Cloud Hosting Clarified

What is cloud hosting in reality? The word 'cloud' appears to be very modish in today's computing, Internet and web hosting parlance. Nevertheless, only a select few really can say what cloud hosting is. Probably it is a good idea to educate yourself about cloud hosting services. To render a very long tale brief, 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 disk storage service, which comprises one single disk storage tool for all clients, does not turn any particular web hosting distributor into an authentic cloud hosting corporation.

The cPanel hosting suppliers dub the ability to provide remote file storage services a cloud hosting service. So far there is nothing wrong with the cloud classification, but... we are talking about hosting services, not remote disk storage solutions for private or corporate purposes. There's always one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to dub a shared hosting solution, driven by a single-server web hosting environment, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" solution. That's because the other constituents of the whole web hosting platform must be operating in precisely the same way - this does not apply only to the remote disk storage. The remaining services entailed in the entire hosting procedure also must be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very difficult. A very small number of web hosting companies can truly attain it.

2. It Encompasses Domains, Email Aliases, Databases, File Transfer Protocols, Hosting CPs, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not restricted to a remote disk storage only. We are discussing a hosting solution, serving a lot of domains, online portals, email mailbox accounts, and so on, right?

To dub a web hosting service a "cloud hosting" one needs a lot more than furnishing solely remote disk storage mounts (or perhaps servers). The electronic mail server(s) need to be devoted only to the electronic mail related services. Doing nothing different than these concrete assignments. There might be only one single or maybe a whole group of mail servers, based on the total load produced. To have a genuine cloud hosting service, the remote database servers should be functioning as one, irrespective of their real quantity. Executing nothing else. The same is valid for the users' CPs, the File Transfer Protocol, etc.

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

The DNSs (Domain Name Servers) of an actual cloud hosting firm will support numerous data center facility locations on different continents.

Here's an example of a DNS of an authentic cloud hosting solutions provider:

dns1.w3vn.com

dns2.w3vn.com

If such a Domain Name Server is furnished by your web hosting services provider, it's not a sure thing that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can definitely be convinced when you notice a DNS such as the one beneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

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

Remote File Storage - The Warped Characterization of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting solution is not restricted only to a remote file storage service, as plenty of service providers wish it was. Sadly for them, if that was the case, most of the file hosting companies would have been categorized as cloud web hosting ones a long time back! They are not referred to as such, because they simply provide file hosting solutions, not cloud hosting services. The file web hosting platform appears indeed quite simple, when compared to the hosting platform. The remote disk storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, since it's just one small component of the whole cloud hosting platform. There's a lot more to be discovered in the cloud web hosting platform: the web hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the DNS cloud, the File Transfer Protocol cloud, the mail cloud and... in the near future, perchance several new clouds we presently don't know about will spring up out of the blue.