It is hard to compare between on-site enterprise data centers and cloud technology but, if we closely observe the trends, we would be able to understand that the facts and figures are in the favor of cloud technology. Cloud hosting is getting more and more popular in the domain of IT industry as compared to the enterprise data centers. Although each of these technologies has its own pros and cons, the fundamental difference between the two is the availability factor.
People are so anxious about the speed and they want everything within few clicks, and even a little delay in any kind of online service can cause anxiety and cry against the providers. Online companies cannot afford delays and sites-down issues because it may cause adverse effects on their end users.
There are many companies or services worldwide that are operating online. Among these companies, a few, such as banks and online shops, are dealing with time sensitive data and their services need to be up around the clock. For all these service providers, cloud technology is essential.
A software company in California has conducted a survey to find out the usage of both on-site enterprise data centers and cloud technology, and their effects on the businesses. The survey report showed that almost 84 percent of the IT experts in Europe and the USA have faced many issues related to the enterprise data centers. These problems caused rollback and downtime issues in their systems.
The research also found out that the network availability factor of both these technologies is more than 95 percent. But the comparison of the two reveals that data centers’ availability is less than that of cloud technology. Typically, the range of data centers’ availability lies between 95 percent and 98.5 percent, while the ratio of availability of cloud technologies is about 99.95 percent.
The survey suggests that the downtime of some major cloud hosting service providers has occurred about four times in foremost service events in the year 2012. There was a downtime of almost 2 hours on June 14, 4 hours on June 29, 6 hours in October 22, and 23 hours in December 24. By adding all these downtimes, we get a sum total of 35 hours in one year.
In the nutshell, if we look at the comparative results, we come to know that the network availability of cloud hosting services is better compared to that of on-site enterprise data centers. This means the cost is another factor that gives a comparative edge to cloud technology.
