Cloud Hosting

What is “the cloud”? (Quickly.)

Fancy sales jargon for someone else's servers that you pay to use a little bit of.

More precisely: “the cloud” means computers (servers) that live in large data centers owned by companies like AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure, instead of sitting in your office or closet. You access them over the internet.

You don't own the hardware. You rent access to it.

What is cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting is when your website, application, or data runs on virtual servers hosted in the cloud rather than on a single physical server.

Instead of relying on one machine in one location, cloud hosting spreads your site or app across a network of servers. If traffic spikes, resources can be added automatically. If a server fails, another takes over.

In most cases, you pay only for what you use: CPU, memory, storage, bandwidth—rather than paying a flat fee for a fixed server.

Cloud hosting, defined (plain English)

Cloud hosting is:

• Running your website or app on virtual machines
• Backed by many physical servers
• Located in multiple data centers
• Managed by a cloud provider
• Billed based on usage, not a single box

You're essentially renting slices of very powerful infrastructure that already exists.

Cloud hosting vs. traditional web hosting

Traditional web hosting usually means:

• One server
• One location
• Fixed resources
• Limited scalability

If traffic spikes, you upgrade your plan—or your site slows down or crashes.

Cloud hosting means:

• Many servers
• Multiple locations
• Resources scale up and down automatically
• Much higher reliability

If traffic spikes, the system adapts instead of breaking.

Cloud hosting vs. VPS

A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is:

• A virtual server
• Running on one physical machine
• With fixed resource limits

It's more flexible than shared hosting but still constrained by that single server.

Cloud hosting:

• Pulls resources from many servers
• Can scale far beyond one machine
• Is more fault-tolerant

A VPS is sometimes called a “private cloud,” but it lacks the elasticity and resilience of true cloud hosting.

Which hosting type fits your needs?

How does cloud hosting work?

Cloud hosting relies on virtualization.

A physical server runs software that creates multiple virtual machines (VMs). Each VM behaves like its own computer, with its own operating system, memory, storage, and CPU.

Those virtual machines can:

• Be copied
• Moved
• Scaled
• Replaced

...across many servers and data centers.

That's why cloud hosting can recover from failures and handle sudden demand without manual intervention.

Advantages of cloud hosting

Scalability

Resources can be added or removed automatically based on demand—no hardware upgrades required.

Flexibility

You can change server size, storage, regions, and services quickly.

Reliability

If one server fails, another takes over. Your site stays online.

Performance

Content can be served from data centers closer to your users, reducing load times.

Security

Major cloud providers invest heavily in:

• Physical security
• Network security
• Firewalls
• Access controls

Backups and disaster recovery

Cost (with a caveat)

Cloud hosting is typically pay-as-you-go, which avoids large upfront costs—but billing can become complex if not managed carefully.

Why use cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting makes sense when:

• You need reliability
• You expect traffic spikes
• You want fast recovery from failures
• You don't want to manage physical servers

You care about disaster recovery

Imagine a fire destroys your office computers and local server.

With cloud hosting:

• Your data still exists
• Your site still runs
• You can recover quickly

With on-prem or single-server hosting, recovery may take days—or longer

Popular cloud hosting providers

Common cloud hosting providers include:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Microsoft Azure
• DigitalOcean
• Linode / Akamai

Each offers different tradeoffs in complexity, cost, and control.

Related concepts

Virtual machines (VMs)

Content delivery networks (CDNs)

Load balancers

Object storage

Disaster recovery

Managed cloud hosting

Important downsides to understand

Cloud hosting isn't magic.

• Billing can get confusing fast
• Poor configuration can be expensive
• You're dependent on a third party
• Costs vary wildly based on usage

Sometimes cloud hosting is more expensive than traditional hosting—especially for small, static sites.