A cloud server is a virtual server (an instance) running on a provider's pooled, virtualised infrastructure. You can spin one up in minutes, scale its resources up or down on demand, and pay only for what you use — hourly or monthly. There's no hardware to buy or house; the provider runs the underlying platform and you manage your instances.

Public cloud runs on shared infrastructure — the most elastic and cost-effective option, ideal for variable workloads. Private cloud is single-tenant infrastructure dedicated to you, offering more isolation, control and predictable performance, which suits compliance-sensitive or steady workloads. Many businesses use a hybrid of both, and we help you choose the right mix.

Yes. Indian cloud providers and the major hyperscalers all offer in-India regions, so you can keep regulated data within the country to meet DPDP, RBI or sector requirements. We factor data residency into matching from the start. This is general guidance — confirm specifics with the provider and your advisors.

Pricing is driven by instance size (vCPU, RAM), storage type and size, data transfer (egress), the region, and whether you pay on-demand or commit to a reserved term for a discount. Add-ons like load balancers, backups and managed support add to it. Egress and over-provisioning are the usual sources of bill shock, which is why our comparison surfaces true monthly cost — figures here are illustrative.