What Exactly is Cloud Web Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting really? The term 'cloud' appears to be very trendy in today's IT, Internet and hosting terms. Still, just a few in fact are familiar with what cloud hosting is. Perhaps it is a clever idea to educate yourself about cloud web hosting services. To render a quite lengthy tale concise, we will first tell you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Providing a remote disk storage service, which comprises one single disk storage tool for all users, does not transform any particular service provider into an actual cloud web hosting supplier.

The cPanel hosting providers dub the ability to distribute remote data storage services a cloud web hosting service. Up till now there is nothing wrong with the cloud designation, but... we are talking about web hosting solutions, not remote file storage services for private or business needs. There's invariably one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to name a shared hosting solution, based on a one-server hosting environment, precisely like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" solution. That's because the remaining constituents of the entire hosting platform must be functioning in exactly the same manner - this does not refer solely to the remote file storage. The other services involved in the entire hosting procedure also have to be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's really problematical. Very few hosting service providers can actually achieve it.

2. It Encompasses Domains, Email Accounts, Databases, FTPs, Web Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud web hosting is not restricted to a remote disk storage only. We are discussing a hosting solution, serving countless domains, sites, mails, etc., right?

To call a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one calls for a lot more than delivering solely remote data storage mounts (or possibly physical servers). The mail server(s) must be dedicated solely to the email related services. Carrying out nothing different than these specific tasks. There might be just one single or probably an entire assortment of electronic mail servers, determined by the total load produced. To have a true cloud web hosting service, the remote database servers should be working as one, irrespective of their real quantity. Carrying out nothing different. The same goes for the customers' web hosting CPs, the FTP, and so on.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an authentic cloud web hosting services provider will support numerous server farm facility sites on multiple continents.

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

dns1.innovativehostingservices.com

dns2.innovativehostingservices.com

If such a Domain Name Server is furnished by your web hosting packages provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can definitely be convinced when you spot a DNS like the one below:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud hosting platform. This type of DNS simply illustrates that the hosting platform in use is one-server based. Perchance it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server web hosting platform and maintains a market share of more than 98 percent. In cPanel's case, one single physical machine deals with all hosting services (web, e-mail, DNS, databases, FTP, hosting CP(s), web files, etc.).

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

So, a cloud web hosting solution is not limited simply to a remote file storage solution, as lots of web hosting providers wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting vendors would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones a long time back! They are not referred to as such, as they plainly provide file web hosting services, not cloud web hosting services. The file hosting platform looks indeed very simple, in comparison with the web hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's simply one small fragment of the whole cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the web hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the File Transfer Protocol cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the near future, perhaps a few new clouds we currently are not aware of will turn up out of the blue.