The Best Hosting Option for Your Business

Choosing the best hosting option for your business can be a daunting task as there is a list of criteria items to consider. However, one must first understand the two available hosting options and how they have their own pros and cons when considering integrating them within your existing technological system.

Two Hosting Options

There are two types of hosting to consider when setting up a new technology solution or software, such as a board portal. On-premise and cloud hosting. Each of the hosting types has its own benefits and drawbacks and known best use cases in specific industries.

On-Premise Hosting

On-premise hosting is when a company or organization stores its data using its own infrastructure.

Benefits:

• Highly secured thanks to limited access to external sources
• Sole control over data

Drawbacks:

• High cost of maintenance
• Need for storage room for the hardware
• Separate IT staff to maintain the infrastructure

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is when a company or organization hosts its data using an external, third-party provider.

Benefits:

• No maintenance costs
• Professional support

Drawbacks:

• Less control
• Increased risk of data loss

Now let’s pull apart the working of each hosting type to chisel out the best option for companies operating in these industries:

• BFSI (Banking and Financial Services, Insurance)
• Government institutions
• Rapidly-growing companies
• Industry-specific associations

The Best Hosting Type for Different Industries:

BFSI (Banking and Financial Services, Insurance)

In the past, security-oriented companies and institutions (such as governments or BFSI) relied solely on on-premise hosting solutions.

However, with the rapid evolution and improving cloud hosting security, governments and BFSI companies increasingly rely on cloud providers.

Reputable partners such as AWS Amazon are eagerly used by government agencies and companies operating in the financial services sector.

BFSI companies using cloud hosting from Amazon are DBS Bank, National Australia Bank, and Starling Bank.

Main needs: security, availability

Recommendation: on-premise hosting or reputable cloud hosting service (e.g., AWS Amazon)

Government Institutions

Government entities and agencies need impeccable security and reliable vendors to deliver highly available services to all stakeholders, including communities and public employees.

With that said, control of data and data security should be top of mind for government institutions and organizations.

In this context, on-premise solutions give government organizations unlimited control over data. In that setup, all data is contained in an internal environment without the involvement of third-party vendors.

Data control and ownership in cloud-based hosting depends on vendor policies — always analyze them carefully before making a decision. Highly regulated institutions and organizations specifically need to perform an in-depth study of every hosting vendor’s privacy policy.

For instance, AWS Amazon reports that over 6,000 government agencies are using its cloud solution. The U.S. Federal Government and the U.S. Department of Defense are just two of the many prominent cabinets that use Amazon.

Main needs: security, availability

Recommendation: on-premise or reputable hosting service, e.g., AWS Amazon

Startups

Rapidly growing companies such as startups need flexibility and quick implementation times for all technologies they use. Reliable cloud hosting solutions can be adjusted to reflect real data usage. Usage-based data transmission helps control spending — when there’s little traffic, the company pays lower costs.

On top of that, with cloud-hosted solutions, the implementation of any new technology is relatively fast. It lets its clients’ employees use the technology right after the program is configured.

Software hosted on-premise takes more time to set up because the infrastructure must be configured inside the company. Moreover, the maintenance cost is always the same, i.e., you need to pay for staff, power, storage, and hardware components, regardless of data use and transmission.

If a company is experiencing rapid growth, the hosting infrastructure purchased now may show inefficiencies in the future, calling for a replacement. With cloud-based hosting, it’s easier to scale and adjust the need to the demand, calculated proportionately to the company’s growth.

Main needs: flexibility

Recommendation: reputable cloud hosting service

Industry-Specific Associations

The hosting type depends on the needs of every industry-specific association, as those needs will vary from association to association.

Overall, industry-specific associations should consider the usability and affordability ratio into account to decide on the best hosting type for their operations.

With on-premise hosting, the costs include infrastructure, with servers, and power, storage, and maintenance costs. It would help if you also consider backup solutions and supplementary software.

When thinking about hosting type, associations should look at the long-term spending plan to look for optimization opportunities within the IT infrastructure. In that case, cloud-based hosting can help associations decrease costs.

Main needs: cost optimization

Recommendation: reputable cloud hosting service

Choose the Best Hosting Solution with the Future in Mind

Across industries, companies and organizations have highly varying needs in terms of hosting. Security, availability, and flexibility of a hosting type all matter in different proportions to every business.

When choosing a hosting solution for your software, such as a board portal software, perform an in-depth analysis of your current and future needs, putting special emphasis on reviewing privacy policies and technical requirements

Click here to find the actual list of factors to consider when choosing a hosting solution for your board portal.