Cloud Hosting

What is cloud web hosting really? The word 'cloud' seems to be very modern in today's information technology, Internet and web hosting lingo. Yet, just a few in fact know what cloud hosting is. Perchance it is a clever idea to inform yourself about cloud web hosting services. To make a quite long tale brief, we will firstly disclose to you what cloud hosting is not.

Pro

Unlimited storage Unlimited bandwidth 5 websites hosted

$4.42 / month

Pro Plus

Unlimited storage Unlimited bandwidth Unlimited websites hosted

$8.75 / month

1. Supplying a remote data storage service, which comprises one single file storage tool for all users, does not transform any given web hosting vendor into a genuine cloud web hosting company.

The cPanel hosting companies dub the ability to provide remote file storage services a cloud web hosting solution. Until now there is nothing wrong with the cloud classification, but... we are discussing web hosting services, not remote file storage services for individual or business needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to name a shared web hosting service, based on a one-single-server web hosting platform, just like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" service. This is so because the other constituents of the entire web hosting platform must be functioning in precisely the same way - this does not apply solely to the remote disk storage. The other services entailed in the entire web hosting procedure also have to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very hard. Very few web hosting corporations can truly do it.

Cloud web hosting is not restricted to a remote data storage solely. We are discussing a hosting solution, serving numerous domains, web sites, mail aliases, etc., right?

To name a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one demands a lot more than offering solely remote file storage mounts (or possibly servers). The electronic mail server(s) need to be dedicated exclusively to the mail linked services. Executing nothing else than these given tasks. There might be just one or probably a whole cluster of electronic mail servers, based on the overall server load produced. To have a genuine cloud web hosting solution, the remote database servers should be operating as one, irrespective of their actual number. Carrying out nothing different. The same is valid for the users' CPs, the FTP, and so on.

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a genuine cloud web hosting company will support multiple server farm facility sites on multiple continents.

Here's an illustration of a Domain Name Server of a real cloud web hosting company:

dns1.webcred.net

dns2.webcred.net

If such a Domain Name Server is furnished by your hosting accounts provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud hosting environment in use, but you can definitely be confident when you see a DNS like the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud hosting service. This kind of DNS just shows that the web hosting environment in use is one-server based. Possibly 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 server is responsible for all web hosting services (web, mail, DNS, databases, FTP, hosting Control Panel(s), files, and so on).

So, a cloud web hosting solution is not limited only to a remote disk storage service, as numerous web hosting providers wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting distributors would have been classified as cloud web hosting ones long ago! They are not classified as such, as they simply offer file hosting services, not cloud hosting solutions. The file hosting platform is really quite plain, in comparison with the hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's simply one tiny component of the whole cloud web hosting platform. There's a lot more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the web hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the FTP cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the near future, possibly a few new clouds we presently are not acquainted with will emerge unexpectedly.

Excerpt from:
Cloud Website Hosting Defined - webcred.net