Cloud hosting is a type of dedicated hosting where resources such as CPU, RAM, and disk space are entirely reserved for one or more websites. In practice, it is a virtual machine with its own operating system, resources, and software, created through the virtualization of a large physical server. Ergonet’s cloud hosting is dedicated to a single website; this is an optimal configuration because it guarantees high performance and security, maximum customization, and more effective optimization of the web application, making it perfect for hosting for WordPress, WooCommerce, Moodle, and custom applications.

The key difference between shared hosting and cloud hosting essentially lies in the amount and degree to which the allocated resources to the hosted websites are shared. These characteristics also account for the price difference between these two hosting solutions.

Shared hosting, as the name implies, is a hosting solution shared with other users and significantly more affordable, because resources such as CPU, RAM, and disk space are shared with other websites hosted on the same virtual server. The hosting provider allocates a certain amount of CPU, RAM, and disk space to this virtual server so that all websites can function properly in most cases and based on the characteristics of the hosted web applications—such as showcase sites, e-commerce sites, e-learning platforms, and so on. In shared hosting, however, the resources allocated to the virtual server do not cover 100% of scenarios. That is, there is no guarantee that, at any given moment, there will be sufficient resources to handle a simultaneous traffic spike from one or more websites, precisely because of the shared nature of the service.

Unlike shared hosting, cloud hosting is a fully dedicated hosting solution, as the virtual server’s resources—such as CPU, RAM, and disk space—are not shared with any other customers. In cloud hosting, CPU, RAM, and disk space are always guaranteed because they are specifically allocated to the virtual server—that is, the cloud hosting environment—where a single website is hosted. For this reason, Ergonet’s managed cloud hosting is the ideal solution for those who need high performance and guaranteed web security for their website, whether it’s an e-commerce site, an e-learning platform, a news portal, or a custom web application.

Cloud hosting is a dedicated virtual server that guarantees optimal performance and security because it is not shared with any other customers; however, since it has its own operating system and software, it requires constant maintenance and updates to ensure the system remains high-performing and protected against software security vulnerabilities. It’s a bit like having a laptop with an operating system (such as Windows) that needs to be kept up to date, with the difference that cloud hosting doesn’t have a graphical user interface like Windows, but must be managed via the command line by an expert systems administrator with knowledge of networking, security, the Linux operating system, databases, PHP, and so on.

To manage a virtual server on your own, you must therefore be an experienced IT systems administrator or hire an external technician who specializes in this field.

When you choose Ergonet’s managed cloud hosting, our expert system administrators will continuously handle service monitoring, updates, and server maintenance on your behalf. Specifically, the system management included in our cloud hosting service comprises:

• Updating the server's operating system and kernel
• Software updates for server components such as Apache, MariaDB, PHP, NGINX, caching systems, and related system libraries/extensions.
• new software implementations, such as the addition of a new version of PHP
• Monitoring of key services (PHP, MariaDB, Apache, NGINX, Network, Firewall) to detect and resolve any issues, such as software errors or hacker attacks

With Ergonet's managed cloud hosting, you'll have the power and security of a dedicated cloud platform at your disposal, but managing the service from your customer portal will remain as simple as managing any shared hosting service.

Compared to competitor services, where cloud hosting also includes a commercial control panel such as CPanel® or Plesk®, which not only provides the hosting management interface but also email services, Ergonet cloud hosting specializes in providing the exclusive web services your site needs to function properly.

In fact, with Ergonet services, the email service and the WebPanel control panel, which allows customers to manage their hosting service, are not installed on the cloud hosting platform but are managed separately by external servers. This type of infrastructure approach enables more efficient and specialized resource configurations (CPU and RAM) for cloud hosting, ensuring high performance for customers even with smaller resource packages—which are therefore more cost-effective compared to the average cloud hosting services offered by other Italian and international hosting providers.

There are several caching and resource optimization systems available. You will have access to:

• Direct access to static files from an NGINX web server in reverse proxy mode
• PHP-FPM mode for the PHP interpreter
• Anti-bot and anti-brute-force system
• CloudFlare CDN
• Opcache Cache for PHP
• Memcached and Redis object caches to speed up database query execution
• Page caching based on Varnish Cache
• Page caching based on NGINX Cache

The use of each caching system is fully customizable and will depend on its compatibility with your web application.

Yes, every Cloud Hosting plan includes 100 email accounts with professional antivirus/antispam protection, IMAP/SMTP/POP3 protocols, and webmail with a calendar, address book, and two-factor authentication.

The email platform is completely separate from the web platform and comes with 10GB of disk space dedicated exclusively to your email accounts by default; this space does not count toward the storage quota purchased for cloud hosting. You can increase both the number of email accounts and the disk space allocated to email by purchasing upgrade packages available in the following ways:

• Additional email storage: €20.95 + VAT per year for every 10 GB of additional storage
• Additional email accounts: €10 + VAT per year for every 10 additional email accounts

You can increase your cloud hosting disk space by purchasing upgrade packages available in the following ways:

• Additional disk space: €6 + VAT per month for every 20 GB of additional space

Please note that the email platform is completely separate from the web platform and comes with 10 GB of disk space by default, dedicated solely to your email accounts; this space does not count toward the storage quota purchased for your cloud hosting.

The number of concurrent visitors a website can handle on a cloud hosting platform depends on many factors related to the web application, the site’s operational logic, the number of plugins or extensions used to develop the website, and the CPU/RAM resources that will be purchased.

The information you provide to our sales team during the pre-sales phase will be crucial in determining how much CPU and RAM to allocate to your cloud hosting, based on the number of users who visit your website daily or simultaneously.

During the free trial included with every purchase, we’ll be able to determine exactly how much CPU and RAM to allocate to your website. We’ll then work with you—even in real time—to identify the best combination of resources and caching systems to assign. This way, you can’t go wrong: you’ll only purchase the resources you actually need, without running the risk of overspending relative to your requirements.

Yes, cloud hosting includes daily backups of files, databases, and email accounts. We retain backup archives of files and databases for 60 days, and they are available in the WebPanel customer portal for self-service restoration. Daily backups of email account contents, on the other hand, are retained for seven days.

Yes, it is possible to access externally created databases. You will also have the option (not mandatory) to configure access for a single static IP address, thereby optimally securing access to your database.