What is Cloud Website Hosting?

What is cloud hosting really? The word 'cloud' seems to be very fashionable in today's IT, World Wide Web and hosting terminology. Even so, only a few actually are aware of what cloud hosting is. Possibly it is a smart idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a quite lengthy story short, we will first acquaint you with what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Hosting is Not Limited to a Remote File Storage Only.

1. Delivering a remote file storage solution, which comprises one data storage tool for all clients, does not convert any given hosting distributor into a genuine cloud hosting distributor.

The cPanel hosting suppliers call the ability to furnish remote data storage services a cloud hosting solution. Up till now there is nothing wrong with the cloud classification, but... we are discussing web hosting services, not remote file storage solutions for personal or business purposes. There's always one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to call a shared web hosting solution, based on a single-server web hosting environment, just like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" service. That's because the remaining fractions of the whole hosting platform must be functioning in exactly the same manner - this does not relate solely to the remote file storage. The rest of the services entailed in the whole web hosting process also must be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very problematical. Very few hosting suppliers can actually accomplish it.

2. It Entails Domain Names, E-mail Boxes, Databases, FTPs, Hosting CPs, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not limited to a remote disk storage exclusively. We are discussing a hosting service, serving many domains, sites, email box accounts, etc., right?

To dub a hosting service a "cloud hosting" one calls for a lot more than furnishing solely remote disk storage mounts (or maybe servers). The e-mail server(s) must be dedicated only to the electronic mail associated services. Doing nothing else than these specific tasks. There might be just one single or perhaps a whole cluster of e-mail servers, depending on the total load created. To have a true cloud hosting solution, the remote database servers should be performing as one, regardless of their real number. Carrying out nothing else. The same is valid for the clients' web hosting CPs, the File Transfer Protocol, and so on.

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

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

Here's an illustration of a DNS of a real cloud hosting services provider:

dns1.realtechosting.com

dns2.realtechosting.com

If such a DNS is offered by your hosting accounts provider, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud hosting environment in use, but you can definitely be confident when you spot a DNS such as the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud hosting service. This type of Domain Name Server only exhibits that the web hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perhaps it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server hosting platform and holds a market share of more than 98%. In cPanel's case, a single physical server copes with all web hosting services (web, e-mail, DNS, databases, FTP, CP(s), website files, and so on).

Remote File Storage - The Distorted Explanation of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting service is not restricted exclusively to a remote disk storage service, as plenty of hosting providers wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting service providers would have been categorized as cloud hosting ones a long time ago! They are not classified as such, because they plainly furnish file hosting services, not cloud hosting solutions. The file web hosting platform seems really very simple, when compared to the hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's simply one small segment of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There's a lot more to be found in the cloud web hosting platform: the hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the FTP cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the foreseeable future, probably a bunch of brand new clouds we presently don't know about will surface out of the blue.