Cloud hosting is a type of web hosting where a website is hosted on a cloud server, also known as a virtual server. With traditional web hosting, a website sits on one server, known as a dedicated server, in a data center. Cloud hosting is different because data is spread across multiple servers.
With the traditional web-hosting model, your business website and its data reside on one server in a physical data center. When you opt for cloud hosting, your data is spread across multiple connected web servers. Your data can access a cluster of servers in the virtual environment of the cloud seamlessly. When one server fails, others are there to pick up the slack. If your website sees a boost in traffic and needs more resources, it can access more without downtime, slowing, and other hiccups. If your site sees a calm in traffic, it will access fewer resources. Opting for a cloud hosting package from a reliable company may cost a little as keep you up and running, and save you untold hassles. These factors make cloud hosting reliable, scalable, secure, and affordable. It is a popular choice for many businesses, eliminating the need for onsite servers and other hardware, and reducing IT infrastructure costs. Cloud hosting services are not limited to hosting websites. These services also host applications, email, and more, and can be used for data storage.
Web hosting services also utilize the cloud. These services help you register your domain name, store your website's files, and offer administrative services. Web hosts provide tools such as databases, programming languages, and web programming frameworks. These hosts also provide security-related items, such as SSL certificates, and site analytics. A good web-hosting plan from a service like Hostgator, GoDaddy, or A2 Hosting may be all your website or organization needs. However, there are limitations. These services usually offer fixed support, so a growing project that needs extra RAM or bandwidth would have no way to allocate more resources. Upgrading to a new plan would mean downtime for your website. A cloud hosting service, however, spreads its resources across multiple devices, so adding resources is easy and fast. A larger, growing, or more ambitious project would benefit from a good cloud hosting service, as would any service with spikes and dips in traffic.
Large and small companies use cloud-hosting services. For example, Google spreads its resources over hundreds of servers in the cloud, making it reliable and limiting downtime. Google now has its own cloud services division, helping telecommunications, media, retail, software, and more companies modernize their hosting. Movie-streaming giant Netflix has to meet huge spikes in demand as well as times of lower activity. Cloud hosting gives Netflix the scalability it needs. Similarly, social sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram rely on cloud hosting to adjust to varying levels of traffic. Cloud hosting can spur innovation, helping businesses grow to meet changing needs and demands. Not only big companies use cloud hosting. Most cloud-hosting organizations offer packages that are ideal for small and growing businesses, so they do not have to spend money on servers and other hardware.