Definition of Cloud Hosting

What is cloud web hosting really? The word 'cloud' appears to be quite modern in today's information technology, Internet and web hosting phraseology. Nonetheless, just a few in fact can say what cloud hosting is. Perchance it is a clever idea to inform yourself about cloud web hosting services. To make a quite long tale succinct, we will firstly notify you about what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Web Hosting is Not Confined to a Remote File Storage Solely.

1. Supplying a remote data storage solution, which involves one single file storage appliance for all clients, does not turn any given service provider into a genuine cloud web hosting vendor.

The cPanel hosting providers call the ability to supply remote disk storage services a cloud web hosting service. So far there is nothing wrong with the cloud terminology, but... we are discussing hosting services, not remote file storage services for private or corporate purposes. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to name a shared web hosting solution, powered by a one-server web hosting environment, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud web hosting" service. That's because the other components of the entire web hosting platform must be working in precisely the same manner - this does not refer solely to the remote disk storage. The other services entailed in the entire web hosting procedure also need to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's quite tough. A very meager number of web hosting vendors can actually make it.

2. It Encompasses Domain Names, Electronic Mail Addresses, Databases, FTPs, Hosting Control Panels, etc.

Cloud web hosting is not confined to a remote file storage solely. We are discussing a hosting service, serving multiple domain names, web portals, email mailbox accounts, etc., aren't we?

To name a web hosting service a "cloud web hosting" one needs a lot more than supplying only remote file storage mounts (or maybe servers). The e-mail server(s) need to be dedicated exclusively to the electronic mail linked services. Carrying out nothing else than these given tasks. There might be just one single or possibly an entire stack of electronic mail servers, depending on the total server load produced. To have a true cloud web hosting service, the remote database servers should be operating as one, regardless of their real amount. Performing nothing different. The same goes for the customers' hosting Control Panels, the File Transfer Protocol, etc.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an actual cloud web hosting company will support numerous datacenter facility locations on different continents.

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

dns1.wisehost.ca

dns2.wisehost.ca

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

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This sort of DNS simply reveals that the web hosting environment in use is one-server based. Perhaps it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-single-server hosting platform and maintains a market share of more than 98 percent. In cPanel's case, one single physical server deals with all web hosting services (web, mail, DNS, databases, FTP, Control Panel(s), web files, and so on).

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

So, a cloud web hosting service is not confined exclusively to a remote disk storage solution, as numerous web hosting distributors wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, the majority of the file web hosting suppliers would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones a long time ago! They are not categorized as such, because they merely deliver file web hosting solutions, not cloud hosting solutions. The file hosting platform is indeed very plain, in comparison with the hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's only one small constituent of the whole cloud hosting platform. There's a lot more to be found in the cloud hosting platform: the hosting Control Panel cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the FTP cloud, the e-mail cloud and... in the foreseeable future, perchance a couple of new clouds we currently are not acquainted with will spring up out of nowhere.