How does cloud hosting differ from traditional hosting?

Cloud hosting and traditional hosting, also known as on-premises hosting, differ in several ways, including:

1. Infrastructure: Traditional hosting involves hosting a website on a single physical server or a group of servers located in a data center, while cloud hosting utilizes a network of servers that are spread across multiple locations.
2. Scalability: Cloud hosting allows for easy scaling of resources as traffic increases or decreases, as it utilizes a large pool of resources that can be allocated as needed. Traditional hosting, on the other hand, typically requires a website to be hosted on a dedicated server, which can limit scalability.
3. Cost: Cloud hosting can be more cost-effective than traditional hosting, as it allows users to pay only for the resources they use, rather than having to invest in and maintain their own physical servers.
4. Flexibility: Cloud hosting provides greater flexibility, as it allows users to easily add or remove resources, such as storage and computing power, as needed. Traditional hosting, on the other hand, typically requires a long-term commitment and can be more difficult to scale up or down.
5. Reliability: Cloud hosting providers typically offer high availability and uptime, as they can quickly add resources to a website if traffic increases or if a server goes down. Traditional hosting can be less reliable, as it relies on a single physical server or a group of servers.
6. Maintenance: Cloud hosting providers typically handle the maintenance and management of the servers and infrastructure, while traditional hosting requires the customer to handle these tasks.

In summary, cloud hosting and traditional hosting differ in terms of infrastructure, scalability, cost, flexibility, reliability, and maintenance. Cloud hosting is more flexible, cost-effective, and reliable, while traditional hosting is more limited in terms of scalability and may require more maintenance and management. Cloud hosting is a better option for websites that experience fluctuating traffic or require high availability.