What is Cloud Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting in fact? The term 'cloud' appears to be quite fashionable in today's IT, Internet and hosting parlance. In spite of that, only a select few in fact are aware of what cloud hosting is. Perchance it is a clever idea to inform yourself about cloud web hosting services. To render a very lengthy story brief, we will firstly describe to you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Offering a remote disk storage service, which comprises one single file storage appliance for all clients, does not turn any particular web hosting distributor into an actual cloud web hosting supplier.

The cPanel hosting corporations dub the ability to supply remote data storage solutions a cloud web hosting solution. Up until now there is nothing wrong with the cloud terminology, but... we are talking about web hosting solutions, not remote data storage solutions for personal or business needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to call a shared hosting solution, powered by a one-single-server web hosting environment, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" service. That's because the remaining pieces of the whole web hosting platform must be functioning in precisely the same manner - this does not apply only to the remote disk storage. The remaining services entailed in the whole web hosting process also must be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's very problematical. A very small number of web hosting service providers can actually make it.

2. It Entails Domain Names, Email Boxes, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Hosting CPs, etc.

Cloud web hosting is not confined to a remote disk storage only. We are discussing a web hosting service, serving countless domain names, web pages, mail addresses, etc., right?

To call a hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one calls for a lot more than offering simply remote disk storage mounts (or probably physical servers). The mail server(s) need to be devoted exclusively to the mail associated services. Carrying out nothing different than these particular tasks. There might be only one or possibly an entire bunch of email servers, depending on the overall server load produced. To have an authentic cloud web hosting service, the remote database servers should be functioning as one, irrespective of their actual number. Performing nothing else. The same goes for the clients' Control Panels, the FTP, and so on.

3. There are Cloud Domain Servers (DNSs) as well.

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a genuine cloud web hosting firm will support numerous server farm locations on different continents.

Here's an instance of a Domain Name Server of an actual cloud web hosting services provider:

dns1.poloniaserver.net

dns2.poloniaserver.net

If such a Domain Name Server is supplied by your web hosting packages provider, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can definitely be convinced when you perceive a Domain Name Server like the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting platform. This sort of DNS only manifests that the web hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perchance it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server web hosting solution and has a market share of more than ninety eight percent. In cPanel's case, one single physical machine takes care of all web hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, CP(s), web files, etc.).

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

So, a cloud web hosting solution is not confined simply to a remote data storage solution, as lots of web hosting firms wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, most of the file hosting distributors would have been categorized as cloud hosting ones a long time ago! They are not referred to as such, since they plainly furnish file web hosting solutions, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file web hosting platform seems indeed quite plain, in comparison with the hosting platform. The remote data storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's simply one simple component of the entire cloud hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the FTP cloud, the electronic mail cloud and... in the not too distant future, probably a number of new clouds we presently are not informed about will come up out of the blue.