Ever wondered about the hassle of managing loads of hardware, updating systems, and investing hefty amounts into on-premise solutions when you could be leveraging data center services and cloud solutions? Everyone is talking about AWS, but do you know the added value that sets it apart from traditional hosting providers?

Data Centers: The Foundation with More to Offer

First, let's define what a data center is. It's a specialized building or a complex area where computer servers are housed to ensure their continuous operation and maximum security.

Traditional hosting providers (like Wedos or Forpsi) as well as cloud systems (AWS, Azure, Google) utilize data centers. However, the breadth of services between AWS and a traditional hosting provider significantly differs. Let's delve deeper.

Hosting Choices: Traditional Providers vs. AWS

For standard hosting providers, the main goal is to offer server hosting. They ensure that the units run without failure and provide basic monitoring or firewall management. Often, that’s where their services end.

AWS's EC2 can do all that, but EC2 is just one of the hundreds of services AWS offers.

How Does AWS Cloud Fare Against Traditional Hosting in Terms of Quality and Availability?

1. Automated Resource Creation

• With traditional hosting providers, creating a new server unit depends on someone on the other end of a phone call or email, which creates inevitable delays.
• In AWS, the creation of services or resources is fully automated, offering immense flexibility in architecture design. From the initial thought of creating a new server unit to connecting via RDP or SSH, it only takes a few minutes.

2. Dealing with Downtime

• AWS's Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantees your instances will run 99.5% of the time, equating to only a few hours of downtime per year. Longer downtimes mean discounts.
• Traditional providers often don’t offer such uptime guarantees, and outages are more frequent.

3. Geographical Redundancy

• Imagine needing high availability for a critical application. If your server hosted in a Prague data center fails due to natural disasters, you need servers running in multiple locations, which traditional hosting often can't provide.
• AWS makes deploying servers across various locations simple, enhancing disaster recovery capabilities.

4. Network Configuration Control

• Hosting a website on a traditional provider means you must request them to open ports, which can be cumbersome and slow.
• With AWS, you control all network configurations using services like VPC, allowing you to create complete virtual networks including route table and access list management.

5. Flexibility for Advanced Needs

• Looking for advanced backup, managed monitoring, or bulk instance management? While Amazon might be pricier, it offers far more capabilities and flexibility than traditional hosting.

6. Handling Peak Demands

• Ensure service reliability during peak times, such as holiday seasons for e-commerce, without the worry of overloading.
• Unlike dedicated servers with limited computational power, AWS provides scalable solutions, so you only pay for the resources you need when you need them.

Conclusion

While server hosting is the core activity of traditional hosting providers, with AWS, it is just one of many services offered. The main difference lies in the extensive additional features and functionalities that cloud services like AWS provide. As you can see, the benefits are substantial.