Cloud Servers Frequently Asked Questions

That is a great question and we are glad you asked! Today “The Cloud” is a buzzword used all over the Internet. One problem is many hosting companies do not understand the Cloud themselves. Worse, many hosting providers use the word “Cloud” to advertise products that are not true cloud servers. It it’s simplest sense, a true Cloud Server is not a single server. It is a pool of servers and other hardware that is combined to make one super-sized server. This server can be sliced and diced into smaller servers called virtual machines, or, one very large virtual machine can be created to power a massive site. This is how large companies like Amazon and Google are able to maintain superior uptime and performance as compared to hosting that is typically available to small business. GlowHost brings you the same technology that the big boys use, at an attractive price point. We invite you to download a more detailed description of the the cloud in general, and how the GlowHost Cloud is different than any other cloud around.  Download the white paper.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

Lets face it. Traditional hosting is dead. GlowHost’s Hybrid Cloud is the future of hosting.

Our Cloud Virtual Dedicated Servers take traditional hosting to the next level. Our new hybrid technology converts a typical hosting account into a HA (High Availability), cloud-based server cluster. All data is stored on multiple fault tolerant redundant storage (SAN) enclosures set up in an internal RAID and network RAID configuration which can sustain multiple simultaneous hard drive failures or even an entire SAN enclosure failure. Is hosting on the cloud better than a dedicated sever? Yes!

A typical shared account, VPS or dedicated server generally runs on a single machine and cannot compare to the killer architecture we have deployed on the GlowHost Cloud. The computing power comes from an array of enterprise grade servers that have a minimum of 32 gigs of RAM per each physical device. The application servers are completely hot swap and hot failover enabled. If we loose an application server, the rest of the cloud continues powering your web site while we replace the faulty hardware, in the background, completely unnoticed.

Our datacenter is the only public data center in the United States with redundant electrical feeds that are connected to geographically diverse substations. In addition, there is complete physical separation of the fuel generators and UPS systems on opposite sides of the building for the highest level of redundancy. If one of the electrical substations that feeds our facility goes offline due to blackout, our second electrical source is always online and active and will take over the load. Both grids power the entire cloud at all times with complete geo-separation of substations, entrances, UPSs, generators and fuel, as well as first priority “life-critical” designation for priority electrical service restoration due to the Datacenter’s large number of healthcare clientele and physical proximity to healthcare services.

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A VPS or Virtual Private Server is a virtual machine that lives on a very powerful hardware device (server) that has has special software loaded onto it, which allows the device to run as several virtual private servers, all on one common piece of hardware. This allows a provider to install multiple operating systems and control panels onto a single piece of hardware, and have them all running at the same time, resource-independent from any other VPS on the server. For example, each VPS has its own private CPU, RAM, bandwidth and disk space limits. A VPS is generally not redundant in any way, and is a single point of failure in of itself. Virtual Private Servers have problems with scalability which means once you grow too large, your host may ask you to remove your VPS off of the machine, and this means an upgrade to a dedicated server in most cases. Cloud VDS from GlowHost are completely elastic and allow you to grow or shrink your resources on demand, and offer limitless growth as new hardware can be easily added to the GlowHost Cloud or virtual hardware can be added to your Virtual Machine to compensate for your growing web site.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

 A VDS or Virtual Dedicated Server from GlowHost is a an array of many hardware devices that, with special software, can offer equivalent or higher performance to a standard VPS or even dedicated server. In fact, with our virtualization technology you could combine all resources in the cloud to make one monster server. Imagine a machine with several hundred gigs of RAM, thousands of terabytes of storage, and a hundred or so CPUs, all with multiple cores. This is what virtualization can do. We take this monster machine and split it into smaller pieces called Virtual Machines. What makes GlowHost cloud servers and VDS so special in comparison to a VPS, VDS or semi-dedicated server from other providers, is that it is fully redundant at every level. Our VDS can sustain multiple hard drive failures, multiple server failures, network failures and something that almost no one else can offer, electrical failures. Our cloud is powered by 2 different electric grids that service the facility, so if one grid goes down due to lightning, or just from Uncle Joe digging holes in the yard where he isn’t supposed to be, we have you covered. If both grids are down due to some catastrophic event, we have dual diesel fuel generators on site with enough fuel to power them until the grid comes back online.

Similar to VPS, each Virtual Machine runs completely independent of the other, with the added benefit of its own private VLAN. There is a firewall on the network that prevents packets from being discovered that belong to other virtual machines. To the end user, or server administrator, the virtual machine appears and acts just like a traditional VPS or dedicated server, but with the HA (High Availability) features and infrastructure that other hosts only dream of being able to offer or are still scrambling to invent.

