Introduction to Cloud Hosting

You must be aware with different web hosting services like, shared hosting, dedicated server hosting, and VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting. Have you heard about Cloud Hosting? I’m sure you have heard about it somewhere. It is relatively a new but popular term in web hosting world, which is increasingly becoming popular. More and more web services are now switching to cloud hosting.

What is cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting is quite different from other types of web hosting. It is not dependent upon any single server. Instead it is connected to multiple servers at a time. Whenever, the website or application (hosted under cloud hosting) needs extra resources it automatically starts using other connected servers. In other words these servers connect and share information based on the level of website traffic across the entire network. It is often provided as a service on demand.

Need for Cloud Hosting

Nowadays, there are several web services for which we cannot predict the amount of traffic. It may experience huge fluctuations at different points of time. During peak moments the application or website needs more computing power to serve the requests of increasing number of users. Cloud Hosting provides the same when needed.

If an application/website is hosted using cloud hosting, you don’t need to worry about computing power or other resources to run it smoothly. Whenever, the application needs more resources to serve user’s demand, it automatically starts using cloud’s computing power and storage services. They are releases once the purpose is over.

Cloud Hosting – Major Advantages

There are several advantages of using cloud hosting services. Some of the major advantages are the scalability and cost cutting. Due to scalability, the expansion of website (addition of new features, databases or applications) becomes easy. There is no worry of hardware upgrade and resource crunch.

Organizations do not need to maintain multiple servers in order to run their websites or applications smoothly. Here it is important to mention that the website may not require the computing power of all servers every time. They are used only during peak traffic moments. That means during normal hours huge portion of computing resources are wasted.

Due to the ease of services and benefits offered by them, more and more organizations are heading towards cloud hosting services. Companies who are using Virtual Private Servers or Dedicated servers to host their services are also switching over to cloud hosting.

Essential Web Server Requirements for e-Commerce Hosting

Selection of e-Commerce hosting provider is a crucial task. The possible risk factors associated with an e-Commerce hosting is availability, performance, security, and flexibility. No matter the hosted/to be hosted e-Commerce website is small, medium or large; these factors are always there.

This article will discuss requirements of a web server against following important risk factors. These are very important for e-Commerce hosting.

Availability

An e-Commerce website is supposed to provide seamless services to customers. The website will more like lose its customers or important traffic, if the website is not available at any point of time due to scheduled maintenance or other faults. Therefore, it is very important to ensure the availability of website round the clock.

Most of the hosting service providers claim 99.9% uptime of their servers. However, it is very important to confirm the truth behind their promises. There are several online tools available to check the uptime of a website. They present detailed reports of website’s uptime with response timings.

Performance

The web server hosting e-Commerce website should have excellent configuration to delivered expected performance even during the peak timings. The real performance test of an e-Commerce website happens during special occasions when the website is offering huge discounts and other promotional offers, like on Halloween, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve. If the website’s response time doesn’t change and it keeps delivering requested pages properly then the web server is surely delivering excellent performance.

Security

E-Commerce websites are supposed to secure the critical personal information of customers. Therefore, the server offering e-Commerce hosting should offer high level of security. Valid SSL certificates, advanced firewalls and anti-phishing applications are necessity for web servers offering e-Commerce hosting.

Flexibility

The requirements of every e-Commerce website vary along with the time. Day by day user loads and number of products increase and the website needs more server resources in order to perform well. Hosting service provider should offer flexibility in services so that the hosting package can be upgraded at any point of time.

The server offering all above features are ideal for hosting e-Commerce websites. Prior to hosting a website it should be checked properly. In case of existing websites, people need to switchover to another hosting provider for better services.