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RE: Cloud Hosting Comparison and Choice of Service Provider

Patrick O. Ogbuitepu

Maybeach Technologies Limited, Abuja - Nigeria.

March 01, 2013

Abstract This write-up aims at presenting the reader with the benefits and drawbacks of using a cloud hosting

service to ensure an availability of over 99% with minimum possible operating costs. The write-up would

briefly explore existing hosting plans and compare the key features of 4 different cloud hosting service

providers.

1. Introduction

1.1 Overview of Web Hosting

Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as

providing Internet connectivity to the servers that are typically located in a data center.

A Web Host / Server is a computer system that is running a webserver software such as Apache HTTP

Server, Zeus Webserver, and Internet Information Services among others, and in most cases several

script interpreters, a database server and an email client. Typically, these systems respond to HTTP /

HTTPS requests made by clients.

The hosting company may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the Web server and

installing scripts, as well as other modules and service applications. Some hosts specialize in certain

software or services (e.g. e-commerce), which are commonly used by larger companies that outsource

network infrastructure.

1.2 Hosting Requirements for Web based Applications

In order for a web based application to achieve its aim, the application needs to be available. And

availability is a factor determined by the performance and level of security of host and the hosted

application. The following factors would be considered when selecting a hosting plan and provider.

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Hosting Plan Requirements

Considerable System Control: The degree of control we have would determine the level of

security of our data and application. Therefore a great deal of control that would extend to

choice of OS, choice of applications, root access.

Performance: Increase in traffic can greatly affect the performance of a web server, thus require

a plan that supports the use of load-balancers would be required.

Required Resource Allocation: Server resources that would meet our processing demands

would be required, as this can also lead to performance related issues.

Multiple Application Replica: Since we cannot fully depend on any hosting service provider to

provide 100% availability we would have to replicate our application and data on another host

were request would be transferred to in the unfortunate events of failure

Minimal Running Cost: The cost of which ever hosting service we use should be such that it

does not exceed N100,000.00 per year for a maximum of 100 concurrent requests.

Table 3: Score Sheet based on requirements

Hosting Type System Control

Load Balancing

Resource Allocation

Application Replica

Cost Savings

0 – poor; 10 – best

Shared web hosting service 2 2 2 4 10

Virtual Private Server 7 6 7 4 5

Dedicated Hosting 10 6 10 4 2

Cloud Hosting 6 10 10 9 7

Thus, cloud hosting service would be considered as a suitable hosting type.

2. Types of Web Hosting Plans

2.1 Shared Hosting

Shared hosting involves the use of a single Server / Host PC to host multiple applications / websites

managed by multiple users. Thus, the resources available on the Server / Host PC such as CPU, RAM,

Storage Space and Network Traffic In/Out of the Server are shared by all the users.

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Some resources like storage space and inbound/outbound traffic can be allocated to users but others

like processing power and memory usage are often left for tussle.

Merits

1. Cheaper Hosting Plan

2. It includes all necessary applications such as server script interpreters, database servers, email

clients etc.

3. Easy and Quick Set-up

Demerits

1. Resources are shared with other people, thus any action / inaction by one user can affect

everyone.

2. Little control on inbound traffic

3. Redeployment of website / web-application is the only remedy in a case of continuous traffic

spike

2.2 Virtual Private Server

Virtual Private Server is a form of shared hosting whereby all the computing resources in a Server / Host

PC are shared among multiple users. Unlike conventional shared hosting users have the ability to

completely define their hosting environment by specifying their choice of OS, CPU power, RAM size, and

Storage space etc.

Merits

1. Greater Level of Control

2. Improved Security

Demerits

1. Extended Server Set-up time

2. Manual Software Updates and System Monitoring or additional management fee .

3. Requires highly trained server administrators

4. Growth can be restricted due to resource limitation

2.3 Dedicated Server

Dedicated Servers are independent servers where all the resources of a Host / Server PC belong to only

one user. Thus, the user is free to do as he/she pleases assuming there is sufficient bandwidth to handle

all tasks.

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Merits

1. All Server resources are dedicated to one user

2. Improved Security

Demerits

1. High entry cost

2. Doubled investment in other to achieve redundancy.

3. Additional management / monitoring fee

4. Requires highly trained server administrators

2.4 Cloud Server

Cloud Servers are technically the same with Virtual Private Servers but for the fact that they are billed on

a metered basis. Thus, resulting in lower entry cost and resource guarantee, in addition to the flexibility

already available on VPS. Cloud Servers offer the desirable features of Shared, VPS and Dedicated

Servers.

On the cloud users only pay for the resources they need, and these resources are guaranteed for their

use only in addition to the fact that the cloud servers are highly scalable and are not faced with the

limitations of traditional VPS.

Cloud servers are self-healing that is in the case of hardware failure the Virtual Server starts somewhere

else on the cloud within seconds.

They also include the ability to provision additional servers nearly identical the current ones quickly, and

in some cases this is done programmatically using an API.

3. Cloud Hosting Service Providers Evaluation Below are comparisons of cloud hosting services

Cloud Providers Cost per month Features Drawbacks

Atlantic.net $14.60 (N 27,506.40 per year)

2 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 80GB HDD, 1 TB Outbound traffic

1. Scaling-up has to be done via an email request from the user

2. The servers are unmanaged that is the user is responsible for set-up, software

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patches, updates and monitoring

3. Offer very little technical support

4. No load-balancers

Linode.com $20.00 (N 37,680.00 per year)

~7.2GHz, 1 GB RAM, 24 GB HDD, 2 TB Outbound traffic 1. Excellent

Documentation and User Guide

2. Offers back-up, load-balancers and system management and monitoring for additional fee

3. Little Set-up Time

eApps $34.39 (N 64,790.76 per year)

1.2 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 15 GB HDD, 25 GB Outbound traffic 1. Cheap monitoring

fee

1. Provides only basic documentation

Amazon Web Services

$45.28 (85,307.52 per year)

1.2GHz, 1.7GB RAM, 10 GB HDD, 1 GB Outbound traffic 1. Larger Customer

Base 2. Includes cost of

load balancers 3. Servers have

highest availability

1. Additional Charges for PUT, COPY, POST, LIST request made to storage

2. High cost data transfer

4. Recommendations and Conclusion In accordance to the information provided in this document, I would personally suggest utilization of

amazon web services if cost is not a major requirement due to the following reasons:

Widespread adoption in industry

Excellent Documentation and wide range of resource materials.

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At second choice would be the use oflinode.com services due to the following reasons:

Excellent Users Guide

The cost of their services falls within our budget. And we can easily scale -up to their ~7.2GHz, 2

GB RAM, 48 GB HDD, 4 TB Outbound traffic plan for only $40.00 which is still well within our

budget.

At launch we can decide not to include load-balancers as this service could easily be requested

for later on