If you have ever thought about hosting a website, then terms like ‘cloud hosting’ must have caught your eye. Cloud hosting is something happening indeed, but not many of us have a crystal clear idea about it.
The more familiar conventional hosting methods involve hosting the website on a server, located within a single data center. Now the server in question might host several accounts together or might be dedicated to hosting only your website only. Cloud hosting is slightly different; let’s find out more about it here.
What does cloud hosting refer to?
But cloud hosting does not follow the traditional hosting methodology and instead, it allocates your data to multiple machines across different servers, in varying physical locations. But as all these servers are connected, you can access your data via a virtual machine. As the servers are located across the cloud, and the hosting server is also in the same environment, the name cloud sounds completely apt.
By collaborating with reliable cloud services providers like Go Daddy, you can fully utilize the potential of an infinite number of computer systems on the cloud. It also implies that you will also get your hands on the infrastructure and the services provided by those systems.
Which is better between private and public cloud hosting?
In traditional hosting, you have two options; you can either run a machine to host your account or can choose a machine that is already hosting other accounts. Hence the names shared server and individual servers.
Likewise, in cloud hosting, you can consider for a public cloud where the virtual machines will host the data of multiple apps and websites.
The hardware is also shared between multiple accounts, which results in cutting down costs. But hardware resources shared between the accounts do not involve any disk space, rather it means that you will share racks of data centers with other website owners.
Website and app owners who require enhanced security and control can, however, go for private cloud. In this type of cloud, you don’t have to share the infrastructure or data racks with others, but all these benefits come at a cost.
While both of these variants of cloud hosting offers a plethora of resources, private cloud scores a few more points than its counterpart.
It is because all your data, when hosted on a private cloud, stay protected by firewalls. As a result of this, your confidential data would not ever go into the hands of the wrong person. The only downside of using a private cloud is that you would not be able to enjoy innovative cloud computing services.
Why is the cloud hosting better?
Now that you have understood the basic difference between traditional and cloud hosting, let’s focus on the added advantages of using cloud technology:
Enhanced reliability
As mentioned already, in traditional hosting, you will have to store your data in only a single machine of a particular data center.
Now if the machine goes offline or it collapses due to any technical issues, you would not be able to access your crucial data. In worst cases, your site might vanish and it might not reappear until the system is restored.
But in the case of cloud technology, your site information is stored across an array of connected machines across multiple data centers.
If one of the machines stops functioning, the others provide backup. So you would still have your site as well as the facilities that come with it as the other machines make up the slack.
If you think that the impact of your site being offline for a few minutes would not be much, then it’s time to change your view. Amazon claimed to suffer a loss of more than $130,000 per second when its website was down for a few minutes.
Increased flexibility
You will have more access to the resources in more ways than you would have imagined due to the infrastructure and core technology of cloud computing.
Even if you own access to a public cloud, you can access these resources effortlessly after the completion of the processing time. So when your website is expecting huge traffic you can get in touch with the cloud service provider to initiate the setup.
Once the infrastructure is installed successfully, your cloud will supply and set up all the resources based on your real-time requirements, for example, during weekend sales.
On the other hand, if you expect the same from your traditional cloud services, you might be disappointed. When traffic peaks up suddenly, dedicated servers are unable to respond to the huge demand, which ultimately crashes down the entire site for at least a few minutes.
Incredible versatility
No one-size-fits-all approach works for businesses belonging to different niches. That is why; cloud hosting services are also designed to cater to the unique requirements of your business.
You would not be asked to pick one service from the catalog, rather you would get all the facilities you need along with your cloud setup. That is why businesses can avail of the exact security, OS, processing power, and space that their website demands. When it comes to accessing the cloud server, there might be diverse needs.
For instance, your website might need to access a large database regularly. Or, you might need your cloud server to host large files for download and uploads from a small app. Also, if your website has records of confidential information, you can request for enhanced security and rigid firewalls
Regardless of the type of needs you have, a cloud service agency can fit all inside the cloud solutions portfolio. As it will all come in a single package, you would face no hassle in utilizing it when needed.
Final words
In recent times, cloud hosting solutions have also been designed in a way to be mobile-friendly. So, you would be able to access and manage all your data located at the cloud anytime, anywhere just with a few swipes of your mobile phone. In other words, every time you need to control your account, you would not have to take permission from the data center for it.
