Cloud Hosting Is King
Cloud Hosting and Why It’s the Superior Choice
If you’re a business owner or professional with a website, you’ve probably at one point or another had to make a choice about how to host your site. You’ve also likely heard the terms web hosting vs. cloud hosting, and may even be up to speed on the ins and outs of each; however, there are some major differences between web hosting and cloud hosting that our team at Riverworks wants to run down for you– primarily because we want to tell you exactly why we think cloud hosting is king.
What is Web Hosting?
The term web hosting generally refers to where and how your website’s files are stored. Your site is comprised of a collection of various files necessary to its function, and those files have to live somewhere out in that vast Internet frontier. So, they are hosted somewhere, and when a web user enters your domain name, their browser downloads all those files that make up your website to display them for use.
What is Cloud Hosting?
With cloud hosting, basically all your server hardware is virtual. Cloud hosting is a newer style of hosting that’s been growing in popularity over the recent years. Also known as virtual servers, these cloud-based hosting systems are built, hosted, and delivered via a cloud platform of computing with the added benefit of being remotely accessible. Cloud hosting also boasts an increased ability to handle large amounts of web traffic with grace, as well as improved reliability and site security.
Our Technology Director, Kevin, answers some FAQs about cloud hosting.
Q: What is cloud hosting, in everyday people speak?
A: A hosting server is basically a regular computer with website stuff on it. Cloud hosting is… an unlimited number of smaller computers that work together like they’re one.
Q: What is the most impactful benefit to cloud hosting?
A: Among others, its versatility: Many things that would be impractical or outright impossible are no problem. That, along with the tooling that’s available for it – things like auto-scaling, for example… If a site gets busier than expected and starts to bog-down, it can automatically duplicate itself as many times (on as many computers) as need be to stay healthy.
Q: Is cloud hosting secure/safe for personal information?
A: Cloud hosting is at least as secure as traditional hosting and in many ways it is more secure.
Q: What are the drawbacks of cloud hosting?
A: There’s a significant amount of complexity to-do with initial setup and architecture. Beyond that point, virtually all things are either automated or two clicks away.
It’s a lot like taking allllll of your future troubles and worries – and just handling them right now.
Q: How does cloud hosting differ from VPS and dedicated hosting?
A: Cloud is far more dynamic… fluid, maybe. It has almost no “rules” imposed on it by the server, so the apps/sites running in the cluster can do whatever they need to do – with nothing else telling them what to do.
Q: How many domains can I host?
A: There is no real limit. You can run any number of simultaneous apps/sites – or any number of domains can point to a single site.
Q: Has this platform been vetted, or is it “the next cool thing”?
A: It’s been battle-tested for years by the largest tech entities – Google, Facebook, Amazon, and so on – but also by smaller shops who care deeply about stability and service level.
Q: Is there vendor lock-in?
A: No. If anything, you’re more portable than before. It’s not much work to move to another cloud, or even “eject” your container back to a traditional hosting environment.