Each Virtual Dedicated Server or Virtual Machine has its own private CPU, RAM, bandwidth and disk space limits which can be upgraded or downgraded in minutes or seconds.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

Yes, with a Virtual Dedicated Server or Enterprise Cloud Server from GlowHost, you have your own fully customizable OS. You have full root access so you can completely customize the way your hosting environment runs. We typically install CentOS, but we have many other flavors like Red Hat, Cloud Linux, Ubuntu, or Windows available on request.  View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

Yes, you can resell on your cloud server! Cloud Servers are great for reselling web hosting and are an excellent choice for those growing resellers who are concerned about reliability of their customer’s web sites. Cloud servers are an excellent choice over a typical reseller account because there is more flexibility in services offerings and much higher redundancy than a traditional reseller web hosting package can offer. We recommend cPanel if you plan on reselling as it allows for unlimited domains to be hosted without the additional licensing fees found in other control panels like Plesk   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

Yes, you sure can. It’s just like a dedicated server, you have hard disk space limits, however the system will let you can oversell as much as you like to maximize your virtual real estate. This will allow you to have more competitive prices and allow more users per server than a traditional reseller account so that you can directly compete with the price points offered by even the largest hosts on the market.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

Yes, we will help you learn how to use your cloud server. We are a fully managed cloud service provider. That includes help learning the system as well as unlimited free support on both the hardware and software that we provide you with.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

We include full monitoring AND proactive response along with a free cPanel license on our cloud VDS servers. Enterprise Cloud Servers are also fully managed, but you may need to purchase the control panel license from us for a nominal fee, or, you can purchase directly from your favorite control panel vendor if you do not already have the license. Generally, our cPanel prices are lower than buying direct or from a license reseller. We will monitor your server for troubles 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. If we see a problem at 3 AM on New Years Day, we will log into your VDS and attempt to correct the issue. We will do whatever it takes to get service restored on your machines as soon as possible. Think of it as your “rest easy” plan. Sign up with GlowHost now and enjoy the benefits of our enterprise class, high availability cloud hosting solution.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

We offer several different Cloud Hosting solutions. Our popular Cloud VDS is a pre-configured solution and eliminates some of the guesswork involved for less experienced users. Enterprise Cloud is similar to VDS, however, you are free to completely customize the hardware specification of your virtual machine during the order process. Cloud VDS is meant for small to medium sized business looking for a economical, fully managed cloud hosting solution that doesn’t require much, if any thought about the server back-end, yet still offers features that their developers will appreciate and often require, like root access for example. Enterprise Cloud packages are offered in several pre-configured “recommended” configurations, but the hardware specifications, operating system and other aspects can be completely tailored to the demanding needs of enterprise. Both solutions can be fully managed or unmanaged. Cloud VDS offers management included by default, where with Enterprise Cloud, management is an optional upgrade for a small fee.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

 Sure! We encourage it actually. If you need more of “this,” or more of “that,” no problem. Customize it, upgrade it, downgrade it, do what you want with it until your heart is content.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

 The GlowHost Cloud hosting solution is completely elastic, allowing you to add more CPU, RAM, disk space or network speed dynamically, and on the fly, no reboots or downtime required which is something you simply cannot do on a regular dedicated server. Every component of our cloud is fully hot-swapable. You can also decrease capacity should your server hardware requirements lessen.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

 It is not difficult, and there is no involved downtime at all except in some rare cases your cloud server may require a reboot to apply the changes made. Upgrades are painless too. This is a truly advanced system with unlimited expandability options for the most demanding sites. Add resources as you need, on the fly. No more need for multiple dedicated servers and complex configurations. Now you can build yourself a monster server without the headaches involved in setting up your own cluster. Our cloud can be thought of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) where we have done the heavy lifting, research, development and fine-tuning of the system so that you can simply load your site and get on with “business as usual.”   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

 For Cloud VDS we offer the latest CentOS. However if you prefer an unmanaged VDS, you can choose any OS that you want. For Enterprise Cloud, we offer over 100 different operating system variants and the number grows by the day. We offer all the most popular Linux and Windows systems. If you need it, we probably have it. If we don’t have it, we will put it on the request list for you and let you know when it becomes available.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

 Your data is stored on a secure, clustered SAN array which replicates your data to numerous hard drives and multiple SAN enclosures. Our enterprise SAN can sustain multiple simultaneous hard drive or even entire head device (The enclosures that house the hard drives) failures without any any noticeable difference in service. Our SAN has triple redundant SAN heads in place and running at all times and each head contains 20 hard drives to protect and replicate your data.   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers

 All servers in our cloud run at least dual, quad-core Intel Xeon processors and boast a minimum 32 gigs of RAM (up to 128 Gigs) per server. Does your current provider or any other provider you know of offer anything close to that? Probably not! Your new cloud server will be better than a typical dedicated server in every way. You will enjoy hot failover services built right in. If one of our enterprise class servers fails, no problem! Other servers will share the load of the missing server until the problematic server can be replaced, and your site will remain online during the entire process. Our network is fully redundant as well, with bandwidth serviced from no less than 5 providers at any given time.

And the thing that makes The GlowHost Cloud so unique… redundant electrical feeds from two isolated electrical grids. If power goes out in one part of the city, the secondary electrical substation will continue to feed the system’s electrical needs. All of this is backed up by two diesel powered emergency electrical generators in case of a catastrophic blackout affecting the entire region surrounding our SSAE 16 Type II data center in Atlanta, Georgia. (As you can imagine, a rarity.)   View our Cloud Servers Side By Side     Ask a Question About Cloud Servers