Cloud hosting employs a virtual server to host websites. In comparison, traditional web hosting services usually house one or multiple sites on one physical server.
If you’re wondering whether cloud web hosting fits your needs better, this guide will help answer that question.
We’ll explore all the cloud hosting essentials – from how it works to what types of websites can benefit from it. Then, we’ll compare cloud hosting to other types of web hosting.
What is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud Hosting is a type of hosting that enables a website to use the resources of multiple servers, thus resulting in a faster performance.
Cloud hosting allows organizations to outsource their website’s computing and storage resources to a third-party provider. In cloud hosting, a network of virtual and physical cloud services supports a business website’s computing and data storage needs.
While traditional computing uses on-site servers, cloud hosting handles computer system resources and storage, freeing users from reliance on physical equipment. Additionally, cloud hosting doesn’t require active management, freeing a business’s resources to focus on growth and operations.
Cloud hosting is a reliable and effective resource that’s accessible, cost-effective and scalable.
How Does Cloud Hosting Work?
Cloud hosting works through virtualization. It’s a technology that splits a physical server into multiple virtual machines called cloud servers. Then, these connect to create a single network for hosting a website.
Due to its interconnected cloud structure, this type of hosting is also called cluster server hosting.
Cloud hosting’s underlying infrastructure makes it different from traditional web hosting. The latter typically uses a centralized approach, where a single server stores several sites at once.
The main benefits of using cloud hosting solutions include:
- High availability : When one server fails, the rest will cover for it and keep the website running. This makes cloud hosting more reliable than traditional web hosting, where a site has to rely on its server being up at all times.
- Traffic load balancing : When the website experiences traffic, the infrastructure will spread it across the cloud servers. This helps maintain the site performance as it sees more visitors.
- Scalability : With cloud hosting, webmasters aren’t limited to the bandwidth, storage, or computing power available from a single server. They can use additional resources in the virtual environment to support their site’s growth.
- Greater security : Cloud hosting is generally less prone to disasters and physical malfunctions since it uses multiple servers in a virtual environment. Moreover, the load balancing feature can help prevent DDoS attacks.
What Types of Websites Use Cloud Hosting?
The usual types of websites that use cloud hosting are eCommerce stores, news publications, search engines or aggregators, social networks, and other high-traffic projects.
Basically, it’s perfect for all websites that need plenty of processing power, bandwidth, and disk space to accommodate many visitors and the high amount of files and data they store.
The cloud hosting architecture makes it easy to anticipate traffic surges – which usually happen during big sales or when a blog post goes viral. The load balancing will ensure that the traffic doesn’t overwhelm the resources of any virtual server.
Furthermore, some of these websites may require tighter security to handle sensitive data, like customer information and payment details.
In this case, they may opt for a private cloud as opposed to a public cloud. It usually comes with a dedicated cloud infrastructure, hosted on a private network to prevent unauthorized parties from accessing it.
For these reasons, web hosts generally charge more for cloud hosting services than shared or VPS, which are usually more suitable for small to medium-sized sites.
Differences Between Cloud Hosting and Other Types of Web Hosting
Before making a website, it’s essential to understand how to choose a web hosting plan. The service you pick should provide ample resources and optimal performance to support the site without overblowing the budget.
This section will compare cloud hosting with two traditional hosting services, shared and VPS, to help you make the right decision.
How Do IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS Relate to Cloud Hosting?
IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS are three types of cloud-based business models. This means that they use the cloud infrastructure to deliver their services.
Let’s explore the differences between each model.
IaaS stands for infrastructure as a service. Businesses of this type typically offer cloud-based computing resources, such as servers and storage, for companies to run their operations.
Many organizations now opt to buy from IaaS companies instead of building an on-premise IT system, which can be costly and difficult to maintain. In comparison, cloud services scale easily, and businesses only need to pay for the resources they use.
An excellent example of an IaaS company is Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing platform that stores Netflix’s movie and series database.
PaaS is short for a platform as a service and refers to companies offering cloud-based frameworks that developers can use to build applications.
Unlike IaaS, these vendors will manage the cloud server resources for the client, so they can focus on creating their projects.
An example of a PaaS platform is Google App Engine. With this service, users can create applications without having to worry about infrastructure management.
Finally, SaaS is software as a service. In this business model, companies use the cloud to deliver a full-fledged application that people can access through a web browser or mobile application. The Google Workspace suite, which includes Google Workspace webmail, is an example of such software.
The Future of Cloud Hosting
Small businesses and big companies are constantly looking for the best solutions to optimize their workload and end-user experience.
Cloud hosting plays a significant role in that. Benefits like easy scalability, maximum availability, high traffic resilience, and resistance against hardware failure mean their online business can serve customers at any time.
So, it is no wonder that there has been a rise in cloud computing migration. 61% of companies have relocated their operations to the cloud network in the past year. 46% of businesses found they have reduced their expenses significantly after the migration, so this move is likely to continue in the future.
Conclusion
Cloud web hosting uses a virtual network of cloud servers to host a single site. It is different from traditional hosting, which stores one or multiple sites on a single server.
The primary benefit of cloud hosting is reliability. When one cloud server is down, other servers can take its place to keep the website online. It is also less prone to hardware failure, and webmasters can scale their hosting resources as needed to anticipate traffic spikes.
As such, it is the go-to solution for large-scale projects like enterprise websites, eCommerce stores, online marketplaces, and search engines.
If cloud web hosting sounds like the right solution for you, Hostinger offers three plans ranging from ₹699/month to ₹5099/month. With CloudLinux technology, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and global data centers, your site will be up and running at all times. You may also want to visit Hostinger coupons page to check if there are any cloud hosting discounts available at the moment of purchase.