Why Do We Need Cloud Hosting?
Before we can look closer at cloud hosting, lets first define the cloud. Cloud computing refers to on-demand access to internet-based computing resources for running services, software, and storing data. By extension, cloud hosting is a unique virtual server configuration contained within a cloud computing environment. Put another way, think of cloud hosting as a network of virtual servers built on an infrastructure of physical servers.
How cloud hosting works
Traditional web hosting stores all your website files in a physical server. When a visitor clicks on your site, they can access a specific page served from the physical server containing the files. Cloud hosting serves website files from multiple servers within its own network. On top of that are virtualized servers, resulting in a seemingly infinite number of server resources.
Benefits of cloud web hosting
There are several important benefits of cloud hosting to consider when picking hosting options:
- Flexible Pricing – Traditional web hosting requires a monthly payment which covers all provided resources, including those which went unused. With cloud hosting, you only pay for the resources you’ve used over the period.
- Scalable Server Resources – Cloud hosting provides users with an intuitive dashboard that shows the site performance in real-time, allowing you to instantly scale server resources up and down.
- Redundant Server Environment – Traditional hosting stores your website files in a single server. If something happens to the server, your site goes offline. With redundant hosting, a backup server takes over your site in a matter of seconds.
- High Uptime –Cloud hosting enables fast transfer to another server in case one server encounters any technical issues.
How To Choose The Best Cloud Hosting Provider
When determining the best cloud hosting provider for your needs, there are a few things that you should consider:
- Budget – Identify the blend of features and services you need to know how much to spend.
- Customer Support – If you are new to cloud hosting and web hosting in general, good customer support will be an important aspect to contemplate.
- Uptime – Your website should not experience regular downtime and the best cloud hosting provider will provide near perfect uptime.
- Root Access - For the tech savvy, root access provides more control on the server environment.
Key Takeaways
Cloud hosting provides near perfect uptime, and importantly is both fast and reliable. The server environment is redundant and the seemingly infinite server resources makes cloud hosting highly scalable. What’s more, flexible pricing means you only pay for the resources you use, presenting a capable alternative to other popular hosting solutions.
