Cloud web hosting is an easy way for companies to make use of extensive computing resources without owning any equipment. With cloud hosting, clients can make use of as little resources or as much resources as they like. This scalability can result in a lot of cost savings as companies never pay for more than they use. Also, additional capacity is available whenever you need it.
There are two types of cloud infrastructure, and the difference is who controls the computing power and whether it’s shared. In fact, most cloud services are public cloud services. Meaning the computing power is fully shared and simply divided according to the needs of each client.
What is a public cloud?
Public clouds use security and data splitting measures to make sure data is not shared. Clients can’t access each other’s data. Because the cloud platform management software makes sure data is private at all times. Working with the public cloud is just fine for most purposes.
What is a private cloud?
In contrast, the private cloud is even more secure and a potentially good option where privacy is a concern. With a private cloud, the cloud platform management service ring-fences certain resources on the network, including physical computers, just for a particular client.
Private clouds can be hosted off-site with a cloud provider, or on-premise with the client. In either case, a private cloud provides most of the same scalability and flexibility that cloud services are known for.
Dedicated web servers vs cloud web hosting
Cloud web hosting is similar to clustered web hosting where many websites are hosted across a range of servers. However, cloud web hosting uses a much larger array of servers. And vast data centers often come in play when it comes to hosting in the cloud. In fact, your website may be hosted in data centers in different locations to enable redundancy.
In practice, cloud services fall under both the IaaS and PaaS classifications, but there’s a difference between the two, which we’ll explain.
Platform-as-a-service – PaaS
In the case of PaaS provision, the provider will give a client access to both the software environment they require as well as the hardware behind the software. In other words, the client accesses an entire platform as a service as and when needed. PaaS is typically easier to use than IaaS and suitable for clients who are not highly equipped with technical skills.
Infrastructure-as-a-service – IaaS
IaaS is a less comprehensive cloud offering. Providers don’t include any software with IaaS. Instead, a provider will simply allow access to hardware resources, often virtualized server resources. Clients are responsible for installing their own software when needed. IaaS can be more customizable because clients have full control over the software. And so it is fit for more complex IT projects that experienced IT professionals run.
Features and benefits of cloud web hosting
Cloud web hosting has numerous benefits which is why so many have adopted it over the last few years.
It’s reliable
Hosting a website on a single, standalone server can be risky. Because the entire website can fail if just one component on the server fails. Cloud services run in a virtualized state with redundancy arrangements preventing a single point of failure from crashing a website. Even if a single individual server goes offline, the cloud will continue to pull resources from the rest of the network.
Equipment is physically secure
It takes a lot of effort to protect equipment form physical intrusion at times. But in the cloud, there’s no physical security issue. Because cloud equipment is hosted in highly secure data centers, often in remote locations.
Cloud scales easily
It’s easy to scale up the provision of cloud web hosting services. Any single client is only using a small fraction of the computing resources in a cloud data center. So providers can easily provision additional resources if a client needs to. If a website is experiencing a hike in demand, it’s easy to simply increase available resources.
Pay as you use with cloud web hosting
Hosting a website on a dedicated server often means that clients pay for more resources than they use. With cloud services you only pay for the resources which you are actually using. So many providers of cloud web hosting bill companies for the exact amount of resources they’re using.
Instant load balancing
Cloud web hosting providers typically have very large infrastructure networks, consisting of thousands of physical servers, distributed over many locations. If a website experiences a sudden hike in demand a cloud provider can simply distribute the load across servers and locations. Thus, ensuring anyone in every geographical location will have quick, instant access to the website’s resources.
Cloud platform management
The right cloud platform management software is the key to effective cloud service management. Because the admin facilities behind the software will be in regular use. Plesk Onyx is ideal for the role of cloud web hosting platform, it simplifies all sort of automation and scaling tasks.
Plesk has certification with Amazon AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and supports Windows/Linux operating systems. It’s worth mentioning integrated WordPress and Joomla! support with the help of WordPress and Joomla! Toolkits, both included in Plesk’s extension ecosystem.
It’s easy to auto-provision client and reseller accounts with direct access to Plesk. Including automatic suspension of Plesk if renewal fails. Each staff member can be restricted to their roles, whether it’s activating or suspending services. You get a single dashboard to manage everything from DNS through to files, email and database infrastructure. All this while using our platform.
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