A screenshot of 8x8's cloud hosting page

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Cloud hosting provider 8x8 announced on Tuesday it has launched its new Windows Cloud Server hosting solution.

The offering comes more than a year after 8x8 acquired managed hosting and cloud services provider Central Host, where it adopted cloud-based services hosted out of three data centers in Silicon Valley and one data center in New York City.

The new solution offers businesses of all sizes on Windows-based networks a cost-effective and flexible hosting option that lets them instantly deploy cloud servers, virtual private servers, geographically aware DNS and full IPv6 support.

The company previously offered the solution only for Linux operating systems. This latest Windows cloud hosting service gives users access to the most up-to-date VPS and cloud server technologies without having to invest in new IT equipment and spend hours setting it up.

Businesses can be up and running on a new server within minutes, enabling them to access more memory, storage and bandwidth and manage everything from a custom, web-based control panel.

"Businesses are moving away from on-premise computing solutions in order to save money on infrastructure and the accompanying man-hours needed to manage it," said Andy Schwabecher, general manager of hosting solutions at 8x8. "While other providers are head down building solutions for software developers, 8x8 is focused on bringing user-friendly cloud server technologies such as snapshots, cloning, availability zones and hourly billing to conventional IT groups."

The 8x8 Windows cloud server hosting solution offers a range of benefits including a simplified interface, server snapshots, RAID-10 storage, automated provisioning, memory and processing power, public IP addresses, IPv6, private networks, firewalls, SSH key logins, and an out-of-band console.

The 8x8 Windows Cloud Server hosting solution is available now starting at $49 per month or $0.12 an hour.