Clustered Web Hosting

Clustered hosting is a kind of web hosting that distributes the load of hosting across multiple physical devices or node resulting into enhanced availability and decreases the chances of one service. Several of large websites operate on clustered hosting solutions, for instance, large discussion forums will tend to run using multiple front-end web servers with multiple back-end database servers.

Why is clustered web hosting better than conventional hosting?

Usually, several hosting infrastructures are based on the pattern of single physical machine usage to host multiple hosted services in range including web server, database, email, FTP and others. A generic single physical machine is not only a single point of failure, but also has restricted capacity for traffic. This approach can be difficult for a busy website or for a website that is experiencing temporary bursts in traffic.

Perks of clustering web servers across several machines

By clustering web servers across multiple hardware machines and using load balancing, single points of failure can be eliminated. Availability of a website will be enhanced and other web services will also improve beyond that of an ordinary single server hosting. Periodic reboots for software upgrades are possible with single server whereas you can lurch restarts in a clustered platform of services such that the service is still available whilst still upgrading all necessary machines in the cluster. In many forms, clustered hosting is somewhat similar to cloud hosting.

What are the advantages of clustered web hosting?

Here are some of the advantages of clustered web hosting:

Speed: Websites hosted in a clustered hosting environment load much faster than those hosted on single servers. This is because the RAM, CPU, and storage are distributed in a manner that the site has all the resources to work in an efficacious manner.

High Availability: Since resources from multiple servers are available to a website, the risk of a downtime is almost eliminated. If one of the servers goes down, others keep the site up and running.

Scalability: In a clustered hosting environment, it is easy to add or remove one or more servers. As a result, if a site demands more resources, the same can be made available instantly.

Efficiency: If the hosting provider needs to maintain the servers, it can do so without requiring unplugging the servers. As a result, clients continue to enjoy quality service without any interruption.

Security: Given the design of the web hosting cluster, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for a hacker to figure out where exactly a site has been hosted. As a result, sites on server clusters are extremely secure.