A quick primer on cloud computing and hosting would make it easier to grasp managed cloud basics and benefits. Those who don’t want to delve too deep into geek country should at least know that cloud computing removes the need for a company to own and maintain costly IT infrastructure. The applications, files, resources and software are instead in a cloud/data-center and accessible from anywhere using the internet.

There are a few companies with data centers large enough so that corporate customers can junk their servers and tap into the cloud for massive computing capabilities. But this does not include the setup and administration of the system. For that, the customer would need to sign up for a manage cloud.

What happens is that the customer’s entire system – the software, files, applications and everything required is made available in a data center. Whenever one of the customer’s users needs something, only the resources required are accessed. The customer now has no need for physical servers or IT staff to maintain the setup. The system on the cloud can be accessed from anywhere, so the company’s users aren’t tied to the same location.

To entirely remove all IT issues, the customer can sign up for a managed cloud. The only thing the customer needs to do is make use of the system. There is no physical hardware, the administrative tasks are handled by the provider and there are no other bills, such as for utilities.

One big advantage of using a cloud is the extremely flexible scalability. Customers can expand or cut down on the resources available on the cloud at will, without in any way impacting users. No upgrades or new servers are required, and there is no need to change from one provider or plan to another. Since the cloud is shared, only the resources actually used are billed. Hence there are no peak or load issues either.

All the customer has to do is tweak the configs (RAM, bandwidth, HDD, CPU) as a setting option – not a physical hardware change. If subsequently the additional capacity is not required, the customer can shift back to a lower config, and will be billed as per that. There are also subscription based clouds, where the customer pays a fixed amount. The customer has the choice to self manage or have it managed.

The managed cloud makes it easy for the customer with no installation, configuration or administrative duties. Medium sized companies can access powerful computing configurations without having to own the setup. Larger companies have the choice of getting rid of costly setups and staffing overheads with a more flexible option.