From hosting websites, email, applications and online file storage, the cloud has become a popular alternative to traditional IT services among businesses. In fact, it is almost impossible to find a company’s data center that does not employ cloud-based services of some kind.

When it comes to websites, speed matters. Internet surfers everywhere are becoming more and more impatient. When once five, or even ten seconds, was a completely acceptable time to wait for a page to load, those days are long gone. Now most users expect a page to load in at least three seconds, some even demand two.