What Actually is Cloud Web Hosting?

What is cloud web hosting really? The term 'cloud' seems to be quite fashionable in today's information technology, World Wide Web and web hosting terminology. Yet, just a few actually know what cloud hosting is. Perhaps it is a good idea to inform yourself about cloud web hosting services. To render a very long tale brief, we will firstly reveal to you what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Web Hosting is Not Confined to a Remote Data Storage Exclusively.

1. Offering a remote file storage solution, which comprises one file storage appliance for all users, does not convert any particular hosting distributor into an authentic cloud web hosting plans provider.

The cPanel hosting providers dub the ability to supply remote file storage services a cloud web hosting solution. Up until now there is nothing wrong with the cloud designation, but... we are discussing website hosting services, not remote file storage solutions for personal or business needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to dub a shared web hosting service, based on a single-server hosting environment, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" solution. This is so because the other constituents of the whole web hosting platform must be operating in exactly the same way - this does not apply solely to the remote disk storage. The remaining services entailed in the whole web hosting process also must be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's quite problematical. A very small number of web hosting vendors can truly make it.

2. It Includes Domain Names, Email Mailboxes, Databases, FTPs, Hosting CPs, and so on.

Cloud web hosting is not restricted to a remote disk storage only. We are talking about a hosting solution, serving a lot of domain names, web sites, mail accounts, and so on, right?

To name a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one requires a lot more than providing just remote data storage mounts (or probably physical servers). The mail server(s) have to be dedicated solely to the electronic mail connected services. Executing nothing else than these given tasks. There might be just one or possibly a whole array of mail servers, based on the overall server load generated. To have an actual cloud web hosting solution, the remote database servers should be functioning as one, regardless of their real number. Executing nothing else. The same goes for the clients' web hosting CPs, the FTP, etc.

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

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

Here's an illustration of a DNS of a genuine cloud web hosting company:

dns1.mnistrat.co.uk

dns2.mnistrat.co.uk

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

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting platform. This kind of Domain Name Server only shows that the hosting platform in use is one-single-server based. Perhaps it's cPanel. cPanel is a single-server web hosting platform and maintains a market share of more than 98 percent. In cPanel's case, a single server handles all hosting services (web, e-mail, DNS, databases, FTP, CP(s), web files, etc.).

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

So, a cloud web hosting service is not confined exclusively to a remote data storage service, as a lot of hosting service providers wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file web hosting companies would have been referred to as cloud web hosting ones long ago! They are not classified as such, since they plainly supply file web hosting services, not cloud hosting services. The file hosting platform is really very plain, when compared to the web hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's only one small part 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 File Transfer Protocol cloud, the electronic mail cloud and... in the upcoming future, perchance a few new clouds we currently are not informed about will spring up out of nowhere.