Cloud Web Hosting Unmasked

What is cloud web hosting in reality? The term 'cloud' seems to be very fashionable in today's IT, Internet and web hosting jargon. Still, just a select few actually can say what cloud hosting is. Possibly it is a sensible idea to inform yourself about cloud web hosting services. To render a quite long story short, we will first notify you about what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Furnishing a remote disk storage service, which comprises one single disk storage device for all users, does not turn any specific hosting provider into a real cloud web hosting solutions provider.

The cPanel hosting providers name the ability to supply remote file storage solutions a cloud web hosting service. So far there is nothing wrong with the cloud designation, but... we are talking about website hosting solutions, not remote disk storage services for private or business needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to call a shared hosting solution, driven by a one-single-server hosting environment, precisely like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" solution. This is so because the remaining components of the whole hosting platform must be operating in precisely the same way - this does not relate only to the remote disk storage. The remaining services entailed in the entire web hosting procedure also need to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very difficult. A very meager number of service providers can truly make it.

2. It Entails Domains, E-mail Aliases, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, CPs, etc.

Cloud web hosting is not limited to a remote disk storage exclusively. We are talking about a hosting service, serving a lot of domains, sites, email mailboxes, etc., aren't we?

To call a hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one takes a lot more than furnishing simply remote file storage mounts (or perchance servers). The electronic mail server(s) must be devoted solely to the electronic mail related services. Performing nothing different than these specific assignments. There might be just one or maybe an entire collection of email servers, depending on the overall load created. To have an actual cloud web hosting service, the remote database servers should be performing as one, regardless of their real number. Performing nothing different. The same is valid for the clients' hosting 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 services provider will support numerous server farm sites on multiple continents.

Here's an instance of a DNS of an authentic cloud web hosting firm:

dns1.greathosts.biz

dns2.greathosts.biz

If such a DNS is furnished by your hosting vendor, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud hosting environment in use, but you can absolutely be convinced when you notice a DNS like the one below:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This type of Domain Name Server plainly exhibits that the hosting environment in use is one-server based. Perhaps it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server hosting platform and has a 98+ percent market share. In cPanel's case, one single server handles all hosting services (web, mail, DNS, databases, FTP, web hosting Control Panel(s), website files, and so on).

Remote File Storage - The Twisted Explanation of Cloud Web Hosting.

So, a cloud web hosting service is not restricted exclusively to a remote data storage solution, as many web hosting providers wish it was. Unfortunately for them, if that was the case, most of the file hosting vendors would have been classified as cloud web hosting ones a long time back! They are not referred to as such, as they simply supply file web hosting solutions, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file web hosting platform looks indeed quite simple, in comparison with the web hosting platform. The remote file storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's merely one tiny fraction of the whole cloud web 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, perchance several brand new clouds we currently are not aware of will spring up unexpectedly.