What Exactly is Cloud Web Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting in reality? The word 'cloud' appears to be quite modish in today's IT, Internet and hosting terminology. In spite of that, just a select few in fact are familiar with what cloud hosting is. Probably it is a good idea to educate yourself about cloud web hosting services. To make a quite lengthy tale concise, we will firstly inform you about what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Offering a remote data storage service, which comprises one single file storage device for all clients, does not convert any given web hosting vendor into an actual cloud web hosting company.

The cPanel web hosting providers call the ability to offer remote disk storage services a cloud web hosting solution. So far there is nothing wrong with the cloud designation, but... we are discussing hosting solutions, not remote file storage solutions for personal or business needs. There's always one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to call a shared web hosting solution, based on a single-server web hosting platform, precisely like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" solution. That's because the remaining fractions of the whole hosting platform must be functioning in precisely the same way - this does not relate solely to the remote disk storage. The other services involved in the entire web hosting process also need to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very difficult. A very meager number of web hosting providers can really make it.

2. It Encompasses Domains, Mailboxes, Databases, FTPs, CPs, etc.

Cloud web hosting is not restricted to a remote data storage only. We are talking about a hosting service, serving plenty of domains, web sites, mail aliases, etc., right?

To dub a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one requires a lot more than offering only remote data storage mounts (or perhaps servers). The electronic mail server(s) must be dedicated solely to the e-mail connected services. Doing nothing different than these particular assignments. There might be only one single or perhaps an entire collection of electronic mail servers, based on the overall load created. To have a genuine cloud web hosting solution, the remote database servers should be performing as one, irrespective of their real number. Performing nothing different. The same is valid for the clients' web hosting CPs, the File Transfer Protocol, etc.

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

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

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

dns1.surverspace.com

dns2.surverspace.com

If such a DNS is furnished by your web hosting provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud hosting platform in use, but you can definitely be certain when you notice a DNS like the one below:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting platform. This sort of DNS plainly manifests that the hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Probably it's cPanel. cPanel is a single-server web hosting platform and maintains a market share of more than ninety eight percent. In cPanel's case, one physical server deals with all hosting services (web, electronic mail, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, web hosting CP(s), website files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Perverted Definition of Cloud Web Hosting.

So, a cloud web hosting solution is not restricted exclusively to a remote disk storage solution, as numerous hosting suppliers wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, most of the file hosting firms would have been referred to as cloud web hosting ones a long time back! They are not categorized as such, because they simply offer file web hosting services, not cloud web hosting services. The file hosting platform is really quite plain, when compared to the web hosting platform. The remote data storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, as it's only one small segment of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There's a lot more to be found in the cloud hosting platform: the hosting Control Panel cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the File Transfer Protocol cloud, the mail cloud and... in the upcoming future, possibly a number of brand new clouds we currently are not familiar with will come up out of nowhere.