>VPS stands for “virtual private server”. The term is used to describe the type of server that runs and performs like a physical, standalone server but is in actuality one of multiple e-servers running on one, shared physical server. In other words, many “mini-servers” are created on one big server. Each VPS will have its own operating system that runs independently without affecting or being affected by the other VPS’ performance on the same server. Each instance of VPS will have its own allotted CPU, disk space and memory; of course their sizes will be limited by how much of the main physical server’s resources have been allotted to the particular instance.
VPS environments are made possible by using virtualization software. InMotion Hosting and HostGator, two of the best VPS hosting providers on the internet today, use Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to create their VPS environments. The individual environments that are created using this software are called “containers” while the portions of the physical server each of these containers are assigned are known as “nodes”. When website owners login to their accounts, they are given access to a control panel that allows them to perform server administration tasks like starting, stopping, rebooting and reloading the assigned containers as well as monitoring the performances of software that have been installed in the VPS by the customers.
Who Should Use VPS Hosting?
VPS hosting is the perfect hosting solution for website owners that need to have more control over their hosting environment. They are usually tech-savvy people who know their way around servers and their operating systems. They also have websites that have a lot of “moving parts”, which require a database to fetch data from and need to be updated at set intervals or those that simply need to be tweaked, tuned and modified often to improve their performance. This makes it vital for the customer to have hands-on control of their hosting environment and this makes them ideal VPS hosting clients.
On the other hand, they could simply be the type of customers that do not want to share their hosting environment with other websites for fear of having their sites’ performances being negatively affected by that of the others – the hogging of bandwidth and CPU by bigger and more popular sites, for example.
What are the Advantages of VPS Hosting?
1. Root Access: website administrators are able to work directly on the server environment of their websites, allowing them the option to do whatever they want to with it – just like they were working on their own servers. HostGator gives its clients full access to their VPS – absolute freedom.
2. Custom Jobs: a customer can install whatever version of server applications that they want on their VPS’. Everything from web server to middleware and databases are what the owners need them to be – again, just like they were running their own server. This allows the customer to work in an environment that they are familiar with. After all, each application and software they have in their container is there because they installed it. There are no unknown factors that might interfere with the smooth running of their site – whatever was installed they will know about.
3. Unshared RAM: each VPS server has its own RAM, meaning no other site will “steal” processing speed from another one just because it needs it. On the contrary, InMotion Hosting has a rather unique feature that makes it possible to allot more RAM to a site that might suddenly require it. Called “Burstable RAM”, the hosting provider says that it allows a website to “take a sudden hit in traffic which results in increased resource usage without it going down or being suspended”. A “RAM lifeline”, one can almost say.
4.Stability & Security: on a shared hosting server, there is the possibility of one site slowing down and crashing the server and taking all the other sites down with it. A website that is running in its own VPS container will not be affected by the crashing of another site. If a site crashes, it goes down alone. Also, the probability of another user on the same server accessing the files or data of another are next to nil – as long as the client makes sure that all security features are in place on their VPS server – because every client is in their own virtual world.
5. Less Expensive than Dedicated Server: the cost of a VPS account is cheaper than that of a fully dedicated hosting plan. This is because the overall running cost the server is shared among the clients that are on it. For example, one of the popular VPS hosting packages on InMotion Hosting is priced at just $29.99 per month, a great price to pay for one’s own server.
6. Availability of Support: If a customer were to run their own server they would be expected to be their own support. After all, whatever mess the customers make, they should be able to get out of on their own. But, in the case of VPS hosting, the hosting providers offer support to their clients – just like they would with any of their other hosting options. A webmaster might get stuck doing something and all he or she would need to do is contact support and get the help they need – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
6. Scalability is Easy: in fact, scalability is just a matter of clicking and rebooting. The VPS client has no hardware to worry about. Should there be a requirement for more disk space or RAM, all that is required is to ask the web hosting providers to allot the resources (by expanding the node) and, when done, simply reboot the container – as simple as that.
7. Disaster Recovery is a Breeze: if any or even all containers were to crash on a VPS hosting server, recovery would be quick and simple. The VPS software (Parallels Virtuozzo Containers) can be configured to automatically create a backup of everything that is done on one VPS server on another one. If one were to crash, the backup can immediately be used to take up the slack.
8. It is Green: our planet needs all the help it can get and running a VPS server instead of a physical server conserves a lot in terms of power, space and cooling. When compared to dedicated server hosting, VPS hosting is a godly endeavor.
