Cloud Hosting Defined

What is cloud hosting really? The word 'cloud' seems to be very modern in today's computing, World Wide Web and web hosting lingo. However, only a select few in fact are informed about what cloud hosting is. Maybe it is a fine idea to educate yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a very long tale succinct, we will first describe to you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Offering a remote disk storage service, which involves one disk storage tool for all users, does not convert any specific hosting vendor into a real cloud hosting provider.

The cPanel web hosting companies call the ability to distribute remote data storage solutions a cloud hosting solution. Up till now there is nothing bad about the cloud labeling, but... we are discussing website hosting solutions, not remote file storage services for individual or corporate needs. There's invariably one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to name a shared hosting service, driven by a one-server hosting environment, precisely like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. That's because the remaining constituents of the entire web hosting platform must be working in exactly the same manner - this does not refer solely to the remote disk storage. The other services involved in the whole web hosting process also have to be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's extremely tough. A very small number of hosting distributors can really accomplish it.

2. It Entails Domains, E-mailboxes, Databases, FTPs, Hosting CPs, etc.

Cloud hosting is not limited to a remote disk storage solely. We are discussing a web hosting service, serving lots of domains, sites, emails, etc., are we not?

To name a web hosting service a "cloud hosting" one needs a lot more than supplying plainly remote data storage mounts (or possibly servers). The e-mail server(s) need to be devoted solely to the email connected services. Performing nothing else than these specific procedures. There might be only one single or possibly a whole pack of electronic mail servers, depending on the total server load generated. To have an actual cloud hosting solution, the remote database servers should be functioning as one, regardless of their actual number. Carrying out nothing else. The same is valid for the customers' web hosting CPs, the File Transfer Protocol, etc.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an actual cloud hosting distributor will support numerous server farm sites on different continents.

Here's an instance of a DNS of a real cloud hosting distributor:

dns1.gtohosting.com

dns2.gtohosting.com

If such a Domain Name Server is provided 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 observe a DNS like the one beneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This type of Domain Name Server only shows that the hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perchance it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server web hosting platform and holds a market share of more than 98%. In cPanel's case, a single server handles all hosting services (web, mail, DNS, databases, FTP, Control Panel(s), web site files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Warped Definition of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting service is not restricted exclusively to a remote file storage solution, as many hosting companies wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file web hosting corporations would have been categorized as cloud hosting ones a long time back! They are not referred to as such, because they plainly deliver file hosting services, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file hosting platform is indeed very simple, when compared to the hosting platform. The remote file storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's only one simple fraction of the whole cloud hosting platform. There's a lot more to be found in the cloud hosting platform: the hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the File Transfer Protocol cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the not too distant future, maybe a number of brand new clouds we presently are not informed about will appear unexpectedly.