWS (Amazon).We also have a private cloud offering, where as we host and manage a server for the customer in our data centre, and can provide the same services as AWS/Amazon.AWS (Amazon)
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a cloud web hosting solution providing businesses with an affordable way of hosting websites, and other cloud-based needs. AWS allow you to use whichever CMS you like: whether that’s Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, even Squarespace. Their datacentres are worldwide so your website can be hosted locally.By working Extension Technology, we can help with the management and deployment of AWS servers for you. Working with us will mean you get a cheaper server fee, as well as local support from our team. The added advantage is you don’t have to worry about what AWS is doing, because we take care of that for you.If you would like to know more about this please visit our page on AWS¸ or get in touch with our team.Azure (Microsoft)
Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing solution, it offers amazing data security, as well as high availability and redundancies on a global scale. It has, like any good cloud server, a scalability structure to provide the flexibility to only pay for what data you use. It is one of the more cost-effective cloud servers available, and when managed by an expert team like Extension Technology, you can rest assured you will get the best, most cost-effective result for your spend.Extension Technology’s Private server
If you don’t want to work with either Amazon or Microsoft, we offer our own cloud-based services. Our cloud computing solutions ensure everything is secure, easy to scale and affordable for you. We are also able to integrate other features such as email, phones and data backup.If you would like to know more, please visit our page on our private cloud server options, or get in touch with us today.How Extension Technology can help with all your cloud-based server needs
When it comes to affordable, manageable growth and scalability, you can’t go past the benefits of cloud-based servers. If you would like to know more about cloud-base servers for businesses, please contact us today.
