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Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
By admin | November 1, 2007
Virtual Private Server (VPS), also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS), provides the features of a dedicated server for multiple web hosting customers in the form of “virtual computers”. Resources are usually divided by software in such a way that each hosting client is only allowed to use an allocated percent, meaning that resources assigned to you will always be available to you. Each virtual server hosting account looks and acts like a dedicated server.
Advantages of Virtual Private Server (VPS) web hostingVPS is ideal for hosting customers who would rather have complete control of their server environments. Since at the same time most websites don’t need a dedicated server, the Virtual Private Server (VPS) alternative is a very attractive niche hosting solution for a fairly large chunk of web hosting clients who would like the stability of a dedicated server but on a smaller scale. With the resources setup in such a way that each person can only use what is allocated to them, your site will be more consistent because it will always have the same amount of access to the CPU, memory, and bandwidth. Virtual Private Servers are also more secure since even as the clients share the memory and CPU time,. If a website on the server is hacked, the hackers will only have access to that particular file system and would not harm the other websites. A VPS is also much cheaper than a dedicated server.
Disadvantages of Virtual Private Server (VPS) web hosting
A client must make sure that the VPS provider guarantees that their setup is robust enough to handle operations at a peak level. A trick used by many providers in the reselling and shared space is ‘overselling’. In the realm of VPS this can be a bit serious, since at least the expectation is that you are operating in a more robust environment and many clients could be running more intensive applications like message boards or custom web applications. A shortfall of resources could end up causing problems for everyone hosted on such a server, therefore negating the benefits of a VPS. In a shared or dedicated environment one might be able to access more resources during peak or spike periods but since the VPS environment limits the client to his slice of the server resources, it can be a drawback.
Apart from storage space and bandwidth you have to deal with CPU cycles and RAM. It would be a good idea to find out how many other virtual servers are running on a physical server (contention ratio) as this will determine the ratio of CPU time and memory each virtual server can realistically expect. It is somewhat harder to figure out how much CPU time or RAM one might need, so it is essential to seek out a hosting provider that will provide some benchmarks and the ability to upgrade or downgrade the VPS service if needed.
Topics: Unix Web Hosting, Windows Web Hosting |
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