What is Cloud Hosting?
What is cloud hosting really? The term 'cloud' appears to be quite modish in today's IT, World Wide Web and hosting lingo. Even so, just a few actually can tell what cloud hosting is. Possibly it is a smart idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To make a very lengthy story succinct, we will first acquaint you with what cloud hosting is not.
1. Cloud Hosting is Not Limited to a Remote Data Storage Only.
1. Offering a remote file storage solution, which comprises one file storage tool for all customers, does not convert any particular provider into an actual cloud hosting accounts provider.
The cPanel hosting corporations dub the ability to supply remote data storage solutions a cloud hosting solution. Up to now there is nothing wrong with the cloud designation, but... we are talking about website hosting services, not remote file storage services for personal or corporate needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to call a shared hosting solution, driven by a single-server web hosting environment, just like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. That's because the remaining pieces of the whole hosting platform must be operating in precisely the same manner - this does not refer only to the remote disk storage. The remaining services involved in the whole web hosting procedure also must be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very problematical. Very few web hosting companies can truly do it.
2. It Involves Domain Names, E-mail Box Accounts, Databases, FTPs, CPs, and so on.
Cloud hosting is not confined to a remote file storage only. We are discussing a web hosting solution, serving plenty of domain names, web sites, email boxes, and so on, are we not?
To dub a hosting service a "cloud hosting" one requires a lot more than delivering plainly remote file storage mounts (or perchance servers). The e-mail server(s) need to be devoted exclusively to the mail related services. Performing nothing else than these given tasks. There might be only one or possibly an entire cluster of mail servers, depending on the total server load created. To have an actual cloud hosting solution, the remote database servers should be performing as one, irrespective of their real quantity. Carrying out nothing else. The same goes for the clients' hosting CPs, the FTP, and so on.
3. There are Cloud Domain Name Servers (DNSs) too.
The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a real cloud hosting plans provider will support multiple data center locations on different continents.
Here's an illustration of a DNS of an authentic cloud hosting services provider:
dns1.landmanhosting.com
dns2.landmanhosting.com
If such a DNS is provided by your hosting services provider, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can absolutely be confident when you observe a DNS like the one underneath:
dns658.hostgator.com
dns659.hostgator.com
that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This sort of Domain Name Server plainly exhibits that the web hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Maybe it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server web hosting solution and maintains a 98+ percent market share. In cPanel's case, a single physical machine copes with all hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, CP(s), website files, etc.).
Remote File Storage - The Distorted Description of Cloud Hosting.
So, a cloud hosting solution is not restricted just to a remote data storage service, as plenty of web hosting providers wish it was. Unluckily for them, if that was the case, most of the file hosting distributors would have been referred to as cloud web hosting ones a long time back! They are not categorized as such, since they simply deliver file web hosting services, not cloud web hosting services. The file hosting platform is really very plain, in comparison with the hosting platform. The remote data storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's simply one tiny part of the whole cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be encountered in the cloud hosting platform: the hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the FTP cloud, the email cloud and... in the near future, possibly a couple of new clouds we currently are not familiar with will turn up out of nowhere.