Top 6 Benefits of Cloud Hosted Applications

Businesses worldwide are increasingly using advancements in the cloud, empowering themselves to optimize their internal processes and enjoy better growth. However, with a host of available options, it is easy to get confused between different facets of the cloud. One such misconception is the difference between cloud-based (SaaS) and cloud-hosted applications.

Cloud-based applications have been natively developed to be deployed over the Internet. Cloud-hosted applications were earlier designed for on-premise usage but were later hosted on the cloud via the IaaS model. They both exert different business impacts, with cloud-hosted applications being more flexible and scalable.

Here, let’s have a look at the six benefits of cloud-hosted applications over the cloud-based ones:

1. Data Control

When you use a cloud-based application, all your data resides with the service provider on their data centers. It means that the provider can use your data in any way they seem fit. For example, Google has tracked your data in multiple ways and uses it to show targeted ads and other purposes.
However, with cloud-hosted services, you have complete control over your data on the data center. You also have the freedom to move your cloud data to a local device as well.

2. Configuration Control

A cloud-based service comes with limited configurational customization. Although your vendor support is not necessary for changing your application configurations, the degree of customization you can bring in is limited to only widgets, third-party integrations, rules, etc.
Whereas, with a cloud-hosted application, you can make changes to the core platform itself. It offers more customizable capacities which can be easily brought in with administrative help from your vendor or in-house IT team. Also, if you do not have the technical expertise to make the customizations, you can inform your cloud provider to make them.

3. Uptime

Whenever any service outage occurs in a cloud-based application/service, all its users are equally affected. The downtime is spread across the whole server, with the same mean repair time for every user.
On the other hand, in a cloud-hosted application, even if a single user is affected, the downtime is generally limited to that particular server only with no effect on the performance of other users. Also, a reputed CSP deploys several measures like maintaining abundant computational resources, round-the-clock IT support, redundant IT infrastructure, which further increases the uptime availability (up to 99.99%) and makes their servers more fault-tolerant.

4. Regulatory Compliances

Complying with different regulatory adherences like ISO, PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, etc., requires strict regulation over an organization’s internal processes and services/applications it utilizes. A cloud-based application/service provider generally caters to a specific client type only. Due to this, they adhere to only a limited number of compliances.
However, a cloud-hosted application/service provider is different. They have a much broader client base that is spread across various industries. Ultimately, their IT infrastructure is developed and timely updated to adhere to multiple compliance requirements.

5. Data Backup

In a cloud-based application, the end-user does not have the privilege to access the data on the server (as mentioned above). Thus, in case of sudden damage due to a disaster or any other mishappening to the server, you may lose your data altogether.
But, with a cloud-hosted application, the provider backs up your data regularly with easily customizable preferences like frequency, extent, etc., giving you a clearer picture of your data. Also, a reputed service provider maintains numerous data centers with data access provided to you, further ensuring continuous data availability even if a disaster/damage occurs.

6. End-User Experience

While different factors like internet speed, bandwidth load, etc., affect the performance of both cloud-based and cloud-hosted applications, their internal hardware setup makes the main difference. Most cloud-based applications are freely accessible and experience considerably larger network load, often leading to service latency and poor end-user experience due to poorly managed network influx.
Nevertheless, a reputed service provider deploys high-performance computing servers that can easily handle high network loads and provide you a latency-free experience. Since they offer specialized services with limited users utilizing their data servers, they show better computing speeds than cloud-based applications.

Conclusion

Cloud-hosted applications emerge as a winner in various scenarios when compared to cloud-based applications. As a result, they are emerging as a new adoption in multiple industries. For example, QuickBooks hosting is gaining much popularity in the accounting industry.

Wish to know how cloud hosting can benefit your business? Get in touch with our Solutions Consultant at 855-879-5481.