Cloud Hosting

What is Cloud Hosting?

Easily explained cloud computing is a form of web hosting that increases the power of your hosting when you have many visitors and lowers it when you have a slow day. This is beneficial for both the provider and you as the client. The provider gets  a better use of its infrastructure and as a customer there are three main advantages; lower costs, no need for IT experts and it saves you time.

The most obvious, and appreciated, benefit is of course that it will lower your costs. It’s works pretty much exactly as the electricity bill – you only pay for the amount of hosting you are using. You will also save money on not having to buy any equipment or hire IT experts as there’s no infrastructure to install or maintain. Lastly, it will save you time as, yet again, there’s nothing to install or maintain.

Choosing a Cloud Host: More About It and Why It Works

When even Microsoft, a company rarely on technology's bleeding edge, runs commercials that use "the cloud" as their mantra, it can fairly be said that cloud computing has gone mainstream. While not every facet of cloud computing is perfect, its increasing popularity is evidence that the cloud does some jobs very well. One of those jobs is cloud web hosting, an application perfectly adapted to the cloud's increasing prominence.

Before turning to the advantages of using a cloud host, let's give a better explanation of the nature of cloud computing hosting. In simple terms (as we discussed briefly in the text above), cloud hosting refers to the delivery of web hosting services from a group of linked servers. Cloud hosting servers are load-balanced, so that work is shared and no single machine is stressed, and redundant, so that the failure of one server will not crash the entire system. The servers are not located at the customer's site and, for larger cloud hosts, are often located in more than one place in order to avoid problems that may affect a particular location.

Some of the benefits of cloud hosting services may already be clear, but the list of advantages, from pricing to reliability, is long.

Utility Pricing

Cloud hosting providers can price the service like a utility. Customers pay for what they actually use and do not have to pay for extra capacity that is only there to provide a cushion in the event of a spike in traffic. With cloud hosting, the capacity is there when you need it, but you are not paying for what you never use.

Equipment Costs

Cloud hosts provide the hardware and customers never have to think about purchasing expensive equipment to set up a site or to meet changing needs, handle web presence or about upgrading that equipment as technology changes.

Service Costs

All of the maintenance, installation and upgrade costs are the responsibility of the hosting provider. Customers do not have to maintain their own IT departments or pay for specialized staff to keep things up and running.

Increased Capability

Cloud hosting allows customers to deploy different technologies that could not ordinarily work together if hosting were handled locally. Customers can take advantage of different scripting languages and web application frameworks, like .php and .asp, within the same site, a scenario made possible by the cloud's versatility.

Scalability

In the context of cloud hosting, scalability means not only the ability to add capacity and functionality as needed, but to do so virtually in real time. The hardware is already in place and systems are specifically designed to be responsive and flexible.

Reliability

Cloud hosts manage maintenance and repair and provide for redundant server capacity in order to maximize uptime. Contracts will often address this issue directly, guaranteeing a specific level of performance and adjusting customer payments if that level is not achieved. Of course, no host is immune from service outages, but cloud hosting companies are in an ideal position to keep any problems under control.

In sum, cloud hosting is a growing presence in the industry because it meets customer needs so well. For very simple needs, even free cloud hosting may be an option, but any business looking for reliable, cost-effective and adaptable hosting solutions should put the cloud high on its list.