Cloud Website Hosting Unmasked

What is cloud hosting in fact? The word 'cloud' seems to be quite fashionable in today's IT, World Wide Web and hosting terminology. Nonetheless, only a select few actually are informed about what cloud hosting is. Maybe it is a sensible idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a very long story succinct, we will firstly reveal to you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Furnishing a remote data storage service, which involves one single data storage device for all clients, does not transform any specific web hosting provider into a real cloud hosting company.

The cPanel web hosting corporations name the ability to deliver remote disk storage solutions a cloud hosting service. Until now there is nothing wrong with the cloud classification, but... we are discussing web hosting solutions, not remote disk storage solutions for private or corporate purposes. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to call a shared web hosting service, based on a one-server web hosting environment, just like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. That's because the other components of the entire web hosting platform must be working in precisely the same way - this does not apply solely to the remote file storage. The rest of the services entailed in the whole web hosting process also have to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's quite difficult. A very meager number of web hosting providers can actually attain it.

2. It Includes Domain Names, Email Mailbox Accounts, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Web Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not limited to a remote disk storage only. We are discussing a web hosting solution, serving numerous domains, web sites, mail addresses, and so on, are we not?

To name a web hosting service a "cloud hosting" one calls for a lot more than offering simply remote disk storage mounts (or perchance servers). The e-mail server(s) have to be devoted solely to the email linked services. Carrying out nothing else than these specific tasks. There might be just one or perhaps an entire collection of electronic mail servers, determined by the overall server load generated. To have an authentic cloud hosting solution, the remote database servers should be performing as one, irrespective of their actual number. Carrying out nothing different. The same is valid for the clients' CPs, the FTP, etc.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a genuine cloud hosting accounts provider will support numerous server farm locations on multiple continents.

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

dns1.simmetrypcs.net

dns2.simmetrypcs.net

If such a Domain Name Server is furnished by your hosting plans provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud hosting platform in use, but you can definitely be convinced when you observe a DNS such as the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This type of Domain Name Server merely illustrates that the hosting platform in use is one-single-server based. Perhaps it's cPanel. cPanel is a single-server web hosting platform and has a market share of more than 98 percent. In cPanel's case, a single physical machine takes care of all hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, FTP, Control Panel(s), files, and so on).

Remote File Storage - The Distorted Explanation of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting solution is not limited exclusively to a remote data storage service, as plenty of hosting providers wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, most of the file service providers would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones a long time ago! They are not referred to as such, as they plainly supply file hosting solutions, not cloud web hosting services. The file web hosting platform seems really quite simple, in comparison with the hosting platform. The remote file storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's only one simple fraction of the entire cloud hosting platform. There's a lot more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the FTP cloud, the electronic mail cloud and... in the near future, possibly a number of brand new clouds we currently are not familiar with will show up out of the blue.