Cloud hosting is a deployment model that utilizes a network of virtual servers to host applications, drawing resources from an underlying pool of physical hardware. This approach differs from traditional hosting by decoupling the software environment from a single physical machine, ensuring that resources like vCPU and RAM are always available.
How it works
The infrastructure relies on a hypervisor to abstract physical hardware into multiple virtual instances. Data is typically stored on a distributed storage system, ensuring that if one physical node fails, the virtual server automatically restarts on another node within the cluster. This process, known as high availability, minimizes downtime and prevents data loss.
- Vertical Scaling: Increasing the capacity of a single instance (adding more RAM or CPU).
- Horizontal Scaling: Adding more instances to a cluster to handle increased traffic.
- Redundancy: Data is mirrored across multiple disks and nodes.
Cloud hosting is the primary choice for high-traffic websites and enterprise applications that require 24/7 uptime. For instance, a cloud environment can scale from 1 to 50 nodes in minutes to handle a sudden traffic spike, a task that would take days with physical hardware. Most providers offer an SLA of 99.99%, guaranteeing minimal annual downtime.