What is cloud hosting ?
One of the popular trends within the web hosting industry today is cloud hosting. Simply put, a “cloud” in this context is a group of computers that are connected to each other through a network and that work together to provide hosting services.
This means that the various services of a single hosted website can be drawn from the computing power of a network of more than one server in the cloud. In fact, the cloud is often thought of as a cloud server made from the computing power of several servers within a network.
What is cloud hosting ?
Cloud hosting is also a form of web hosting that uses several different servers to balance the load and maximize uptime. Instead of using a single server, your website can access a “cluster” that uses resources from a centralized pool. This means that even if one server goes down, another one steps in to keep everything running.
Visualize the cloud as a network of different computers that are all interconnected. As more machines are connected to the network, more resources are added to the global cloud.
With cloud hosting, you get part of what’s called the cloud. Contrarily to web hosting, where you get a certain amount of space from one server. the first benefits of cloud hosting focus totally on availability, isolated resources, easy scaling, and an avid IP address.
Benefits of Cloud Hosting
Cloud computing is a radical change from more traditional hosting options such as shared hosting and dedicated hosting options. It also has some advantages that set it apart from these other traditional choices. On one hand, site owners tend to induce what they purchase with cloud hosting. thanks to the way cloud hosting works, website owners often only need to pay for the storage they really use. This method of payment is typically called “pay as you go”. If a business uses only 200 Gigabytes of storage with a cloud plan, that business will only be charged for that 200 GB.
With more traditional hosting options, that same business would likely have to pay for more space than that, regardless. whether the additional space has been used or not.
Cloud hosting also gives site owners scalability. The traffic of the many websites can suddenly increase in no time. If a site suddenly needs more space or bandwidth, cloud hosting allows that site to grow naturally using more resources in the cloud. By comparison, performing such an expansion with traditional web hosting methods can be a very expensive and time-consuming process.
Disadvantages of Cloud Hosting
Unfortunately, there are a few downsides to cloud hosting that website owners should be aware of. Perhaps the most important one is the fact that cloud hosting involves certain security risks that do not affect websites that use shared hosting or dedicated servers.
This is because the data isn’t stored locally on a server in one place. Instead, it is transmitted regularly between multiple servers. This movement of data can create certain vulnerabilities. Cloud hosting companies can use security and encryption methods to eliminate the likelihood of this data being compromised, but the danger remains.
Shared, dedicated, VPS hosting, what are the differences ?
It only took about fifteen years for the web to take hold, both for the general public and for professionals. As a result, very quickly, individuals and businesses wanted to be able to have space to host their own website.
To meet all needs, and to adapt to changes in technology, hosting providers now offer very different types of offers: from simple shared hosting to dedicated hosting, from VPS to Cloud Computing.
To host an internet site, it’s crucial to own a disc space on a computer. Even if it is possible to host one’s site on a personal computer, at home or on the premises of a company; very quickly, users turned to the services of companies specializing in hosting, for cost reasons. technical skills and practicality.
To have suitable hosting for your future website, you must anticipate the machine resources needed to make it work in good conditions.
It is therefore a matter of defining your needs in terms of bandwidth, availability or even guaranteed recovery in the event of a failure. But specially, it’s a matter of defining the technical infrastructure of this hosting, which may take several aspects.
The most economical: shared hosting
Shared hosting is known to be the most economical type of web hosting. Technically, this means hosting multiple websites on the same server as standard. These accommodations are thus pre-configured, so ideal if you do not have server administration skills.
The flip side of this standardization is that it is not possible to customize the environment of the system, web server, applications or services. Adapted to small sites with low traffic, these accommodations do not have any special security measures.
The most specific: The dedicated server
High-quality web hosting, the dedicated server basically consists of giving its user a machine reserved only for his own use. The client has all the hardware resources of the server, without limitations, as well as complete freedom to configure server programs, install libraries or schedule tasks
Dedicated hosting is therefore costlier than shared hosting, but it’s totally customizable to the user’s needs. Knowledge of server administration is required, unless you entrust the administration to your technical service provider.
The hybrid: The VPS (Virtual Private Server)
A hybrid system between shared and dedicated, VPS consists of creating several virtual servers on the same real server, using virtualization software technologies.
Thus, the disk is shared with several other users, but each server has its own CPU and its own memory allocation. Therefore, The Virtual Private Server allows more flexibility in administration, settings and installations than a shared one.
The most flexible: The Cloud
The concept of the Cloud has developed with the huge virtualization of architectures. Cloud hosting doesn’t simply depend on a physical machine divided into several virtual machines: it relies on the interconnection of several of those physical machines, which are successively divided into virtual machines.
The aim is to produce more flexibility, to facilitate the evolution of a server in real time as its needs change. Ideal for websites that have peaks in occasional consultations as an example. Thus, it provides an infinite freedom of sizing and ongoing scalability.
Finally, the business model of the Cloud is characterized by the fact that the user does not pay for a range of resources but rather according to the resources consumed.
Shared, dedicated, VPS or Cloud, it is therefore important to understand the challenges of these technologies in order to adopt the system that best meets your needs, whether in terms of management, performance, service, security, customization or flexibility.
What to look for in cloud hosting?
If you decide to choose cloud hosting, there are three stuff you should consider when searching for the best cloud hosting company. First, you must check if you’re being charged for the plan expandability option, this is indeed a decent deal.
you ought to only get what you expect your website to consume, both during peak and off-peak hours. However, some plans use somewhat confusing mathematical formulas to calculate what you’re charged.
If you end up being billed more than you would be with a shared or dedicated hosting plan, you should look for a more profitable host.
Second, you must search for quality web tools. While scalability is vital, if you’re unable to try and do anything with your account, it’ll still be a waste of cash. Things to check are control panels offering several options, site building tools, and e-commerce modules.
Finally, be sure to take a cloud hosting plan that comes with quality technical support. While cloud hosting has many benefits, you may still face technical challenges, just like with any type of hosting plan. Make sure that you can communicate with technical support 24 hours every day to confirm that your site can avoid significant downtime.
Conclusion
While hosting does come with risks of data theft, so do other servers. Cloud Computing has many advantages, for example a connection to the Internet which makes the Cloud accessible from anywhere. Both on the train and within the waiting area of an airport, the user can work on his projects, can load music and even movies. With a simple Internet connection, the data is continuously updated. A contact with the supplier is enough to add applications or to increase its storage and memory capacity.
The Cloud server, because of its immateriality, ensures high operational security. It is therefore an excellent choice for hosting a website or online store whose basic needs are memory capacity and traffic. The most important advantage of Cloud hosting is its economic model; unlike conventional server solutions, the user doesn’t pay a set price monthly but an amount varying with its use, counted in seconds or maybe in hours.
