Traditionally, there were two major hosting platforms – the affordable Shared Hosting and the robust but expensive Dedicated Hosting. With the advent of virtualization, the web hosting sector introduced Virtual Private Servers. And, with the development of the cloud and the applications of cloud to hosting, the scalable and highly secure Cloud Server Hosting became popular.
Cloud Hosting is a method of website hosting where the data of your website is spread across multiple servers rather than residing on a single server. This hosting setup promotes redundancy, speed, performance, security, and scalability.
What is traditional hosting?
Traditional hosting comprises traditional web hosting services and private, in-house hosting. A private hosting system is where you, the website owner, store all the data and the servers in-house. You buy the servers, maintain them, and protect them.
A traditional web hosting service refers to using a hosting provider to run your website. A hosting company owns the servers and maintains them. You just rent server space and pay a monthly fee, as you would for a Netflix subscription, for example.
The only difference between traditional hosting and Cloud Hosting is that in traditional hosting, all the data of your website is stored on a single server. There may be servers where multiple websites reside, but Cloud Hosting is the only method of website hosting where one website’s data is stored across a network of servers.
How is Cloud Hosting better?
1.Redundancy
One of the most important advantages of Cloud Hosting is the fact that there’s a lot of in-built redundancy thanks to the architecture of Cloud Hosting.
Given that data is stored across multiple servers and that data in Cloud Hosting moves a lot, a lot of companies use instant data mirroring where the data is duplicated and stored in multiple places in real-time. So, if you were to ever lose data, it’s easy to get it back.
Data loss doesn’t happen only because of hacking. Technical problems can result in data loss as well. Hard disks fail all the time. Therefore, this built-in redundancy is really useful.
2. Security
When Cloud Hosting was new, there were concerns about the fact that there was a lot of movement of data. When data is in transit, it becomes vulnerable to MitM attacks or Man in the Middle cyber attacks.
These are hacks that happen when the data is being transferred from one place to another. To overcome this challenge, all data in Cloud Hosting servers is encrypted irrespective of whether they’re in transit or stationary.
This is an enormous benefit because not only does this render MitM attacks useless, it also adds another important layer of security to your data, making it very secure.
3. Low exposure to cyber threats
In a traditional hosting setup, an attack on your web server puts all your website data at risk. However, with Cloud Hosting, even when a server is attacked, all your data isn’t at risk, given that it’s been distributed between multiple servers.
As has been noted, there’s a lot of movement of data in Cloud Hosting. This also works as a protective firewall against cybersecurity threats. If data resides permanently on a single server, it’s easier to plan a hack.
However, if the data of a website is stored in multiple places and is in transit a lot of the time, coordinating a successful hack becomes pretty close to impossible.
4. Blazing fast websites
In traditional hosting, where multiple websites reside on a single server, there are times when performance takes a hit. This is especially true if there’s no website isolation in place and websites don’t have dedicated servers.
Cloud Hosting offers great performance given that it doesn’t have to deal with the complexities of traditional hosting. Some hosting companies also use caching and a few other tools to make Cloud Hosting blazing fast.
5. Scaling is simple
Scaling refers to adding or removing resources from your web hosting plan. If you’ve run a marketing campaign and it has been especially successful, you can expect hundreds if not thousands of visitors to storm your website. In times like that, you’ll need more resources to deal with that additional traffic.
With Cloud Hosting, scaling up your website should not take more than a few minutes. It’s just a question of selecting the resources that you want to add (RAM, storage, CPU cores, etc.) and clicking on ‘Upgrade’ in your control panel.
With good hosting companies, the provisioning of these resources is near-instant. These added resources will help you ride that wave of additional users with relative ease.
6. Easy to use and manage
Cloud Hosting comprises several servers, data residing on different servers, movement of data, mirroring of data, its encryption, and so much more. It’s a pretty complicated setup when you think about it.
The best thing about Cloud Hosting is that you don’t really have to think about it. All the complexities of Cloud Hosting are taken care of by the hosting company.
You’re usually given a simple, easy-to-use software ( like cPanel) through which you can control your entire website. These applications are GUI (Graphic User Interface) and are designed to be used by people who aren’t Cloud Hosting experts.
So, you’ll find that everything is neatly laid out, there’s a big help section, there are plenty of FAQs, and there’s a community of thousands of people online who are willing to help you along.
Cloud Hosting rests on a complex foundation, but you will never have to worry about it. You’re given an end-user application that makes everything quite simple.
7. Great website uptime
When a server goes down, for whatever reason, the website goes down as well. A website that’s down is not only a disappointment to your visitors at that particular time but is also a negative contributing factor to your SEO.
Search engines keep a keen eye on the uptime of a website. If a website is down and if it happens often, search engines lower your rankings and will not show your website at the top of search engine results.
With Cloud Hosting, you get more than 99% uptime. The reason is its infrastructure. Given that website data is stored on multiple servers, a non-functioning server doesn’t really affect your website a lot and, therefore, won’t cause your website to go down. This improves uptime, which in turn is great for your website’s SEO.
Conclusion
Cloud Hosting is a tried and tested method of website hosting. It offers great features and performance at a great price, which is why it’s getting more and more popular by the day.
When you’re looking to purchase a Cloud Hosting plan, make sure to buy your Cloud Hosting plan from a reputed vendor with a proven history of providing safe, fast, and reliable hosting services. This way, you can concentrate on your website and not worry about hosting issues.
