Telecom Companies Taking Over Cloud Hosting

Since the Internet became a consumer medium, people have been predicting that it would mark the end of several ubiquitous services. Like cable television companies, however, telecom companies are moving into the Internet business instead of away from it. Cellular phones and mobile Internet devices may have killed the landline and the dialup connection, but telecom companies have the expertise and infrastructure—and the money—to become big players in the cloud hosting game.

Buying it Up

According to an article on CloudITProOnline.com, CenturyLink recently acquired cloud hosting provider Savvis. Cloud hosting, while it was originally aimed at web sites, has become popular for computing and other forms of storage, as well. In fact, the amount of press given to cloud hosting has far surpassed that given to forms of web hosting such as virtual hosting and dedicated hosting in recent months. Cloud hosting has also been taken up by Amazon and other major Internet players. Google plans on launching a music service that allows users to share “in the cloud”, as it’s come to be known.

CenturyLink, according to the article, will be going full-scale into the world of cloud hosting and collocating services following the merger. This merger means that CenturyLink will have more than 32 data centers added across three continents. The company currently has 16 data centers in the United States.

Popularity

Cloud hosting is becoming increasingly popular with businesses, though it has had its share of difficulties. The most well-known hiccup recently was the crash of several sites following difficulties on Amazon’s cloud services. However, the telecom providers have fiber optic infrastructures, traditional telephone line infrastructures and other resources that make them natural competitors in this market. This has driven major industry players such as Verizon and others to get in on the action while the market is still competitive.

Businesses and municipalities are increasingly looking at moving away from an IT infrastructure model that includes standalone PCs as the heart of the systems. With cloud computing and hosting, they can store more data and get more computing power for the money they spend, allowing them to use their resources much more efficiently. Cloud web hosting allows sites to have resources allocated to the on the fly and some companies have begun billing their clients on a variable basis where they get the lowest possible price for a month’s service, depending upon their actual usage rather than depending upon a fixed plan.

As telecoms move into this competitive territory, industry experts are hoping that it contributes to downward pressure on prices which, they hope, will also contribute to increased interest in these services among providers. The cloud hosting companies in the world may be numerous at present, but with the telecom companies coming so aggressively into this market, it’s likely that the big players will be more and more a force in how it evolves.