What Precisely is Cloud Hosting?

What is cloud hosting in fact? The term 'cloud' appears to be very fashionable in today's computing, World Wide Web and hosting jargon. However, only a few in fact are familiar with what cloud hosting is. Possibly it is a fine idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To make a very long story concise, we will firstly let you in on what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Furnishing a remote data storage service, which comprises one single disk storage device for all customers, does not transform any particular web hosting service provider into a real cloud hosting firm.

The cPanel web hosting providers dub the ability to provide remote data storage solutions a cloud hosting solution. Up to now there is nothing wrong with the cloud terminology, but... we are talking about hosting services, not remote data storage solutions for individual or business needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to dub a shared hosting service, powered by a one-single-server hosting environment, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. That's because the other pieces of the whole hosting platform must be functioning in precisely the same manner - this does not relate only to the remote file storage. The rest of the services involved in the entire hosting process also have to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very difficult. Very few web hosting suppliers can really accomplish it.

2. It Encompasses Domain Names, E-mail Box Accounts, Databases, FTPs, Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not confined to a remote disk storage exclusively. We are talking about a web hosting solution, serving a lot of domain names, web portals, email boxes, and so on, are we not?

To dub a hosting service a "cloud hosting" one calls for a lot more than furnishing just remote file storage mounts (or probably physical servers). The electronic mail server(s) must be devoted just to the e-mail connected services. Carrying out nothing different than these concrete assignments. There might be only one single or perhaps an entire assortment of mail servers, based on the overall load produced. To have an authentic cloud hosting solution, the remote database servers should be operating as one, regardless of their real number. Doing nothing else. The same is valid for the users' hosting CPs, the FTP, and so on.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a genuine cloud hosting firm will support multiple data center sites on different continents.

Here's an instance of a DNS of a genuine cloud hosting packages provider:

dns1.hostarabya.com

dns2.hostarabya.com

If such a DNS is offered by your web hosting company, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud hosting environment in use, but you can absolutely be certain 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 kind of Domain Name Server just shows that the web hosting environment in use is one-server based. Probably it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server web hosting solution and maintains a market share of more than 98%. In cPanel's case, one single physical server copes with all hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, web hosting CP(s), web files, and so on).

Remote File Storage - The Twisted Characterization of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting solution is not limited solely to a remote disk storage service, as lots of web hosting vendors wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file web hosting service providers would have been classified as cloud web hosting ones long ago! They are not classified as such, since they merely offer file web hosting services, not cloud web hosting services. The file hosting platform looks indeed very plain, when compared to the hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's simply one simple segment of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the FTP cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the foreseeable future, perchance a couple of brand new clouds we currently are not familiar with will surface out of nowhere.