The technology is finally here to run a successful online business. A few years ago, there were few options when it came to choosing a host. You basically had three choices - virtual private servers, dedicated servers, and colocation. While each of these has its merits, you'll probably find that running your own physical hardware is more expensive than leasing space on a cloud host's platform. If you're wondering whether now is the time to switch, consider how long you've been running your site and how much room you think you'll need for growth in five years' time. If your content takes off - or if you start handling high volumes of e-commerce sales - it might be worth upgrading from shared infrastructure and self-hosting to managed hosting or a dedicated instance.