The advent of Virtual Private Servers revolutionized the shared website hosting industry. Is a VPS right for any situation, and when does a fully dedicated machine become a must have? This article examines the issues.

Virtual Private Servers remain the latest innovation in the fairly stagnant, technologically speaking, sphere of website hosting. They represent a different way to break up a server and separate user accounts, providing higher levels of control and security that mimic what was previously available only to fully dedicated servers. They can provide solutions for websites regular shared hosting is not able to handle, but still cannot handle every situation. This article looks at what a VPS can do, and when it may be prudent to consider stepping up to a fully dedicated solution.

What is a Virtual Private Server?

First a brief overview of what, exactly a VPS is and why it is able to simulate a dedicated server environment when, in fact, multiple VPS hosting plans can reside on the same server. VPS works because of the way it partitions the user accounts on the server. If you think about how your home computer stores files, most likely you have a single hard drive which has "folders" or directories on it. Inside the folders/directories are individual files. These files are managed by the computer's operating system, which may be Windows or Mac OS. In a regular shared hosting environment all the customer accounts are directories on the same "hard drive", managed by the operating system and made available to the internet via an installed web server, such as Apache. All files in all accounts are managed by the same webserver, share the same applications, and generally compete for the server's attention depending on the popularity of the hosted site.

In a VPS, the accounts are not hosted only in individual directories, but on individual disk drives. Think of a computer with multiple hard drives, or, more commonly, a hard drive and a CD-ROM drive; each one of these drives has its own system of folders/directories, completely separate from the other drive. Via a process called "partitioning" a single hard drive can be divided up into many smaller drives that the operating system sees as unique, separate entities. On a VPS system, individual accounts reside completely within these separate drives. Applications are installed to individual accounts and are not shared between a single group of accounts on one big drive. This provides not only additional security, but additional control, as users can be granted "root access" to their unique drive to install and configure their own environment without effecting the configuration of any other client.

This is how VPS mimics the functionality of dedicated server, by having each account reside on is own "drive", which is roughly equivalent to the single drive that would be found in a basic dedicated server. Software on the VPS server manages the individual drives/accounts to assure the smooth functioning and availability of all accounts on the server. This environment is ideal for those looking for an environment that has root access but are not able to afford a completely dedicated solution. Larger, modern VPS accounts can handle sites that may have required a dedicated server only a few years ago.

Fully Dedicated Solutions

A fully dedicated server is a single machine leased to a single individual for exclusive use. Root access is generally a given in any dedicated environment, allowing the sever to be customized with applications that suit the user's needs. It is this root functionality that VPS hosting provides, but does so on a server that is still "shared" by other users. A dedicated server is completely at the disposal of a single users, to administer as they see fit. Due to the exclusive nature of a dedicated server, they generally require a larger capital investment than regular shared or VPS hosting plans. Many companies will offer a managed dedicated server for an additional cost. This is an important consideration, as most "budget" or low cost dedicated servers are unmanaged, perhaps leaving out even rudimentary technical support. Those unfamiliar with managing a server should strongly consider managed solutions if shopping for dedicated servers.

Though large VPS accounts can take the place of some dedicated solutions, they cannot completely replace them. There are a variety of activities and applications that only a fully dedicated server can adequately handle, such as very large, high traffic databases, large media hosting, and processor intensive web applications. At a very basic level, even simple sites that achieve massive amounts of traffic could outpace a VPS's ability to effectively host them. Mostly though, the combination of high traffic and highly processor intensive, scripted, database driven web applications remains the domain of a fully dedicated server. Some of the largest, most popular websites are hosted on more than one dedicated server in order to handle the load.

A good host will provide a smooth upgrade path between VPS and dedicated solutions. There are a variety of management systems, such as HSP by SWsoft, that can provision both VPS and dedicated servers, and move accounts between these 2 different types of server. This would allow individuals with growing websites to transition from a large VPS to a fully dedicated quickly and easily, without any interruption of service.

Conclusions

Today, VPS hosting can handle some of the duties formerly solely the realm of dedicated servers. They will never completely replace dedicated servers, though, for very high traffic, processor intensive sites. Customers looking for the economy of a VPS should ask their prospective hosting companies if there is a smooth, automated upgrade path between VPS and dedicated hosting. Ideally such a path will allow a successful website to grow and prosper without any interruptions for server changes and site moves.

Putting up a website is easier said than done. To begin with, there are a lot of factors that you should take time to consider. If you're not adept in finding the right resources, you may end up with a fruitless business venture. So instead of simply filling up your website with useful information as well as high quality products and services, make sure that you get to choose the right hosting company. Remember that the Internet is home to many hosting companies. Hence, you should do your research well to meet face to face with the one that's truly best for you. Once you found the right host, it's time to pick the right hosting type.

If your company is still in its infancy stage, it's better to stick to virtual hosting before you shell out any money for a dedicated hosting type. What is virtual hosting, you may ask? Well, when a single server is shared by multiple users, it's what you call the virtual type hosting. As simple as it sounds, there are two forms of virtual hosting, which can be too tricky for a beginner. Knowing the difference between shared hosting and VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting can help you decide which hosting type to go for. But to help you understand these a lot better, here are some facts that you bear in mind:

Shared Hosting: Cheap But Insecure

In shared hosting, every component of your server is being shared - disk space, bandwidth, web server, and all. People who are on shared hosting type can also be categorized into two: starters and penny-pinchers. Starters are composed of personal site owners or small time entrepreneurs who are just testing the waters of e-commerce. They're still at the stage of figuring out how the Internet works in hopes that they'll gain substantial amount of profits from the online industry. The penny-pinchers, on the other hand, are those who are just in it to save money. They're willing to compromise quality for the sake of price. That's why their websites usually turn out to be a disappointment.

This only shows that shared hosting is cheap, alright, but it has a lot disadvantages, too. When it comes to security, stability, and reliability, shared hosting doesn't offer much. Since hundreds of users have access to the same server, it's the most vulnerable to hacks and disruptions. Your account that's only protected by a password can be easily cracked by a good hacker. Aside from that, if your co-users are exceeding their bandwidths, chances are, the system might malfunction or crash due to the overwhelming amount of requests it's handling. As a result, all websites, which run on that server, will suffer from down times.

VPS Hosting: Shared and Dedicated Hosting Fused

In VPS hosting, the server is also shared though it offers to give you a dedicated hosting-like kind of service. How? Simply with the use of a powerful software, web developers have found a way to partition the server's system, so each part could function like a dedicated server. If this sounds confusing, let's try to use an analogy. In shared hosting, there's a house. Inside the house, there are two rooms. One room is occupied by three people, the other is occupied by just one person. Now, the room with three occupants is most similar to shared hosting, while the person who is inside the other room is likened to be on VPS hosting. Although this person shares one house with other people, he gets to have a room of his own.

Needless to say, all deficiencies found in shared hosting are solved by VPS hosting. Security comes from using a software that makes it possible to build walls around one account to keep intruders out. Considering that your space in the server acts independently from other accounts, reliability and stability are not a problem. It simply means that nobody can rob you out of your web resources like bandwidth and disk space.