What most of the organizations today strive for is – better operational efficiency, through improved speed and connectivity between the services and the end users. The question is how we fill this gap between the service and the user, or how we can deliver most of the services within lesser time frame.
For instance, when we talk about the ecommerce companies, the only medium they have to communicate with their clients is – their website. Hence, they need to ensure that their website works with utmost efficiency and earns customer credibility. What makes a website run smoothly is a good hosting platform. It is like the backbone of any site. Lately, we all have heard about the Cloud, and how it is changing the statistics of the businesses.
Cloud hosting is about improving efficiency through shared resources, that are accessible anytime anywhere with a simple access to internet, and has lesser effect on IT budgets because of its pay-as-you-go model.
Another thing that comes in mind when we talk about website efficiency is CDN Hosting. CDN or better known as Content Delivery Network works on the model of delivering content (scripts, graphics, texts and other downloadable objects) to the end user through multiple data centers located across the internet. It serves its audience depending upon the proximity of the node with the end user. Thus, your website will be visible to your end visitor through the fastest way possible.
To know more about CDN hosting, read our blog: What is CDN hosting and how it works?
So, if both Cloud and CDN are serving the same purpose, we need to know which one is better.
Cloud vs CDN Hosting
To know and understand which hosting solution is better, we need to analyze the issues that both of them solve. Through this analysis, we will be in a better position to state which one is better. Let’s begin with the most important parameter or issue that they can solve.
1. Latency
One of the most dissatisfying factors during a site visit is the time taken in loading the page. Right from the moment any user requests a site, till the time the website finally gets displayed has a proportional effect on the customer satisfaction. CDN hosting is known for solving this particular issue.
In a CDN framework, static content is stored on multiple DCs and whenever a user requests a webpage, it delivers the content from the nearest possible node, thus reducing the latency.
Cloud Hosting is a next gen hosting solution for meeting all the needs of an organization. With the right placement of datacenters, latency issues can be solved. By choosing a geographically close datacenter, an organization can improve its website efficiency and page loading time.
Read Our blog: Does server location matter in Hosting?
2. Performance
A good hosting solution boosts your website performance. Both cloud and CDN hosting minimize website loopholes like latency and unavailability and eventually improve its performance. The level of performance and the scope of development is what differentiates the two. Let’s see how:
CDN Hosting delivers static content across the internet. It is by and large used for storage purpose only. It stores an image/copy of the content from the basic/original server and then transmits it as per the user request. Thus, here the real performance comes through the server, CDN is just transmitting the static content stored in it.
Cloud Hosting on the other hand, is not just about delivering the content. It is a scalable platform with a wide range of resources that can be shared and used as per demand. The user can add/remove the resources per his needs with every service powered by varying equipments. You can host your infrastructure, applications and develop platforms through the various cloud models like IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.
3. Cost
CDN hosting services are provided either as a core hosting service or as a part of any hosting plan. Some providers also give free CDN hosting services. When it comes to cost, CDN services are less costly than cloud.
But, what makes Cloud services economical is their pay as you go model of service delivery. Thus, in cloud, you pay only for the services you consume. It saves you from investing large upfront cost.
4. Reliability
When your server is highly available, scalable and offers maximum uptime, you get a reliable hosting platform. When it comes to reliability, cloud hosting has an edge over the CDN hosting.
In CDN Hosting, the performance of the CDN depends upon the original server. This is because it stores static content from the original server which is delivered to the main user as per the request. For ex. in a shared hosting platform, where there are a huge number of websites being hosted on a single server, a CDN helps target the end user with its static content delivery. But here, it will heavily rely on the original server’s performance.
Cloud hosting on the other hand has a better user experience and reliability statistics as compared to a CDN. This is because in case of any node failure, another node takes over within seconds. Moreover, the cloud provider takes care of the hardware and networking, hence, it can troubleshoot any problem in real time.
So which one is a better hosting solution?
Cloud computing is a larger term and represents a larger market. If the market for CDN and cloud is to be merged, the former stands a chance to get subdued. CDN came into the picture with the aim of reducing the website loading time or better known as latency. It delivers content to the end user depending upon its proximity with him. Cloud also supports data storage, but its functioning is not limited to it as it is a much larger platform with a multitude of services.
By taking a web hosting solution from an industry leader like ZNetLive, you can ensure your website’s rock solid performance. Our range of enterprise cloud services like IaaS (Infrastructure as a service), PaaS (Platform as a service) and SaaS (Software as s service), serve all the needs of your organization.
But still, the end choice is completely yours. If you are an online content distributor or have some specific needs, only then CDN services can suit your needs better, but for an overall website performance and efficiency, you need to host it on a cloud platform.
Feel free to share your queries about the same, through our comments section below.
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