Cloud hosting in practical terms
Instead of depending on one fixed machine, the service can allocate capacity from a wider cloud environment.
Cloud hosting makes websites and applications available online by drawing computing resources from a pool of virtual and physical servers.
Capacity can follow demand
A conventional hosting plan may give you a fixed amount of computing power. Cloud hosting can add resources when demand rises and remove them when demand falls.
That flexibility does not remove the need for planning. Your team should still understand what drives usage, how charges are calculated, and which limits the service applies.
Hosting choices still matter
Cloud services differ in how much they manage. One service may give your team a virtual server to maintain. Another may handle the operating environment while your team manages only the application and its data.
Caffeine says its software can run on OpenCloud, your own cloud, or selected machines. The useful question is not simply whether hosting uses the cloud. It is which responsibilities and choices remain with your business.
Cloud hosting terms
- Cloud
- Computing resources delivered over a network instead of kept on one local machine.
- Virtual server
- A software-based server that shares physical hardware with other virtual servers.
- Scaling
- Adding or removing computing capacity as demand changes.
What cloud hosting changes
Shared resources
The host draws computing capacity from a pool of physical and virtual servers.
Flexible capacity
Resources can increase or decrease as the website or application needs them.
Ongoing costs
Many services charge according to the resources used instead of one fixed server.
Questions about cloud hosting
No. A small team can use cloud hosting without buying physical servers. The right fit depends on the application's needs, the team's skills, and the cost model.
No. Cloud hosting is the broader category. Serverless computing is one managed approach where the provider handles server allocation and scaling for the code you run.
No. Consumption-based pricing can reduce payment for unused capacity, but costs can rise with traffic, storage, or extra services. Review the pricing model against expected use.
Related glossary topics
Choose where your software runs
Caffeine apps run on the Internet Computer, a public network built for this.