What is Cloud Web Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting in reality? The term 'cloud' appears to be very fashionable in today's information technology, World Wide Web and web hosting lingo. Yet, only a 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 very lengthy story succinct, we will first disclose to you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Delivering a remote data storage service, which involves one single file storage appliance for all clients, does not convert any given hosting vendor into an authentic cloud web hosting packages provider.

The cPanel hosting vendors dub the ability to provide remote file storage solutions a cloud web hosting solution. So far there is nothing bad about the cloud terminology, but... we are talking about hosting solutions, not remote disk storage services for individual or corporate needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to dub a shared web hosting solution, driven by a one-server hosting platform, just like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" solution. That's because the remaining fractions of the whole web hosting platform must be working in precisely the same manner - this does not relate solely to the remote disk storage. The other services involved in the entire web hosting process also have to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's quite tough. A very meager number of hosting service providers can truly do it.

2. It Involves Domains, Mail Aliases, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, CPs, etc.

Cloud web hosting is not restricted to a remote data storage exclusively. We are talking about a web hosting solution, serving plenty of domain names, web sites, email accounts, etc., right?

To call a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one calls for a lot more than supplying simply remote file storage mounts (or perhaps physical servers). The mail server(s) have to be devoted just to the electronic mail related services. Carrying out nothing different than these given procedures. There might be only one or perhaps an entire pack of e-mail servers, depending on the overall server load generated. To have a true cloud web hosting solution, the remote database servers should be working as one, irrespective of their actual number. Executing nothing different. The same is valid for the customers' web hosting CPs, the FTP, and so on.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an authentic cloud web hosting distributor will support multiple server farm facility locations on different continents.

Here's an illustration of a Domain Name Server of a genuine cloud web hosting services provider:

dns1.josidelhosting.com

dns2.josidelhosting.com

If such a DNS is supplied by your web hosting supplier, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud web hosting platform in use, but you can absolutely be convinced when you notice a Domain Name Server like the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud hosting service. This kind of DNS plainly demonstrates that the hosting platform in use is one-single-server based. Maybe it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server web hosting platform and has a market share of more than ninety eight percent. In cPanel's case, one single physical machine tackles all hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, FTP, CP(s), website files, and so on).

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

So, a cloud web hosting solution is not confined simply to a remote file storage solution, as a lot of web hosting providers wish it was. Unfortunately for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file web hosting distributors would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones long ago! They are not classified as such, since they plainly provide file hosting services, not cloud hosting solutions. The file web hosting platform looks indeed very plain, when compared to the web hosting platform. The remote file storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's simply one tiny fragment of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There's a lot more to be encountered in the cloud web 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 foreseeable future, possibly several new clouds we currently don't know about will turn up out of the blue.