What is Cloud Hosting?

What is cloud hosting really? The term 'cloud' seems to be very trendy in today's information technology, Internet and hosting jargon. In spite of that, only a select few really know what cloud hosting is. Maybe it is a smart idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a very lengthy tale concise, we will first enlighten you on what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Hosting is Not Restricted to a Remote Disk Storage Exclusively.

1. Offering a remote disk storage solution, which comprises one single file storage appliance for all clients, does not transform any particular service provider into an actual cloud hosting solutions provider.

The cPanel hosting suppliers name the ability to offer remote file storage services a cloud hosting solution. Up until now there is nothing wrong with the cloud labeling, but... we are talking about website hosting services, not remote data storage solutions for individual or corporate purposes. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to name a shared web hosting solution, driven by a one-single-server web hosting environment, precisely like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. That's because the other parts of the whole web hosting platform must be functioning in precisely the same manner - this does not relate only to the remote disk storage. The other services involved in the whole web hosting process also must be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's really hard. A very small number of service providers can actually attain it.

2. It Encompasses Domains, Mail Accounts, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not limited to a remote file storage solely. We are talking about a web hosting service, serving countless domain names, online portals, e-mail addresses, etc., aren't we?

To dub a web hosting service a "cloud hosting" one calls for a lot more than furnishing plainly remote disk storage mounts (or perchance servers). The email server(s) need to be dedicated only to the email connected services. Executing nothing else than these specific tasks. There might be only one single or maybe an entire stack of mail servers, determined by the total load generated. To have a true cloud hosting service, the remote database servers should be working as one, regardless of their real number. Executing nothing different. The same is valid for the clients' hosting CPs, the FTP, and so on.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an authentic cloud hosting vendor will support multiple datacenter facility locations on different continents.

Here's an instance of a DNS of an actual cloud hosting company:

dns1.95dollar.website

dns2.95dollar.website

If such a Domain Name Server is furnished by your hosting services provider, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud hosting environment in use, but you can absolutely be confident when you notice a DNS like the one beneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting platform. This sort of DNS plainly reveals that the web hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perchance it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server hosting platform and maintains a 98+ percent market share. In cPanel's case, one physical server takes care of all hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, Control Panel(s), web files, and so on).

Remote File Storage - The Warped Definition of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting service is not restricted solely to a remote disk storage service, as many hosting companies wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting providers would have been classified as cloud hosting ones a long time back! They are not categorized as such, because they merely provide file hosting solutions, not cloud hosting services. The file web hosting platform looks really quite plain, in comparison with the web hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's just one tiny component of the whole cloud web hosting platform. There's a lot more to be encountered in the cloud web hosting platform: the web hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the FTP cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the not too distant future, possibly several new clouds we currently are not acquainted with will spring up unexpectedly.