Definition of Cloud Web Hosting

What is cloud hosting really? The word 'cloud' seems to be very modish in today's information technology, Internet and hosting lingo. Still, just a select few actually can tell what cloud hosting is. Probably it is a clever idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a very lengthy story concise, we will firstly let you in on what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Hosting is Not Limited to a Remote Data Storage Solely.

1. Offering a remote file storage solution, which comprises one data storage device for all users, does not transform any given hosting vendor into a genuine cloud hosting firm.

The cPanel hosting distributors dub the ability to distribute remote disk storage services a cloud hosting service. Up to now there is nothing wrong with the cloud labeling, but... we are talking about hosting services, not remote file storage services for private or business needs. There's constantly one "but", isn't there? It's not sufficient to dub a shared hosting solution, driven by a one-single-server hosting environment, just like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. This is so because the remaining constituents of the whole hosting platform must be operating in precisely the same manner - this does not relate solely to the remote data storage. The remaining services involved in the entire web hosting procedure also have to be remote, isolated and "clouded". And that's extremely difficult. A very small number of hosting companies can really make it.

2. It Involves Domains, Electronic Mail Aliases, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Web Hosting Control Panels, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not limited to a remote file storage only. We are talking about a hosting service, serving numerous domain names, websites, email accounts, etc., aren't we?

To call a web hosting service a "cloud hosting" one requires a lot more than supplying plainly remote data storage mounts (or perhaps physical servers). The e-mail server(s) need to be devoted exclusively to the mail associated services. Performing nothing else than these concrete tasks. There might be only one single or maybe a whole cluster of email servers, based on the total server load created. To have a genuine cloud hosting service, the remote database servers should be performing as one, irrespective of their actual quantity. Carrying out nothing different. The same goes for the users' web hosting Control Panels, the FTP, and so on.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of a true cloud hosting accounts provider will support numerous datacenter sites on different continents.

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

dns1.hostsolutionz.org

dns2.hostsolutionz.org

If such a DNS is provided by your hosting services provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud web hosting platform in use, but you can definitely be confident when you notice a DNS like the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting service. This sort of DNS just illustrates that the hosting environment in use is one-single-server based. Perhaps it's cPanel. cPanel is a single-server hosting platform and maintains a market share of more than 98%. In cPanel's case, one server deals with all web hosting services (web, mail, DNS, databases, File Transfer Protocol, web hosting CP(s), web site files, etc.).

Remote File Storage - The Warped Description of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting service is not limited solely to a remote file storage solution, as multiple hosting providers wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, most of the file web hosting firms would have been referred to as cloud hosting ones a long time back! They are not categorized as such, as they simply distribute file hosting solutions, not cloud web hosting solutions. The file web hosting platform is indeed very plain, when compared to the hosting platform. The remote data storage platform is not a cloud web hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's merely one simple fraction of the entire cloud web hosting platform. There's plenty more to be discovered in the cloud web hosting platform: the web hosting Control Panel cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the FTP cloud, the mail cloud and... in the near future, perchance a couple of new clouds we currently are not informed about will emerge unexpectedly.