Cloud hosting has three main advantages.
(1) is cheap.
Because services can be distributed to multiple servers, resources can be fully utilized, thus reducing hardware, power and maintenance costs. Moreover, the cloud host is charged according to the usage, so it is particularly beneficial to small websites.
(2) reliable.
Because the service is distributed in multiple servers or even multiple computer rooms, it is not easy to shut down completely, and it has strong disaster tolerance and can ensure long-term online.
(3) Good scalability.
The basic feature of cloud host is distributed architecture, so it is easy to increase servers and multiply service capacity.
Second, the shortcomings of the cloud host
Some customers are worried about the security of cloud hosts and feel lack of control over services.
Because the cloud host only provides the network interface, the customer's data must be completely subject to the arrangement of the cloud service company and completely under the control of the latter. Whether the data is safe or not depends on the professional ethics and protection ability of the latter.
However, this is actually a "pseudo-problem", because in most cases, cloud service companies will be more concerned about and better at protecting data than customers. Paul graham talked about this in the book Hackers and Painters:
"Opponents often think that our products are unsafe. If employees can log in easily, so can bad guys. Some big companies feel that it is safer to put customers' credit card information on their own servers than to give it to us. ..... but in fact, their servers are not as secure as ours, and our data protection is almost certainly better than theirs. Think about it, who can hire a higher-level network security expert, a technology startup whose business is to manage servers, or a clothing retailer? ..... We care more about data security than they do. If the server of a clothing retailer is hacked, it will only affect the company itself at most, and it is likely that the inside of the company has been covered up. In the worst case, employees may be fired. However, if our server is hacked, thousands of companies may be affected, and this matter may be published on the industry website as news, which will make our business impossible and have to close down. If you want to hide your money in a safe place, do you choose to put it under the mattress at home or in the bank? This metaphor applies to all aspects of server management, not only security, but also uptime, bandwidth, load management, backup, etc. These are our advantages. "
Third, how to choose a cloud host
Generally speaking, well-known companies are always the first choice. At present, there are three main ones: Amazon Web Services, NetDepot and Rackspace. However, small companies also have their own advantages, such as meeting individual needs and lower prices.
You can comprehensively consider customer service, computer room distribution, reliability, API strength, security measures, price and other factors.