What Precisely is Cloud Hosting?

What is cloud hosting in fact? The term ‘cloud’ appears to be very modern in today’s computing, World Wide Web and hosting terms. However, only a select few actually are aware of what cloud hosting is. Probably it is a good idea to educate yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a very long story succinct, we will firstly acquaint you with what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Hosting is Not Confined to a Remote Data Storage Solely.

1. Supplying a remote file storage service, which comprises one disk storage appliance for all customers, does not convert any particular hosting firm into a genuine cloud hosting distributor.

The cPanel hosting suppliers call the ability to offer remote disk storage solutions a cloud hosting solution. Up to now there is nothing wrong with the cloud classification, but… we are talking about website hosting services, not remote file storage services for private or business needs. There’s invariably one “but”, isn’t there? It’s not sufficient to name a shared hosting service, driven by a single-server web hosting platform, exactly like cPanel, a “cloud hosting” solution. This is so because the other constituents of the whole web hosting platform must be operating in precisely the same way – this does not apply only to the remote data storage. The remaining services involved in the whole web hosting process also must be remote, separated and “clouded”. And that’s very tough. A very scanty number of hosting distributors can really accomplish it.

2. It Involves Domains, Email Accounts, Databases, FTPs, Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not confined to a remote disk storage solely. We are talking about a hosting solution, serving a lot of domains, web pages, mail aliases, etc., aren’t we?

To call a hosting service a “cloud hosting” one calls for a lot more than providing merely remote data storage mounts (or probably physical servers). The e-mail server(s) have to be devoted solely to the e-mail associated services. Carrying out nothing else than these concrete tasks. There might be only one single or perhaps a whole array of mail servers, based on the overall load created. To have a true cloud 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’ web hosting Control Panels, the FTP, etc.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a real cloud hosting distributor will support multiple data center facility locations on different continents.

Here’s an illustration of a Domain Name Server of an authentic cloud hosting plans provider:

dns1.www.limeserver.com

dns2.www.limeserver.com

If such a Domain Name Server is provided by your web hosting supplier, it’s not a sure thing that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can absolutely be convinced when you discern a Domain Name Server like the one beneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn’t any cloud web hosting service. This kind of DNS simply manifests that the hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perhaps it’s cPanel. cPanel is a single-server web hosting solution and holds a market share of more than 98 percent. In cPanel’s case, one physical machine is responsible for all web hosting services (web, mail, DNS, databases, FTP, hosting CP(s), website files, etc.).

Remote File Storage – The Distorted Explanation of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting service is not confined simply to a remote file storage solution, as many hosting providers wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file web hosting providers would have been classified as cloud hosting ones a long time back! They are not referred to as such, because they merely furnish file web hosting solutions, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file hosting platform is indeed quite plain, in comparison with the web hosting platform. The remote file storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, since it’s only one simple component of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There’s plenty more to be found 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 electronic mail cloud and… in the foreseeable future, perchance a couple of brand new clouds we currently don’t know about will come up out of nowhere.