Cloud Hosting Uncovered

What is cloud hosting indeed? The term 'cloud' appears to be quite modish in today's IT, Internet and hosting jargon. Yet, only a select few actually know what cloud hosting is. Possibly it is a good idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a quite long tale concise, we will first disclose to you what cloud hosting is not.

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

1. Delivering a remote disk storage solution, which comprises one single data storage device for all customers, does not transform any specific hosting vendor into a genuine cloud hosting company.

The cPanel hosting corporations name the ability to provide remote disk storage solutions a cloud hosting service. Up until now there is nothing wrong with the cloud designation, but... we are talking about hosting services, not remote disk storage services for private or business needs. There's invariably one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to call a shared web hosting solution, powered by a one-single-server web hosting environment, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. That's because the remaining parts of the entire hosting platform must be working in exactly the same way - this does not refer only to the remote data storage. The rest of the services involved in the entire web hosting process also must be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's really tough. A very meager number of hosting companies can actually do it.

2. It Entails Domain Names, Emails, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not restricted to a remote data storage only. We are talking about a hosting solution, serving numerous domains, web pages, email boxes, etc., right?

To call a web hosting service a "cloud hosting" one calls for a lot more than providing solely remote file storage mounts (or possibly servers). The email server(s) have to be dedicated solely to the mail related services. Doing nothing different than these particular assignments. There might be only one or maybe an entire bunch of electronic mail servers, based on the overall load generated. To have an actual cloud hosting solution, the remote database servers should be working as one, irrespective of their real number. Performing nothing else. The same is valid for the users' web hosting Control Panels, the File Transfer Protocol, etc.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an authentic cloud hosting accounts provider will support numerous data center locations on multiple continents.

Here's an example of a DNS of a true cloud hosting distributor:

dns1.domainsandhosting.visionsbiz-online.com

dns2.domainsandhosting.visionsbiz-online.com

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

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting platform. This type of Domain Name Server just manifests that the web hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perhaps it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server hosting solution and holds a 98+ percent market share. In cPanel's case, one single physical server copes with all web hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, FTP, hosting CP(s), web site files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Warped Description of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting service is not restricted simply to a remote data storage solution, as multiple web hosting distributors wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting distributors would have been referred to as cloud web hosting ones a long time back! They are not categorized as such, as they plainly distribute file hosting services, not cloud hosting services. The file web hosting platform looks indeed quite simple, when compared to the web hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's just one tiny component of the whole cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud web hosting platform: the hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the File Transfer Protocol cloud, the email cloud and... in the near future, possibly a couple of brand new clouds we currently are not familiar with will show up unexpectedly.