PAE - Cloud Computing and Web Hosting Platforms [LESSON]

Cloud Computing and Web Hosting Platforms

Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing refers to applications that are available in “the cloud.”  So, what is “the cloud?”  The cloud refers to the Internet. It is computing services provided over the internet, which means that individuals and businesses no longer must keep their own servers and networks in their locations.  In the past, a business would have servers (which are dedicated computers) that ran their networks, served as storage locations, and provided applications for the business.  Some individuals also had servers in their homes.  Now, with cloud computing, individuals and businesses can purchase just what they need from these cloud computing providers and the providers have data centers with servers for everything.  There are several types of cloud computing, including the following:

• SaaS – Software as a service
• PaaS – Platforms as a service
• IaaS – Infrastructure as a service

SaaS – provides software applications through the internet, such as email, customer relationship management services, Google Drive, Microsoft O365, etc.

PaaS – provides cloud-based platforms to software developers so they can focus on developing their applications.

IaaS – provides infrastructure to almost all cloud computing users.  This provides storage, servers, networking, and many other services to the cloud.  There are 3 main IaaS providers:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform

Cloud computing makes it easier and less expensive for individuals and businesses to have all the storage, applications, and speed they need. You only pay for what you need, and you can expand as quickly as necessary.  Use of these services also provides much better cybersecurity than for businesses to own their own platforms and infrastructures. You pay either by the hour or by the month. Each of the three major providers specializes in different areas, so companies need to determine which platform will provide the services they need most.

Web Hosting

Web hosting is a service offered to host websites. For your website to be on the Internet, where it can be searched and found, you must have two things, a domain name, and a web host. The domain name is the registered name of your site that maps back to the numeric IP address of where the site is physically located.  For instance, in Google’s URL: https://www.google.com Links to an external site., Google.com is the domain name.  HTTPS:// is the transfer protocol (which we’ll discuss later) and the www stands for the “World Wide Web.” There are four main types of web hosting: shared, virtual private server, dedicated, and cloud. 

Shared Web Hosting is when the host company has your website shared on the same server with other websites. This is the least expensive way to host a website and is used mainly for small sites and small/start-up businesses. There are some issues with this type of hosting:

1. Lack of security – several sites share the same server, so if one gets a virus, it can be transmitted to the other sites.
2. Lack of resources – all sites use the same resources, so if one or more sites have heavy traffic it can cause all sites to lose service, which can be a major problem for businesses.
3. Inability to scale up with growth – if your site starts receiving more traffic and needs more space, you may not be able to do that with the shared server.

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a server owned by the web hosting company that is partitioned into several sections that are privately used by the company whose website it is. You pay for a specific amount of the server. This is less expensive than having your own dedicated server but is more expensive than a shared server. This is more secure than a shared server but is less secure than a dedicated server. 

Dedicated Hosting is when you have the server to yourself.  You pay for the hosting company to maintain and manage the server, but you control everything that goes on with the server. This is necessary for larger businesses and for businesses that deal with sensitive information. It is much more expensive than using either a shared or virtual private server. However, you don’t have to share resources, you can scale up if your site grows in traffic and needs, and you don’t have to worry about security due to other sites infecting your site. Your site is much less likely to experience loss of service.

Cloud Web Hosting is when the site is hosted by a set of cloud servers. The other types of web hosting have the servers located at the hosting site. If the server goes down, then the sites hosted on that server will also go down and visitors won’t be able to access the site. With cloud hosting, the site is not on one server, but part of a data server farm.  If one server goes down, the site is still up because the data is transferred to another server in the farm. Therefore, the likelihood of the site going down is very low. Also, it is easier for companies to grow as needed with cloud hosting. See the image below to show the difference between regular web hosting and cloud hosting.

Now take a moment to check your knowledge of Cloud Computing and Web Hosting by dragging and dropping the word on the correct definition.

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