In the web hosting field, cloud architecture describes using different servers for each and every service that's a part of the internet hosting service. In other words, your files, databases and emails will not run on the same machine, but on separate ones. Such a setup leads to higher uptime and much better overall performance since only a single type of system processes will work on the server, so the system resources will be utilized as effectively as possible. A lot of web hosting service providers nowadays promote their cloud services, but what they provide is not genuine cloud architecture for the simple reason that the hosting control panels they use are not designed to work on anything different from an individual server. When everything is run on one machine, an issue with a single service may take the whole server offline. In this light, when you are looking for cloud hosting, you should verify whether the service you will get is in fact a cloud one or if it is a marketing trick.