Cloud Hosting: Where is my Web Site Actually Located?

Yes, your web site is “on the Internet,” but you may also be interested to know where physically your web site sits.

If you run your own web server, it obviously lives in your own server, wherever that may be. But running your own web server is a time-consuming and potentially hazardous activity. If you’re a small company and don’t have the manpower and redundant infrastructure that larger ones have, you risk substantial amounts of downtime.

For this reason, most small to midsize companies, as well as individuals, run their web sites on servers maintained by someone else. In most cases, those third party providers will tell you where their data centers are located, and you will have a fairly good idea of exactly where your web site lives.

Some larger hosting providers have multiple data centers, but even then, you can choose to host your web site at the data center located closest to the geographical area from which you will get the most visitors. If for example, your hosting provider has data centers in New York and Los Angeles, and you do most of your business on the East Coast, then the choice is obvious. Usually all that is required is that you select a checkbox when you purchase the service to tell the company which data center you prefer.

In the case of cloud hosting, there are different considerations. A “cloud” is just a virtualized group of servers, which may actually still exist in a single data center. The term “public cloud” and “private cloud” also causes some confusion as to exact location. “Private cloud” refers to a proprietary data center’s own cloud; some large corporations run their own corporate clouds, for example. A “public cloud” is simply a cloud maintained by a third party data center and made available to the public.

The term “public” does not necessarily mean that the cloud itself is unlimited in scope and is scattered all across the Internet; it can and usually is still maintained in a single data center, the difference is only one of access. In cloud hosting, you are less likely to be able to pinpoint your web site down to the individual physical server within that private cloud, but in most cases that is irrelevant. Your cloud hosting provider’s web site will provide you with information as to the location of their data centers, and what security measures are taken to regulate access and ensure privacy.

Links

• Best Cloud Hosting Providers