What is a Virtual Private Server and how does it work?
VPS hosting is usually a next step for many users who start out their business on a shared hosting plan and now need an upgrade. If you are unfamiliar with what Virtual Private Server is, how it works and how it can help your business, it is much easier to understand it by comparing it to Shared Hosting.
VPS, in essence, combines the best of Shared and Dedicated hosting features to give your business an upgrade.
How is VPS hosting similar to Shared Hosting?
In one respect only, like Shared hosting, you will be sharing the same server with a number of other users. The physical server is virtually partitioned into private sections so that each section has its own storage, memory and processing limits.
How is VPS hosting different to Shared Hosting?
1. Privacy and complete isolation:
Unlike in Shared Hosting, where issues from other websites can affect your own site, when you host your website on a Virtual Private Server, your website performance will remain unaffected.
2. Greater control:
Unlike in Shared Hosting, VPS hosting allows you root access to your server to install whatever applications you require.
3. Greater reliability:
Because you have an isolated environment, you are guaranteed all resources such as CPU,RAM, HDD and bandwidth allocated to your VPS package-quite unlike Shared hosting where, of course, all resources are apportioned.
4. Greater security:
If a hacker attacks a website on a shared hosting server, other websites are likely to be affected as well. However, on a Virtual Private Server-issues on other website spaces will not spillover to your own.
Why choose a vps for your business:
- You get the benefits of a dedicated server – with a more affordable price
- VPS hosting is more flexible than shared hosting
- VPS offers more security than shared hosting
- Get more stability than shared hosting – other website performances will not affect your own
- Root access!
- Less technical know-how required than for a dedicated server (though more than shared hosting)
Virtual Private Server Hosting terms explained:
- Virtualization:
As the name suggests, ‘virtualization’ involves creating a virtual version of something- in this context, a virtual version of an OS in a container such as a server. Virtualization allows the server to have multiple OSs for each user.
- Hypervisor:
The device or software that creates the virtualization configuration on the server.
- Virtuozzo:
Virtuozzo is one type of approach to virtualization that runs one single OS kernel and then exports that functionality to each partitioned section on the server.
- KVM:
KVM is another approach to virtualization where each partitioned section functions independently of the host node. Unlike Virtuozzo which relies on the host node’s kernel.
There are several advantages and disadvantages to both the virtualization approaches. Choosing one over the other really depends on what you really need for your business. Few hosting providers offer both options. ResellerClub is one that offers both approaches on it’s platform and is worth checking out.
We hope we’ve given you a basic understanding of Virtual Private Server hosting. Let us know if you plan to move to VPS hosting soon or if you already have it, how well is it working for your website?
