What Indeed is Cloud Web Hosting?

What is cloud hosting in reality? The term 'cloud' seems to be very trendy in today's information technology, Internet and hosting parlance. Yet, just a select few really can say what cloud hosting is. Probably it is a clever idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a quite long tale brief, we will first reveal to you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Delivering a remote data storage solution, which comprises one data storage device for all clients, does not transform any given provider into an authentic cloud hosting distributor.

The cPanel hosting suppliers dub the ability to supply remote data storage solutions a cloud hosting solution. Up till now there is nothing wrong with the cloud terminology, but... we are talking about website hosting solutions, not remote data storage services for individual or corporate purposes. There's invariably one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to name a shared hosting solution, based on a single-server web hosting environment, just like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. This is so because the other components of the entire web hosting platform must be functioning in precisely the same manner - this does not refer only to the remote data storage. The remaining services involved in the whole web hosting procedure also must be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's quite difficult. A very meager number of hosting firms can truly attain it.

2. It Includes Domain Names, Electronic Mails, Databases, FTPs, Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not restricted to a remote file storage only. We are talking about a hosting service, serving many domain names, web pages, email addresses, and so on, right?

To name a hosting service a "cloud hosting" one requires a lot more than offering only remote data storage mounts (or probably servers). The mail server(s) must be devoted exclusively to the e-mail linked services. Performing nothing different than these given tasks. There might be only one single or possibly an entire assortment of mail servers, determined by the overall load created. To have an authentic cloud hosting service, the remote database servers should be working as one, regardless of their actual number. Executing nothing else. The same is valid for the customers' CPs, the FTP, and so on.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an actual cloud hosting accounts provider will support multiple datacenter locations on multiple continents.

Here's an instance of a DNS of a true cloud hosting solutions provider:

dns1.smarthosting4u.eu

dns2.smarthosting4u.eu

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

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This sort of Domain Name Server plainly shows that the hosting platform in use is one-server based. Possibly it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server hosting platform and maintains a 98+ percent market share. In cPanel's case, a single server handles all web hosting services (web, e-mail, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, web hosting Control Panel(s), files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Warped Definition of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting service is not limited solely to a remote data storage solution, as multiple web hosting providers wish it was. Unfortunately for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting suppliers would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones a long time ago! They are not categorized as such, as they simply deliver file hosting services, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file 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, as it's just one tiny part of the whole cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud web hosting platform: the CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the FTP cloud, the electronic mail cloud and... in the near future, perhaps a number of new clouds we currently are not informed about will turn up unexpectedly.