Explanation of Cloud Hosting

What is cloud hosting really? The term 'cloud' appears to be very fashionable in today's information technology, World Wide Web and web hosting phraseology. Yet, only a few really are aware of what cloud hosting is. Perchance it is a fine idea to educate yourself about cloud hosting services. To make a very long tale brief, we will firstly let you know what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Delivering a remote data storage solution, which comprises one data storage appliance for all customers, does not turn any specific service provider into a real cloud hosting provider.

The cPanel web hosting companies dub the ability to supply remote data storage services a cloud hosting service. Up until now there is nothing wrong with the cloud labeling, but... we are talking about website hosting solutions, not remote data storage services for personal or business purposes. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to dub a shared hosting service, powered by a one-single-server web hosting platform, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" service. This is so because the remaining fractions of the entire web hosting platform must be operating in precisely the same manner - this does not refer only to the remote data storage. The rest of the services involved in the entire hosting process also need to be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's extremely hard. A very meager number of web hosting service providers can really do it.

2. It Encompasses Domains, Mail Accounts, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Web Hosting CPs, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not confined to a remote data storage solely. We are talking about a hosting service, serving a lot of domains, web pages, e-mails, and so on, right?

To call a hosting service a "cloud hosting" one requires a lot more than delivering simply remote data storage mounts (or perhaps servers). The e-mail server(s) need to be devoted solely to the electronic mail related services. Executing nothing else than these concrete tasks. There might be only one single or possibly a whole set of electronic mail servers, depending on the total server load generated. To have a true cloud hosting service, the remote database servers should be operating as one, regardless of their actual amount. Carrying out nothing else. The same goes for the customers' hosting CPs, the FTP, etc.

3. There are Cloud Domain Servers (DNSs) too.

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a genuine cloud hosting plans provider will support multiple server farm facility sites on different continents.

Here's an illustration of a DNS of a true cloud hosting services provider:

dns1.www.zapdn.com

dns2.www.zapdn.com

If such a Domain Name Server is offered by your web hosting solutions provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud web hosting platform in use, but you can definitely be sure when you notice a DNS such as the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting platform. This sort of Domain Name Server only indicates that the web hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Possibly it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server web hosting solution and has a market share of more than 98 percent. In cPanel's case, one single physical server tackles all hosting services (web, e-mail, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, web hosting Control Panel(s), website files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Distorted Interpretation of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting solution is not restricted simply to a remote file storage service, as many hosting suppliers wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file hosting firms would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones long ago! They are not classified as such, since they plainly offer file web hosting solutions, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file hosting platform appears indeed very simple, when compared to the web hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, as it's merely one small fraction of the entire cloud hosting platform. There's plenty more to be discovered in the cloud hosting platform: the Control Panel cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the FTP cloud, the email cloud and... in the foreseeable future, perhaps a number of new clouds we presently are not informed about will come up out of nowhere.