Quite frankly, building a tech startup company is not for everyone. It's not for the fainthearted players in the industry. Building an empire is for risk takers and visionaries who know what they want.
And it takes a special person to put up a tech startup company without considering cloud hosting as its platform. After all, gone are the days of statistical computing.
Whether you like it or not, big data are here, and although cloud computing is still in its infancy, the “Internet of Things” is starting to emerge in a data-driven society, and you can't escape it whether your organisation sticks with traditional computing or be a pioneer of the cloud in your niche.
So how can a tech startup jumpstart its platform using cloud hosting?
There are two things to consider:
- Would you like the DIY (do-it-yourself) approach?
- Would you be willing to have managed providers and let a third-party company run your services?
There are two ends of the spectrum, and a DIY approach is cheaper compared with the other one, yet it also includes risks and nuances for your long-term goals. On that note, deploying Amazon-type services is a good place to start with.
It's a cheaper alternative, but the other side of the coin brings you unstable price meter billing and requires you to do the following all by yourself:
- Understand how to build in your own redundancy
- Manage your own security
- Monitor and maintain everything all by yourself or along with an in-house administrator
This cheaper option is likely to have the following:
- Hidden cost such as requiring a staff member for maintenance
- Requires third-party services to complement your infrastructure
- Significant return of cost of reputation when everything fails
On other end of the spectrum, you can choose the safer route. Although it is quite expensive at first compared with the first option, it will save you a lot of time and money in the future, complementing your long-term projects.
Cloud hosting providers such as Rackspace, Logicworks, and Carpathia are among the few reliable brands that helps you jumpstart the whole package of the cloud.
Benefits of availing managing providers are the following:
- Monitor all your services
- Provides value while running the infrastructure
- Customer support, consultation as you expand
It may be pretty expensive compared to the DIY approach, but the value you receive from these cloud hosting companies will help you focus more on your B2B application coding rather than the allocation resources of the infrastructure.
You are most likely to get access to industry experts for support and education when you partner with these advanced third-party providers.
Frankly, you can ignore the superlative descriptions of cloud hosting providers. Forget the descriptive words "best" and "right" in cloud hosting platform.
There is no such thing as the "best cloud hosting provider" nor "right solution," only "right solution for you" is the right way to put it in the context.
Lastly, for any tech startup company, price and support are both major factors in the decision-making process. You must be willing to spend that large amount of money, whether from bootstrap or venture capital. Rackspace has a solid reputation when it comes to cloud hosting, and people seem quite happy and satisfied with their services. However, you must be willing to pay the price.
At some point, computer experts warn that cloud services can prove expensive in the long run. It might make sense when companies, whether large or small enterprises, run their own servers. Cloud services are not for everyone, but if you believe you're a solid business, it's highly recommended.
Overall, it's best to research and read other cloud hosting reviews to filter the ideal candidates if you can't afford Rackspace.
Mun Yin is a tech addict who is looking at how fellow entrepreneurs can benefit from the latest solutions available to them.
Choosing a cloud provider is a very important decision. A lot of smaller companies provide hosting but their network security is not up to par. When picking a company to have as your network or hybrid network host they should have a 24/7 commitment to security. The company should at the minimum also have their servers running in a data center collocation for protection.