What’s The Difference Between a Dedicated Server and a Cloud Server?

The Difference Between a Dedicated Server and a Cloud Server

A few of today’s managed service providers aren’t really selling cloud services to their customers. MSP’s earn a significant portion of their income from monitoring physical servers for the customers. If you sell cloud services to your customers, then won’t that cut off an important revenue stream?

The answer is no. Cloud servers require monitoring and maintenance as well. Though they do provide a much higher level of service than physical servers, you can’t simply migrate your client’s data to the cloud and then leave the country, so to speak. Even the cloud does require regular upkeep and supervision.

Benefits of Cloud Technology

Another big revenue stream for managed service providers is the cost of servers. With cloud servers, you don’t really have a physical piece of equipment to sell so how do you make any money off that? With the cloud, it’s true that there’s no upfront cost of a physical piece of equipment. However, your revenue stream comes from the monthly cost of the cloud services. So that’s a perpetual income that never goes away.

Cloud servers are starting to sound better, right? One thing that’s true across the board is that business owners and managed service provider want to get the most for their technology investment. We all need to curb costs while still taking advantage of the latest breakthroughs in software and hardware. That’s true for your MSP business and for all small business owners.

How Much Does It Cost?

One big decision that new business owners wrestle with is whether to install a cloud-based or in-house server infrastructure. For some, it all comes down to cost. Though cloud servers will be more expensive, they deliver much better services overall. And that’s just the beginning.

The cloud really delivers on a good solid range of services without many of the problems experienced with physical servers. It also provides higher uptime for businesses. If you sell online, uptime is a huge factor. If you miss out on a few sales, it can really hurt your bottom line. In addition, consumers may find better websites to do business with if yours constantly has issues.

When you consider all the cloud has to offer, it may start to seem like a much better idea. For MSP’s trying to sell this idea to their clients, it’s important to make these types of points. As global business moves into the future, cloud technology will develop and evolve. It could eventually replace physical servers altogether.

Many experts believe that, in the future, company owners will outsource most of their technology. It makes good business sense to do this. When a business owner has reliable technology that they don’t even have to think about, they can really start building their financial empire.

The cloud offers better flexibility as well. If you have slow seasons and busy times of year, you can easily scale up or down. Many companies could benefit from this one perk alone. There are lots of great reasons to sell cloud services to your clients.

Other benefits include:

• Never worry about management or maintenance: Your cloud is always being monitored for security risks, for efficiency and all types of issues that can crop up out of nowhere.
• Business continuity: Don’t let a natural or manmade disaster shut your business down.
• Collaboration: Work with your team at the office or on the road.
• Secure critical files: Don’t be the victim of ransomware or a malware virus. Get layered security to safely store and protect all data.
• Improved communications: Stay in touch with your teams no matter where you go.
• Increased efficiency: Get more from every employee each day.
• Compliance: Many industries must now comply with a wide range of regulations like HIPAA, PCI, CIPA and even the GDPR. The cloud greatly simplifies compliance issues.
• Flexible Pricing: All facets of a company’s technology infrastructure can be addressed for a single monthly fee. Offer bundled packages that include anything and everything from the phone system, cabling, data network, help desk, wireless and all other IT infrastructure the customer needs.
• Take advantage of the latest software: In a cloud environment, community-driven APIs are often available for automatic scaling, provisioning and management. In a dedicated environment, you may have to wait for vendor-driven development.

Let’s Talk!

If you’d like to continue this discussion about how to sell cloud services to your clients, CPU is here to help. We’ve been very successful in this space and we believe this is a valuable service you could and should be selling to your customers. As the world of Cloud Services continues to advance, you’ll be on the cutting edge of this exciting and innovative technology and that’s a great place to be.

The CPU Cloud delivers secure, managed private and public cloud IaaS services with disaster recovery, backup, and migration services.

When you partner with us, you can deliver unlimited storage and retention services for a predictable monthly fee. This includes automatic upgrades, maintenance, and personal customer support that’s available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Contact CPU, Inc. to learn more.