There could be plenty of reasons you want to shift to cloud hosting. From flexibility to scalability to efficiency to strategic value, a good cloud hosting company can offer you a lot of benefits. According to an article published in Forbes, around 74% of tech financial officers say cloud services had a noticeable impact on their businesses in the year 2017.
Nowadays, there are a plethora of companies offering cloud hosting. However, with so many options choosing the right one has become a daunting task.
If you are also struggling to find the best cloud hosting provider, continue reading this post.The post contains some important tips that will help you determine whether or not you are choosing the one that is tailored to your specific needs.
Tips to find the Right Cloud Hosting Provider
Check out Security Features:
Nowadays, safety and security are the two biggest concerns, especially when it comes to storing fundamental data in a cloud service. Remember that, not all best hosting providers are equal in terms of security.
Make sure your potential cloud hosting provider has adequate security measures set in place and they update them from time to time. It will help you prevent malicious attacks that happen very often.
You should check with security measures such as anti-virus detection, routine security audits, firewalls, etc.
Understand Your Hosting Needs:
As a website owner, you must have a clear vision of what you want to achieve from your potential cloud service providers. After all, you will never want to spend your time and money on a provider of no use. Create a checklist of your requirements then begin your search for a cloud hosting service.
Note: It is important to understand that one size doesn’t fill all. Some cloud hosting services are good for programmers and some for small websites. So choose accordingly.
Evaluation Period:
When choosing a cloud hosting service don’t forget to use a free trial version. It will help you determine whether the hosting company you are looking is worth considering or not.
User-Friendly Control Panel:
A good cloud hosting service should be designed to make the things easier. So, look for a hosting provider that has functional and easy to use control.
No matter whether it is cPanel, Plesk or any other 3rd party control panel, it must be user-friendly. Otherwise, you will waste your time figuring out the things with tech support.
Scalable Environment
With the growth of your business, your cloud storage requirements will grow as well. In order to ensure you are picking up the right cloud hosting service and plan, look for what additional storage capacity you will be offered and at what price.
There are plenty of cloud hosting providers that can offer you up to 4X scalability. With such providers, you can ramp up your cloud resources with just a few mouse clicks.
Server Location
According to Google, page load speed will become a big ranking factor in the coming years. And most people don’t know that the server location plays a big role in the speed.
A hosting provider that has more servers across the globe can offer better speed. Servers which are closer to your users enable your site to load faster.
Essential Features
When choosing a cloud hosting provider, it is advisable that you go for a host that saves your time by offering one-click installs for applications such as WordPress blogs, Open Scripts, Drupal and Joomla CMS solutions.
There are a few providers that do not offer even the basic hosting features such as auto script installer, Fantastico, SimpleScripts, Quick Installer, etc. Some basic features that you must look in your cloud hosting plans are:
-FTP access for easy file transfer
-.htaccess for page redirects and security
-.Server Side for easy website maintenance
Uptime Guarantee
Uptime is referred to a time your site is available to your audience. Uptime is one of the most important elements you should consider when choosing a cloud hosting plan. If you want your site to perform better go with a provider having a powerful server with a stable network connection.
Don’t pick a web host that can not offer you at least uptime guarantee of 99.5%.
Pricing and Refund Policy
Go for a web hosting that is right for your business and affordable too. Upfront pricing can be a good option as it ensures you pay a fixed amount. On the other hand, in postpaid billing, you are not aware of expenses till the end of your billing cycle.
Don’t forget to know how your potential cloud hosting takes care of customer refunds. There are some providers that charge for cancellation as well.
Final Words
Choosing the right hosting providers is quite crucial. Because speed to features to security everything depends on it. In this post, we talked about a few important aspects you must consider before deciding on a cloud hosting provider.