Have you ever thought about migration to the cloud? No, we don’t mean cloud nine or travels to open space here. Today, we will discuss cloud computing as a technology for your startup success.
Cloud has replaced data centers as we know them. Now, there is no need to invest tons of hardware in order to run a software app or website. Things have changed, and now, every user can access data stored on the cloud from any spot on a world map with an Internet connection.
However, great innovations bring great challenges. And one of these challenges is the right choice. Startup’s development strategy requires a powerful cloud solution; and with a plethora of options available today, it may be hard to pick the best one.
What features should you analyze to make a choice? What cloud type would be the best? What are the most popular cloud service providers? AWS vs Digitalocean vs Google Cloud vs Heroku vs Azure – choose best for a startup with our help!
3 essentials of the advantageous choice
There are 3 important factors that demand your attention before decision making.
1. Business specifics
Your startup idea is unique so in order to proceed with a closer look at existing service providers, you need to analyze your business first.
- What sort of data would you like to store?
Here, we mean sensitive or non-sensitive data. Depending on its specifics, you will analyze information security features of service providers.
- How many users would you like to engage?
Analyze the current situation and develop some future forecasts. Approximate estimations of what size of business you would like to run will help to understand the needed scalability features.
- How much cost are you ready to invest?
There is a variety of solutions which differ greatly in terms of price. From completely free services to the ones that require huge investments – you need to define the affordable price range.
2. Cloud features
To make the right choice, define your project’s requirements and analyze features provided by one or another cloud company. Here are some of the most significant ones:
- Architecture;
- Security;
- Management specifics;
- Price;
- Support.
3. Types of cloud
There are 3 types of cloud services to consider:
Public cloud
This is a great and flexible option you can get for a reasonable price. The service provider handles the management routine so you can focus on business needs only. However, it may be not the best way to store sensitive data: public clouds do not provide enough security.
Private cloud
Unlike the above-described type, in a case with a private cloud, security is a priority. This is a good fit for sensitive data. On the contrary, cloud management becomes your responsibility and the price may be higher.
Hybrid cloud
This is the combination of public and private types. The customer can shift from a public part to hybrid, modify workloads and enjoy the highest level of flexibility. Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it? But opting for hybrid cloud, get ready for management challenges: the infrastructure may be very complex.
Leaders on the cloud computing market
You are so close to the right decision! Here is the list of most popular and powerful cloud service providers according to Clockwise Software team. Check them out:
Amazon Web Services
The largest share of the Platform as a Service market belongs to Amazon, and hardly someone hasn’t heard about the company and its products.
AWS is available for both individual users and large companies. Starting to use AWS, you can access numerous valuable features like data encrypting and auditing. Great customization features belong to AWS advantages, too.
A free one-year trial and several pricing models are available so you don’t have to worry about spending too much. However, some customers complain about problematic communication with a customer support team.
Microsoft Azure
This is one of the pioneers on a cloud computing market. It is suitable for any purpose or industry and allows integrating your cloud solution with other apps. Azure clouds are compatible with 2 giant OS: Windows and Linux. This service provider takes all the specifics of your startup into consideration so the highest level of customization and catering to your needs is available.
Azure is a bit expensive; however, you have an opportunity to try it for free for 12 months. Convenient cost calculator informs you precisely about how much investments the cloud needs.
Google Cloud
“Google” and “innovative solution” sound almost like synonyms. In cloud computing, the company plays an important role, too.
Google Cloud is a flexible cloud solution you can get for affordable prices. It’s user-friendly interface and a bunch of useful services and tools make it one of the most popular options in the market. Security features make any possible breach nearly impossible.
Setup may be a challenge but if have the experience in cloud niche, there will be nothing complicated for you.
Digitalocean
This developer-friendly solution has won many hearts. It works seamlessly with Linux system and demonstrates impressive performance.
In many cases, Digitalocean is compared to AWS. We should mention that one of the critical differences is the price: Digitalocean is cheaper.
However, perfect solutions don’t exist, and this one has its troubles, too. It won’t work for you if you use Windows. Additionally, server management is quite a difficult task: it may require particular skills and expertise.
Heroku
No complicated setup procedures, no troubles with maintenance – Heroku saves your time for more important tasks.
The thing to remember is that Heroku is hosted on Amazon Web Services. Hence, using it, you get Amazon’s reliability with simple and convenient configurations.
This cloud service provides you with maximum flexibility for a reasonable price. This is why we believe it to be the best option for startups and small businesses. However, if you plan a heavy huge business, Heroku won’t be good for you.
Final thoughts
There are plenty of cloud service providers, and the choice may require more than a single article. Think over your startup once more and remember:
- AWS is a massive solution for large businesses, which, in turn, costs much;
- Azure is suitable for various businesses and industries; it demonstrates great integration features and is rather expensive, too;
- Google Cloud is a hard thing to start with but at the same time, it is an affordable flexible solution;
- Digitalocean is great for Linux system;
- Heroku is a simple cloud service with reasonable pricing yet scalability features are rather poor.