Website hosting is one of the most important aspects to take care of in the lifecycle of a website . Hosting is something most people usually set up at the very beginning of website development but at times, it has been observed that most website owners and webmasters come to a realization that the hosting selected is not the most ideal for the website. Then begins the whole understanding why a certain hosting type or package is not working for your website and alternatively which hosting would. All this requires an awareness about the various hosting types out there and an understanding of what their benefits and features are.
The point that I am trying to establish is that different hosting types may work for different websites. One needs to understand the needs of the website and map them to the advantages and features of the available hosting types to make the proper decision. The objective of this post is to understand the benefits of one of the most popular hosting types, Cloud Hosting and summarize the types of websites for which it fits perfectly.
Before we get into that, let’s quickly understand what Cloud Hosting is and how it works. As the name suggests Cloud Hosting works on Cloud Computing technology. The Cloud is technically a pool of multiple server machines brought together to function like a single high power server. Then, the resources such as CPU, RAM, and storage space required to host the websites are divided and distributed across the websites.
If one is to summarize the Cloud Hosting benefits, they can be simply put as below:
Benefits of Cloud Hosting
The division of server resources of multiple servers across the hosted websites enables Cloud Hosting to be more scalable, reliable and cheaper than traditional hosting types such as Shared Hosting. The specifics of these benefits are:
- Instant hosting resource scalability
- Enhanced reliability and reduction in downtime
- Better security because of data fragmentation and account isolation
- Improve website speed
- Highly cost effective
Of course, simply listing down the advantages hardly adds any value or a deeper understanding of Cloud Hosting to make an informed decision. With that in mind, let’s go deeper into these advantages and understand what causes them and what it means to a website.
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Instant resource Scalability:
As mentioned before, in Cloud Hosting multiple servers come together and pool in all their resources. The main Cloud Hosting benefit here is that, this creates an abundance of hosting resources such as CPU, RAM, and storage space. Then the overlaying virtualized software creates partitions in these resources and allocates as much is required for each website hosted over the Cloud. Suppose, if one of the websites finds itself in the need for more resources, this can be done instantly from the idle resources available over the Cloud Pool. Additionally, if in case the resource pool falls short, that can also be expanded easily by adding more servers to the Cloud. This is why it gives you unlimited and instantaneous scalability.
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High Level of Reliability:
Hosting reliability refers to minimizing website downtime and data loss. Cloud Hosting is more reliable because of the fact that there are multiple servers at play. The first thing that Cloud Hosting takes up is data mirroring which adds 3 levels of data redundancy. In simpler words, the same data is replicated across three different drives placed across three different servers and cabinets. This is a great way to safeguard your data. Also, supposing one or more servers over the Cloud crash or break down due to natural or man-made disasters, then other servers over the cloud seamlessly take their place. Essentially this ensures that there is never a single point of failure and the overall hosting environment becomes a lot more reliable.
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Better Security:
What reduces the vulnerability of Cloud Hosting is that firstly, the website data hosted over the Cloud is divided and distributed across multiple servers which makes it difficult for hackers to break into. Secondly, all data transmitted and received across the Cloud is by default encrypted. These aspects, make Cloud hosted websites more secure. Please note that this does not mean that you will not need to take-up any additional security measures to protect your website from threats. The point to understand is that comparatively Cloud Hosting is more secured owing to architecture used like Ceph Architecture than simpler hosting types such as Shared Hosting.
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Improvement in Website Speed:
Website speed is one of the most important aspects for user engagement on the website and search engine organic visibility. Which is why most website owners constantly try to make their websites faster. With Cloud Hosting this job is made a little easier. As Cloud Hosting depends upon a network of interconnected servers spread across a geographical region, when a request for data is made, the server closest to the requesting node serves the request thereby reducing the transmission lag time. Moreover, Cloud Hosting in most cases always integrates caching within their inter-server and server-client communications which further helps improve the speed.
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High-Cost Effectiveness:
Cloud Hosting is known to be one of the most cost-effective hosting types available. Since the server resources are divided and shared across multiple websites, it makes it cheaper for the hosted websites to rent the resources. Also, there are Cloud Hosting providers who offer a flexible ‘Pay for what you Use’ payment policy. Which means you only need to pay for the resources that you are utilizing for your website. This puts you in charge of your hosting bills. It is a great option for sites that that may receive seasonal traffic spikes. For instance, when high traffic period is expected, the website can secure additional resources to serve the added load and after the high traffic period is over, scale down and reduce the hosting costs again. Cost efficiency is the most popular benefit of Cloud Hosting.
What kind of websites should opt for Cloud Hosting?
Typically Cloud Hosting is recommended for websites that receive a high amount of traffic and expect the traffic to be uncertain. That way the advantages of its instant scalability come in full use. It is also ideal for websites that expect to have uninterrupted uptime as Cloud hosting tends to be secure and highly reliable. Example sites will include social networks, eCommerce portals, news sites and even stock trading websites. If your website is similar to such sites and you expect a lot of traffic , then Cloud Hosting should definitely be considered.
Hope this helps you get a better understanding of what Cloud Hosting is and get an in-depth understanding of Cloud Hosting benefits. It is highly recommended that you discuss with your Hosting Company to explore Cloud Hosting services. Hope this helps and feel free to write down your thoughts and questions in the comments section below if any.
Image Credits: cloud hosting from Andrew Krasovitckii/Shutterstock