¶ Hosting Websites and Applications in the Cloud — Step-by-Step Guide
Cloud hosting means running your website or application on cloud servers instead of a local computer or physical server.
The cloud provider manages hardware, networking, and availability, while you manage your app.
- High availability and uptime
- Easy scalability (increase or decrease resources)
- Pay only for what you use
- Secure and reliable infrastructure
¶ 3. Main Components of Cloud Hosting
- Virtual Machine / App Service – Runs your application
- Storage – Stores files, images, backups
- Database – Stores application data
- Networking – Public IP, DNS, load balancer
- Security – Firewall, SSL, access control
Examples:
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Sign up on the cloud provider portal
- Verify email and payment method
- Access the cloud dashboard
- Choose operating system (Linux/Windows)
- Select server size (CPU, RAM)
- Choose region (closest to users)
- Assign public IP address
- Open firewall ports (80 for HTTP, 443 for HTTPS)
- Configure DNS domain
Common choices:
- Apache
- Nginx
- Node.js
- Python Flask/Django
- Upload files using FTP or Git
- Configure application settings
- Connect database if required
- Install SSL certificate (HTTPS)
- Configure firewall rules
- Set access permissions
¶ Step 8: Test and Go Live
- Open domain or IP in browser
- Monitor performance
- Scale resources when traffic grows
You want to host a portfolio website on a Linux cloud server.
- Create an AWS EC2 Linux VM
- Assign a public IP address
- Open port 80 (HTTP) in firewall
- Install Apache web server:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2
- Upload your website files to:
/var/www/html
- Access your site using:
http://your-public-ip
Your website is now live on the cloud.
- Increase server RAM/CPU when traffic increases
- Use load balancer for multiple servers
- Use CDN for faster global delivery
¶ 7. Monitoring and Maintenance
- Monitor CPU, RAM, disk usage
- Take automatic backups
- Apply security updates
Cloud hosting provides a flexible, scalable, and secure way to run websites and applications.
You can start small and grow as your user base increases without changing infrastructure.