How to Choose the Right Cloud Host: Inside Trusted Cloud’s Rating System

When the cloud concept first emerged 30 years ago, some saw it as the future while others thought it would be a fleeting trend. Today, cloud services have become as essential as water, electricity, and gas, and domestic cloud vendors have joined the serverless wave, launching various cloud host products.

With the growing number of users, several challenges arise: which cloud host is more stable, which offers higher availability, and what dimensions should be considered to choose the most suitable provider?

The Trusted Cloud initiative introduced a "cloud host" grading system in March 2017, building on its certification to assign star levels to cloud hosts. The grading primarily assesses availability, supplemented by monitored real‑world performance.

According to the grading, cloud hosts are classified into seven levels: three‑star, three‑star+, four‑star, four‑star+, five‑star, five‑star+, and six‑star (still under evaluation). Different levels reflect significant variations in availability and scale, catering to distinct customer groups.

For example, a five‑star host maintains at least 99.95% yearly availability, offers extensive operational experience and strong disaster recovery, making it suitable for financial institutions. Four‑star hosts provide high stability and security for large enterprises such as government and corporate clients. Three‑star hosts meet basic operational needs for small‑to‑medium businesses, while two‑star hosts have lower disaster recovery capabilities but are more affordable for individual developers.

The grading process first determines a base star level by evaluating actual availability, operational years, resource scale, and service agreement commitments. All four metrics must meet the requirements for the target star level. Then, a "plus" capability is assessed based on security, operational management, resource allocation, and data‑center disaster recovery to potentially upgrade the host to a higher tier.

Major cloud providers—including Tencent Cloud, China Telecom, China Mobile, UCloud, Kingsoft Cloud, and Huayun Data—have participated in the evaluation, with nearly a hundred host nodes assessed. Hosts rated as five‑star+, five‑star, four‑star+, or four‑star constitute only 15.1% of the sample, highlighting the rigor of the Trusted Cloud standards.

Enterprises can voluntarily apply for host grading; after a year of monitoring, the Trusted Cloud workgroup initiates the assessment and publishes the results on its website, along with an updated certification.

The transparent, professional, and neutral grading provides enterprises with a reliable basis for selecting cloud hosts and promotes orderly development of the cloud service industry.