By means of a cloud server, remote access to data or content in a network can be ensured. The cloud is a central instance that can be accessed by users with the appropriate permissions. While a physical or virtual server could also provide these features, a cloud has other advantages besides centralized data storage and access control.
How does a cloud server work?
A cloud server is a virtual software environment that makes data available to a network. Through a client or web browser, users can access this data. Unlike dedicated physical or virtual servers, the cloud is realized through various hardware components. Here's how it works.
Using a hypervisor to interconnect and virtualize the resources of different physical servers. This provides the cloud with the combined performance elements of hardware. These can then be distributed to different users in an automated manner.
The users of a cloud server themselves do not have to provide their own hardware resources. Rather, they use the infrastructure of a cloud or web hosting provider.
Differences between cloud servers and dedicated servers
A dedicated physical server is designed for use by a single organization. For example, if a company books a server with a provider, then as a customer it is also responsible for setting up and managing the software. Customers can assign access rights and delegate administration of the server to third parties. But the server remains on a computer that is specifically assigned to a user.
A cloud server, on the other hand, is usually managed by a third-party vendor because the server resources can be used by many users at the same time, and the cloud is constructed from the combination of different hardware components.
But it is also possible to run your own cloud server. A distinction is made between two types:
- Public cloud: where many customers share a cloud and the corresponding network resources such as the computing power or storage capacity.
- Private Cloud: Here the cloud server is exclusively available to one customer.
Within the cloud, users get a specific software environment. Basically, the most common web servers such as the Nginx, the HTTP Apache web server or the Litespeed server can be used here. The software modules available to customers and the extent to which they can make their own configurations depends on the tariff they book.
Advantages of a cloud server
Basically, server virtualization via the cloud offers the significant advantage of cost and resource savings. Because hardware resources can be targeted to individual users via the cloud, existing resources are used effectively and there are no unnecessary operational or acquisition costs.
Within the network, performance components can be provisioned to users on an as-needed basis. This is especially beneficial when a user needs more resources for a temporary campaign. This is also used, for example, when offering cloud storage. Ideally, customers can set up this additional requirement themselves in the administration area of their cloud server.
However, cloud servers have other advantages as well:
- High accessibility: a cloud server can be set up in a few minutes. Maintenance is usually taken care of by a third-party provider, which is why customers do not have to pay for their own infrastructure, nor do they need to have the knowledge to maintain it.
- Scalability: the resources available in the cloud can be scaled in real time for each user.
- Reliability and performance: cloud servers achieve similar performance to dedicated servers. Since the cloud is realized through various hardware components, total failures are extremely rare. If a computer on the network goes down, the performance of the hosted web projects might suffer. However, the project itself can still be accessed via the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).
Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions about cloud servers! With our cloud server offerings, we can help you host your projects in the best way possible!
