What Indeed is Cloud Web Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting indeed? The term 'cloud' appears to be quite modish in today's IT, Internet and web hosting terminology. Yet, only a few actually are informed about what cloud hosting is. Maybe it is a sensible idea to educate yourself about cloud web hosting services. To render a very lengthy story brief, we will first let you know what cloud hosting is not.

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

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

The cPanel hosting distributors name the ability to deliver remote data storage services a cloud web hosting solution. Up to now there is nothing wrong with the cloud labeling, but... we are talking about hosting solutions, not remote file storage solutions for private or corporate needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to name a shared web hosting solution, powered by a one-server hosting environment, just like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" solution. That's because the remaining pieces of the entire web hosting platform must be operating in precisely the same way - this does not refer only to the remote file storage. The other services involved in the entire web hosting process also must be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's really hard. A very scanty number of hosting vendors can really accomplish it.

2. It Entails Domain Names, Electronic Mail Accounts, Databases, FTPs, Web Hosting Control Panels, etc.

Cloud web hosting is not confined to a remote file storage exclusively. We are discussing a web hosting service, serving multiple domains, websites, mail aliases, etc., aren't we?

To dub a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one demands a lot more than distributing only remote data storage mounts (or possibly servers). The electronic mail server(s) must be devoted only to the mail connected services. Carrying out nothing different than these concrete assignments. There might be only one single or probably an entire pack of mail servers, determined by the total server load produced. To have a genuine cloud web hosting solution, the remote database servers should be functioning as one, regardless of their actual quantity. Executing nothing else. The same goes for the users' CPs, the File Transfer Protocol, and so on.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a genuine cloud web hosting vendor will support multiple datacenter facility sites on multiple continents.

Here's an illustration of a DNS of an authentic cloud web hosting company:

dns1.tech9ine.com

dns2.tech9ine.com

If such a DNS is furnished by your hosting provider, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can absolutely be certain when you discern a DNS such as the one beneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud hosting service. This kind of DNS just exhibits that the hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perchance it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server hosting solution and has a market share of more than ninety eight percent. In cPanel's case, one physical server tackles all web hosting services (web, electronic mail, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, hosting CP(s), web files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Warped Characterization of Cloud Web Hosting.

So, a cloud web hosting service is not limited just to a remote data storage service, as many hosting distributors wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, most of the file hosting distributors would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones a long time back! They are not classified as such, as they merely offer file web hosting solutions, not cloud hosting services. The file web hosting platform looks indeed quite simple, in comparison with the web hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's just one tiny segment of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be discovered in the cloud web hosting platform: the hosting Control Panel cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the FTP cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the foreseeable future, maybe a number of new clouds we currently are not informed about will surface unexpectedly.