What Is a Cloud Server: Definition, Types, Uses & Benefits

While cloud hosting services are a form of web hosting, web hosting doesn’t necessarily involve cloud hosting. Web hosting could use virtual private servers (VPS), dedicated hosting, and shared hosting instead of cloud technologies. A public cloud server is hosted by a third-party cloud service providers to many different users and clients who share the same resource pool. One of the major benefits of cloud servers is that they reduce costs by eliminating the need for companies to buy and maintain their hardware.

Global infrastructure

Cloud deployment models that include only traditional infrastructure elements such as virtual servers, storage and networking are called IaaS. PaaS products provide customers a cloud computing environment with software and hardware tools for application development, which are powered by cloud servers, storage and networking resources. In the SaaS model, the vendor delivers a complete, fully managed software product to paying customers through the cloud. A cloud server is a virtualized server that runs in the cloud on infrastructure owned by a cloud service provider. Traditionally, organizations had to purchase and maintain their own physical servers.

Cloud Servers: Definition, Types, How They Work, Uses & Benefits

They also offer pay-as-you-go pricing, so you only pay for the resources used and can easily scale resources up or down based on demand. It typically provides access to networking features, computers (virtual or on dedicated hardware), and data storage space. IaaS gives you the highest level of flexibility and management control over your IT resources.

1. This method comes with many benefits for companies that work with a cloud partner.
2. Network infrastructure connects the virtual servers to the internet, providing users with remote access.
3. Being able to perform these roles on an occasional or an as-needed basis is very useful, but can be complex.

What is cloud computing?

In an increasingly remote world, one of the cloud’s big draws is that it allows for business operations to continue regardless of location. Cloud servers can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. This enables remote work, collaboration, and access to applications and data on the go. Hope this article was able to help you understand what a cloud server is and how they work in detail. If you are looking to enhance your cloud computing skills and knowledge, we would highly recommend you to check Simplilearn’s Cloud Computing Courses. These courses, in collaboration with Caltech CTME, UT Dallas, IIT can help you hone the right skills and make you job-ready in no time.

Unlike bare-metal computers, cloud server specs can be quickly scaled up and down as needed. When assessing servers, you should have an idea of how these specifications will impact your needs. The market for these offerings has changed considerably over the past few decades. With cloud servers, how do cloud servers work organizations only pay for what they need and reduce the expense that comes with maintaining server hardware. We classify cloud servers by their configuration and how they map to the underlying physical server infrastructure. Yes, a virtual private network (VPN) can be used to securely connect to cloud servers over an encrypted connection.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Some companies call a private cloud an internal cloud or corporate cloud. Public cloud infrastructure is when a third-party provider manages all underlying hardware, computing resources, maintenance, and availability. You don’t need to buy or own any of your own servers and can scale as demand requires. The difference between a cloud server and a traditional server, often referred to as a bare metal server, lies in the location and management of the server hardware. A traditional server is a physical computer system that an organization owns and maintains either on premises or in the data center where it operates.

The natural assumption is that everyone chooses a cloud server that falls in the “sweet spot” where the three circles overlap, but server decisions are not made in a vacuum. Completely valid hosting decisions can target every spot on that graph. This process typically starts with specifying the desired server attributes—such as CPU, memory, storage, and network capabilities. Cloud servers offer benefits like flexibility, scalability, cost savings, reliability and easy access from anywhere.