Why Cloud Hosting? Cloud hosting allows websites to scale their hosting infrastructure when traffic rises. This is more cost effective and practical than a dedicated server. Instead of paying a flat fee, most providers only charge for the resources you use. This means that if you scale up your site's resources for 2 hours, the cost incurred is only for those two hours. Your business can grow without the worry of buying new servers or expensive hardware. Many of the world's largest hosting providers have opened up their own cloud hosting service. This enables virtually any site, small or large, to be hosted on a resource scalable platform. The following providers are among the most recognized cloud hosting providers in the world. Cloud Hosting Can Accommodate Any Size Website Cloud hosting providers have options that can fit into any website or businesses budget. The pay-as-you-go model offers cost flexibility and most providers offer a discount for a monthly fee. When building a new website or application, cloud hosting allows resources to be scaled up to accommodate traffic. This ensures that there is no downtime and that users can still access the site. This is a very practical way for businesses to start out because they do not need to buy any expensive hardware. All they have to do is spin up a server and scale it to match their needs. It is that simple.

1. Cloud Hosting Providers
Gearing up for success:
Part 1

2. Amazon EC2/ Features
•Auto Scaling: Automatically scale an instance's resources based on
traffic levels.
•Persistent Storage: Store data off of the cloud. This allows data to exist
independently from an instance.
•Multiple Locations: Host instances in the US, Asia, Europe or South
America.
•Elastic IP Addresses: Map IP addresses to any available instance
without waiting for DNS propagation.
•Elastic Load Balancing: Automatically distributes traffic to various EC2
instances, ensuring that one instance does not handle all of the traffic.
•Operating System Choices: Linux and Windows are both supported
and available for use.

3. Amazon EC2/ Instance Sizes
•Standard Instances: Range from 1.7 GB of memory, 1 EC2 compute
unit and 160 GB of storage to 15 GB of memory, 8 EC2 compute units
and 1690 GB of storage.
•Micro Instances: Offers 613 MB of memory, up to 2 EC compute units
and persistent storage only.
•High-Memory Instances: Range from 17.1 GB of memory, 6.5 EC
compute units and 490 GB through storage of 68.4 GB of memory, 26
EC compute units and 1690 GB of storage.
•High-CPU On-Demand Instances: Range from 1.7 GB of memory, 5 EC2
compute units and 350 GB of storage to 7 GB of memory, 20 EC2
compute units and 1690 GB of storage.
•Cluster Compute Instances: Range from 23 GB of memory, 33.5 EC2
compute units and 1690 GB of storage to 60.5 GB of memory, 88 EC2
compute units and 3370 GB of storage.
•Cluster GPU Instances: Offer 22 GB of memory, 33.5 EC2 compute
units and 1690 GB of storage with 2 NVIDIA M2050 GPUs.

4. Amazon EC2/ Pricing
•Standard Instances: $0.080 - $1.200 per hour
•Micro Instances: $0.020 - $0.037 per hour
•High-Memory Instances: $0.450 - $3.200 per hour
•High-CPU On-Demand Instances: $0.165 - $1.400 per hour
•Cluster Compute Instances: $1.300 per hour
•Cluster GPU Instances: $2.100 per hour

5. GoGrid/ Features
•Multiple Data Centers: Provision your server in the United States or
Europe to better accommodate users.
•iPhone Application: Fully control your server with their iPhone App.
•Pay-as-you-go: Only pay for the resources you use. This allows
resource bursting if needed, while only paying for the time that you
used the resources.
•Server Images: Configure your own server or use pre-configured
servers from their exchange system.
•Vertical RAM Scaling: Two clicks will allow you to scale your server's
RAM in just minutes.

6. GoGrid/ Instance Sizes
•Pay-as-you-go Servers: Range from .5 GB of Ram, .5 core processing and 25 GB
disk space to 24 GB of RAM, 25 core processing and 800 GB of disk space.
•Professional Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 2,900 hours of RAM
usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Professional Plus Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 6,500 hours of
RAM usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Business Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 17,500 hours of RAM
usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Business Plus Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 37,200 hours of RAM
usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Corporate Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 75,900 hours of RAM
usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Enterprise Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 100,000 hours of RAM
usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Enterprise Plus Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 205,100 hours of
RAM usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Global Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 350,000 hours of RAM
usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.
•Global Plus Cloud: This tier is a fixed price tier that offers 500,000 hours of RAM
usage. Each hour of 1 GB RAM usage equals 1 hour of RAM usage.

7. GoGrid/ Pricing
•Pay-as-you-go: $0.06 - $2.88 per hour depending on server size.
•Professional Cloud: $199 per month.
•Professional Plus Cloud: $399 per month.
•Business Cloud: $999 per month.
•Business Plus Cloud: $1,999 per month.
•Corporate Cloud: $3,999 per month.
•Enterprise Cloud: $4,999 per month.
•Enterprise Plus Cloud: $9,999 per month.
•Global Cloud: $15,999 per month.
•Global Plus Cloud: $19,999 per month.
Pricing for GoGrid is separated into two sections: hourly and fixed. Fixed is a monthly price,
but gives a drastic discount on RAM usage.

8. Rackspace Cloud/ Features
•DNS Control: Easy DNS interface to control your web properties.
•Image Backups: Scheduled instance backups available.
•Load Balancing: For an additional cost, use load balancing to disperse
traffic among many servers.
•Managed Service Level: Let the experts at Rackspace manage your
server or choose to manage it yourself.
•Pay-as-you-go: Only pay for the resources you use. This allows sites to
expand their resources when they need it.
•Uptime Guarantee: Rackspace offers a 100% network guarantee.

9. RackSpace Cloud/ Instance Sizes
•Cloud Servers: This tier ranges from 256MB of RAM and
10GB of disk space to 30,720 MB of RAM and 1,200GB of
disk space.
•Cloud Sites: The basic plan includes 50GB of storage,
500GB of bandwidth and 10,000 compute cycles per
month.

10. RackSpace Cloud/ Pricing
•Cloud Servers: $0.015 - $2.16 per hour depending on
server size and operating system.
•Managed Cloud Servers: The pay-as-you-go tier can add a
manager level of service for all instances. This cost is $0.12
per hour plus $100 per month per server.
•Cloud Sites: Cloud sites start at $150 per month and if
you go over their limits, you pay: $2 per GB of storage, 18
cents per GB of bandwidth and 2 cents per compute cycle.