I'm not an expert on hosting, but some of the cheaper hosting deals are all cloud based and I wonder how reliable are they? You hear of the tales of security and then if the server goes down, then it can be harder for the company to fix. I've been reading reviews, but most of the bloggers are cloud resellers or the site offers a discount for a particular company. Any independent experience or advice on cloud hosting? Also it seems EU servers are less reliable than US ones, or maybe it's just the people who take the effort to write the reviews?
Talking about tales, I believe cloud hosting itself is a tale. All servers all literally "on the cloud" as you can't see them physically, but this term has been overused as of today. On the cloud may refer to infrastructure and settings, but actually all servers touted to be "cloud hosting" might be reliable but not really cheap. In addition, EU servers may be as reliable as US servers or vice versa, but depends on each one needs. If you are located in Europe or targeting European audience, then EU servers are the best option, as they are if you are planning to manage adult or gambling content, which is not always allowed in US-based servers.
The only reliables hosting I can think of is dedicated hosting. But it is rather expensive and vulnerable to security breaches. Much as cloud hosting may not be too reliable hackers might find it harder to penetrate because it is somewhat harder to hack cloud computing. I'd choose normal hosting any time though.
Cloud hosting is the best option for most websites, regardless of security and reliability, because most individual webmasters can't afford dedicated hosting. The security concerns are there, and they are valid, but most people won't experience that many problems. Downtime is a part of either type of hosting when it's not due to security issues, so that has to be factored in. A majority of people should go with cloud hosting because the lower costs are worth the reliability concerns.
I have been wondering a little about cloud hosting also. I am thinking of switching my hosting to cloud hosting and I think it might be a good idea for what I do. I suppose what works for me, or the next person might not work for you. I do not have too many visitors to my site yet. I think you have raised some incredibly good issues regarding your doubts about cloud hosting. I am now going to consider this. I paid up for 12 months at a time and do not want to be wasteful right now and switch.
