What is Cloud Web Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting really? The term 'cloud' appears to be quite modern in today's computing, Internet and web hosting lingo. Still, only a select few actually can say what cloud hosting is. Possibly it is a clever idea to inform yourself about cloud web hosting services. To render a quite lengthy story brief, we will first tell you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Supplying a remote data storage solution, which involves one data storage tool for all users, does not transform any particular hosting service provider into a genuine cloud web hosting distributor.

The cPanel hosting companies name the ability to offer remote file storage solutions a cloud web hosting solution. Until now there is nothing bad about the cloud designation, but... we are talking about hosting services, not remote file storage services for personal or corporate purposes. There's always one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to name a shared web hosting solution, driven by a one-server web hosting environment, just like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" solution. That's because the other components of the whole web hosting platform must be functioning in exactly the same way - this does not relate solely to the remote data storage. The rest of the services involved in the whole hosting process also must be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's extremely difficult. A very meager number of service providers can truly achieve it.

2. It Involves Domains, E-mailboxes, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Web Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud web hosting is not restricted to a remote data storage only. We are discussing a web hosting solution, serving numerous domain names, web pages, email mailboxes, and so on, are we not?

To dub a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one takes a lot more than providing solely remote disk storage mounts (or possibly physical servers). The e-mail server(s) need to be devoted solely to the e-mail associated services. Doing nothing else than these specific assignments. There might be only one single or maybe a whole pack of email servers, based on the total server load produced. To have an actual cloud web hosting solution, the remote database servers should be functioning as one, irrespective of their real number. Executing nothing different. The same is valid for the clients' CPs, the File Transfer Protocol, etc.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an actual cloud web hosting vendor will support numerous server farm locations on multiple continents.

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

dns1.hostgate.org

dns2.hostgate.org

If such a DNS is supplied by your hosting provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can absolutely be certain when you see a DNS like the one beneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud hosting service. This sort of DNS plainly exhibits that the hosting platform 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 physical server takes care of all web hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, FTP, hosting Control Panel(s), web site files, etc.).

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

So, a cloud web hosting service is not confined exclusively to a remote file storage service, as a lot of web hosting providers wish it was. Unfortunately for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting service providers would have been categorized as cloud web hosting ones long ago! They are not classified as such, since they plainly furnish file hosting services, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file hosting platform appears really quite simple, when compared to the hosting platform. The remote data storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, as it's only one tiny part of the whole cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the File Transfer Protocol cloud, the electronic mail cloud and... in the upcoming future, perhaps several brand new clouds we presently are not acquainted with will appear out of the blue.