A Comprehensive Beginners Guide to Cloud Hosting

Featured article by Helen Cartwright, passionate blogger, who excels in the Digital Marketing and Technology

If you just heard about cloud hosting, below is a simple explanation. Cloud hosting companies provide hosting services for websites that are operating on virtual servers. They get their resources from large underlying networks of another web server. They run using the utility model in such a way that they offer services rather than the products. Therefore, cloud hosting is matched to traditional utilities such as gas and electricity.

In other words, you use their services as much as you want depending on the need of your site and you pay for what you use. Cloud hosting is considered an extension of how clustered hosting works since it provides an alternative to hosting sites that use single servers. Cloud hosting has many servers that are connected, so data is often in different locations and centers.

Cloud hosting practical examples are classified under both infrastructures as service (IaaS) and platform (PaaS).

– PaaS – This means platform as a service, and offers a common platform to all the site users to get to the cloud network.

– SaaS – This means software as a service and provides all the demand of applications and software. This saves you the cost of software that you will use. It enables all your workers to access the online software at an affordable price.

– IaaS – It means infrastructure as a service and offers the platform through the web as per user requirements. It consists of various services under one roof.

Under infrastructure as a service, you get the virtualized hardware service on which you have the freedom to choose the software that you want before building your site. On the platform as a service, the cloud hosting company provides the software, so you just go straight to installing and building your application or website. Small businesses or those with a large IT department may opt for any option. It all depends on preferences.

Cloud hosting uses the Virtual Data Centre (VDC) concept to serve small business and individuals too. They use a virtualized network of servers that you can use to host all operations in the IT department, which include the company website.

The other primary example of cloud hosting is where they use public cloud models. This means hosting on virtual servers, which operate from the same pool of other known servers. They also use the same network to transmit the data. This data is stored on the shared servers that constitute the cloud resource. The public clouds will involve security checks that make sure your data cannot be leaked to the public so no other site can access it. However, if your concern is about the security of your site, you can always use the cloud hosting in private as an option. This refers to the use of ring-fenced servers, networks, and other resources, regardless of whether they are located with the cloud company or on site.

Below are some of the benefits and features that a typical cloud hosting service should deliver

It should be reliable – as said earlier, the website is hosted on a virtual platform rather than one physical server at the same time. The virtual platform gets its resources such as storage from a range of network of physical servers. If the server serving your site goes down, the site will not go off since the virtual server will continue to use the other network of servers to ensure your site stays operational. Some cloud companies can remain operational even if the entire data center goes off. The reason for this is they pull resources from different centers that are in various locations. This helps in spreading the risk thus making cloud hosting reliable.

Must be physically secure – most servers that cloud hosts use are found in data centers which make them benefit from the security offered by these institutions. The security prevents malicious people from accessing and interfering with them onsite.

Flexibility and scalability – resources should be available if they are needed, and they should not be limited by locations or the capacity of a single server. If your site demands additional resources due to increase in traffic, you should be able to access the resources with no limitations. Even if you are using the private cloud platform, the company can often go overboard to access resources from a vast cloud to process non-sensitive data if there is different activity on your website.

It should have the utility style costing where you pay for what you use. Although the resources should be available in case of a surge, there should be no wasted resources even when traffic to your site is little.

Responsive load balancing – this is a software that enables your site to respond efficiently to unexpected demand or activities.

A tip you should always put in consideration

Cloud backup

The cloud-hosting provider should give the option of online file backup. This is an easy way to store another copy of your data and keep track of the changes. When you are using online backup, it becomes simpler to backup your data at anytime and anywhere with just internet connectivity. Data backup is crucial because the cloud-hosting provider can face a risk that can lead to data getting lost. Such risks include fire damage, hacking, viruses, etc. if there is a backup, you will be assured that sensitive data is not lost just in case one of the high incidences happen. Data backup is also a safe way to protect your data from Internet threats such as hacking.

In conclusion, as we continue to witness the much advancement in technology and the revolution on the web, cloud hosting is also becoming a trend. It is making firms more scalable, which has eventually changed how we work. Every business around the world wants to go global so that they can maximize their profits and return on investments. A good example of cloud hosting is E-commerce that requires the features and services for constant changes and data storage.

Author Bio

Helen Cartwright is a passionate blogger, who excels in the Digital Marketing and Technology niche. When not wired in marketing strategies she ghost-write for a variety of authors who have their work published on leading online media channels such as The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur.com.​