In-House Hosting vs Cloud Hosting: What Is The Difference?

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Many businesses opt for In-house hosting and Cloud Hosting in India for different reasons. In-house hosting is a more traditional approach to data storage, whereas cloud hosting presents a more flexible and scalable approach as resources are provided as a service over the Internet.

To understand which web hosting services are better for your business, you must factor in all the differences between these two hosting services. In this article, we will discuss the key differences between cloud and In-house hosting.

What is Cloud Hosting?

Cloud hosting is quite different from traditional web hosting. Cloud hosting uses virtualisation technology to split a physical server into multiple virtual or cloud servers. This can be done on a single server or across multiple servers across geographical locations.

This ensures better stability and performance for your website in comparison to single-server hosting services. Cloud hosting is best suited for high-traffic websites.

What is In-house Hosting?

In-house hosting is a physical server infrastructure maintained, owned, and operated by a company or business to host a website. The servers are located at the company’s premises.

The servers use operating systems, software applications, and hardware to cater to the company’s needs. In-house hosting is best suited for large-scale organisations.

Key Differences Between In-house Hosting and Cloud Server Hosting:

Aspects	In-house Hosting	Cloud Hosting
Data Accessibility	Requires a running server to access data and eliminates the need for an internet connection. You cannot access data remotely which limits flexibility. Your data is not interconnected if your servers are housed at multiple locations, thus your data cannot be centralised.	Requires an internet connection, access authorisation, and a consistent device to access data. You can access your data remotely, limiting physical restrictions. Your data is interconnected which allows your data to be centralised
IT Infrastructure	Requires a dedicated server system space within the company’s premises. Requires a team of IT professionals to maintain and manage the servers. Requires a budget for certain expenses like initial server setup, upgrades, maintenance, fees of IT professionals, etc.	Does not require a dedicated server system space. Cloud hosting providers manage, maintain, and update servers. Requires a budget for just a monthly subscription fee and all costs related to cloud server maintenance are settled by the hosting providers.
Scalability	Upgrading requires a lot of time because of the compatibility of the latest software and hardware with your server system and the physical space of your company’s premises. This might slow down your company’s proceedings and negatively affect your business	Upgrading requires just a few hours. To install any upgrades, you can contact your cloud hosting provider. This ensures that your upgrades are hassle-free and will not slow down your company’s proceedings.
Data Backup and Security	Requires extensive IT security measures to protect the server against IT threats. High risk of data damage or loss of data due to accidental or natural disasters.	Requires security measures like firewalls, intrusion alerts, physical security, etc. Most cloud hosting providers offer regular data backups to limit the risk of loss of data.

To Wrap it Up

Which hosting service is better depends on your business’s scale, industry, and growth. If you are a smaller company and do not have enough capital to invest in server infrastructure and IT staff, Cloud Server Hosting is a better option.

On the other hand, if you deal with sensitive data, own a large enterprise or want control over your server, In-house hosting is a better option.