Cloud Hosting Definition

What is cloud hosting indeed? The term 'cloud' appears to be quite fashionable in today's computing, World Wide Web and web hosting parlance. Yet, just a few really can tell what cloud hosting is. Maybe it is a clever idea to inform yourself about cloud hosting services. To make a quite lengthy story succinct, we will first notify you about what cloud hosting is not.

1. Cloud Hosting is Not Restricted to a Remote File Storage Only.

1. Supplying a remote data storage solution, which comprises one disk storage appliance for all users, does not turn any specific hosting corporation into an authentic cloud hosting corporation.

The cPanel web hosting firms call the ability to offer remote file storage services a cloud hosting solution. Up to now there is nothing wrong with the cloud terminology, but... we are discussing website hosting solutions, not remote file storage solutions for individual or business needs. There's invariably one "but", isn't there? It's not enough to name a shared web hosting solution, based on a one-server hosting platform, exactly like cPanel, a "cloud hosting" service. That's because the other pieces of the entire hosting platform must be working in exactly the same manner - this does not refer solely to the remote disk storage. The remaining services involved in the whole hosting procedure also have to be remote, separated and "clouded". And that's very difficult. A very scanty number of web hosting suppliers can truly make it.

2. It Includes Domains, E-mail Box Accounts, Databases, FTPs, Web Hosting CPs, and so on.

Cloud hosting is not restricted to a remote data storage exclusively. We are discussing a hosting service, serving plenty of domain names, online portals, electronic mails, and so on, are we not?

To name a web hosting service a "cloud hosting" one calls for a lot more than delivering only remote file storage mounts (or perhaps physical servers). The mail server(s) need to be dedicated only to the mail linked services. Doing nothing else than these specific assignments. There might be just one or maybe a whole bundle of mail servers, based on the total server load created. To have an authentic cloud hosting solution, the remote database servers should be functioning as one, irrespective of their actual number. Performing nothing else. The same is valid for the clients' hosting CPs, the FTP, and so on.

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

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

Here's an instance of a Domain Name Server of a real cloud hosting company:

dns1.cloud.natixhost.xyz

dns2.cloud.natixhost.xyz

If such a DNS is offered by your web hosting supplier, it's not a guarantee that there is a cloud web hosting environment in use, but you can definitely be certain when you notice a DNS such as the one underneath:

dns658.hostgator.com

dns659.hostgator.com

that there isn't any cloud web hosting platform. This kind of DNS only indicates that the web hosting platform in use is one-server based. Probably it's cPanel. cPanel is a one-server web hosting platform and holds a market share of more than 98%. In cPanel's case, a single server is responsible for all hosting services (web, email, DNS, databases, FTP, Control Panel(s), website files, and so on).

Remote File Storage - The Perverted Characterization of Cloud Hosting.

So, a cloud hosting solution is not restricted simply to a remote data storage service, as many web hosting companies 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 categorized as such, because they plainly provide file web hosting solutions, not cloud hosting solutions. The file hosting platform looks indeed quite plain, when compared to the web hosting platform. The remote data storage platform is not a cloud hosting platform. It cannot be, because it's just one small fraction of the whole cloud hosting platform. There's plenty more to be found in the cloud web hosting platform: the web hosting CP cloud, the database clouds (MySQL, PostgreSQL), the Domain Name Server cloud, the File Transfer Protocol cloud, the email cloud and... in the near future, possibly a couple of new clouds we presently are not familiar with will spring up unexpectedly.