What is Cloud Website Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting in fact? The term 'cloud' seems to be very fashionable in today's information technology, Internet and web hosting parlance. Still, only a select few actually know what cloud hosting is. Possibly it is a good idea to educate yourself about cloud web hosting services. To render a quite long story succinct, we will firstly enlighten you on what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Web Hosting is Not Limited to a Remote Data Storage Exclusively.

1. Supplying a remote disk storage service, which involves one single disk storage appliance for all users, does not convert any specific hosting provider into an actual cloud web hosting distributor.

The cPanel web hosting corporations name the ability to supply remote data storage services a cloud web hosting solution. Up to now there is nothing wrong with the cloud designation, but... we are discussing hosting solutions, not remote disk storage services for individual or business needs. There's always one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to dub a shared hosting solution, driven by a one-server web hosting platform, just like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" service. That's because the remaining pieces of the entire web hosting platform must be functioning in precisely the same manner - this does not refer only to the remote disk storage. The rest of the services entailed in the whole hosting process also need to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's quite hard. A very scanty number of hosting providers can really attain it.

2. It Entails Domains, Electronic Mail Addresses, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Web Hosting CPs, and so on.

Cloud web hosting is not restricted to a remote file storage only. We are talking about a web hosting service, serving lots of domains, websites, e-mail aliases, etc., aren't we?

To call a hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one requires a lot more than supplying plainly remote file storage mounts (or probably physical servers). The email server(s) have to be dedicated just to the electronic mail linked services. Carrying out nothing different than these given assignments. There might be only one or perhaps an entire group of mail servers, based on the overall load produced. To have a real cloud web hosting solution, the remote database servers should be operating as one, regardless of their actual quantity. Performing nothing else. The same is valid for the users' hosting Control Panels, the FTP, etc.

3. There are Cloud Domain Servers (DNSs) too.

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an authentic cloud web hosting company will support numerous data center sites on different continents.

Here's an instance of a Domain Name Server of a genuine cloud web hosting supplier:

dns1.suuhost.com

dns2.suuhost.com

If such a Domain Name Server is provided by your web hosting distributor, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud hosting platform in use, but you can definitely be sure when you observe a DNS like the one below:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This kind of Domain Name Server plainly exhibits that the hosting platform in use is one-server based. Maybe it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server hosting solution and has a market share of more than ninety eight percent. In cPanel's case, one physical machine deals with all web hosting services (web, e-mail, DNS, databases, FTP, hosting CP(s), web site files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Distorted Definition of Cloud Web Hosting.

So, a cloud web hosting service is not confined exclusively to a remote file storage service, as multiple hosting companies wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file hosting suppliers would have been classified as cloud hosting ones a long time back! They are not classified as such, because they simply furnish file hosting solutions, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file hosting platform looks indeed quite simple, in comparison with the web hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's merely one simple part of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the web hosting Control Panel cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the FTP cloud, the mail cloud and... in the not too distant future, perchance a bunch of brand new clouds we currently are not aware of will spring up out of nowhere.