Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

Originally posted. December 4, 2009

Are you facing huge down time with your current web hosting provider? Switched from one web hosting provider to another n numerous occasions. Are you paying huge amount to your web hosting provider for shred web hosting? Might consider many times, you can bare a dedicated server (Not Shared Hosting) for you in the same cost. Do you have the ambition and man power to control and manage your own web server? Let me tell you one thing this is not going to be an easy job for you.

If your answer is ‘yes and you want to host your web server in your own control’, then you may check the price list from various providers about the dedicated web server. If you are a company who is having 10-20 domains for the business or you have a portal as compare to 20 static websites than no need to waste your money in dedicated server hosting, evaluate a VPS (Virtual Private Server) performance for your business. If your requirement is not huge or dynamic VPS can server you in such as manner you are assuming and in cheaper cost even.

When prepared for your own web server you should be technically inclined and must have basic knowledge of operating systems, for better understanding the technical terms, As;

- How to setup a server environment (DNS, IIS, Apache, etc)

- How to setup a mail server environment (MDAEMON, IMAIL, POSTFIX etc)

- Have basic knowledge of database and scripting (PHP, PERL, JAVA, MSSQL,      MYSQL, etc)

- Be familiar with running technologies (.NET, JOOMLA, etc)

- Have a basic understanding of hardware and server components      (FIREWALL, SPAM WALL, etc)

Mention below pros and cons will give you clear idea about to host a own web server.

Pros :

- Entire responsibility will be yours.

- You’ll have to not pay any monthly hosting fees/accounts.

- You can host unlimited websites, mail accounts, databases, etc.

- The dedicated server will be completely belongs to you (Non-shared    environment)

- You should be more aware for the monitoring and all more bandwidth.

- No more waiting on someone else time.

- Incompetence no longer exists.

- Complete control in your hand.

Cons :

- No technical support team.

- Exhausting at times.

- Faced with server/hardware problems.

- ISP business account (monthly business/broadband expense).

- If server goes down then the website is offline.

- Software, hardware, and network expenses.

Now as mentioned above that a VPS can also serve to you for your purpose. VPS (Virtual Private Server), also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS), provides the platform, RD (Remote Desktop) and features of a dedicated server for the customers to share multiple web hosting. At first look it will sound opposing, how can you have a dedicated server if it is being shared by multiple users? Isn’t that a regular shared or virtual hosting environment? It is true that with a VPS you can share system resources like the CPU and RAM with other users but the resources are allocated in such a way that you cannot complain that the system has anyone else sharing with you, much like a dedicated server. So hardware are usually setup in such a way that each VPS client is only allowed to use an allocated percent of DISK, CPU, RAM and bandwidth meaning that you will get the resources always assigned to you.

Advantages of Virtual Private Server (VPS) web hosting:

Most dedicated hosting users would rather have complete control of their server. They don’t like to be hosted on a server where already hundreds of other users are present and using the same resource and cause the server environment to be unstable in any terms. In other way the Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a very attractive dedicated hosting solution for large web hosting clients who would like the stability of a dedicated server but on cheaper rates. As already mentioned above, that resources setup is done in such a way that each person can only use what belongs to them, your site will be more consistent because it will always have the same amount of access to the DISK, CPU, RAM and bandwidth. Virtual Private Servers are also more secure in case If a website on the server is hacked, the hackers will not able to access 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:

Well, almost – as is the case with every other type of hosting service, not all providers setup or define Virtual Private Servers, also known as Virtual Dedicated Servers, the exact same way. You must make sure that your provider guarantees that their setup is robust enough to handle operations at any circumstances of failure. A trick used by many providers in the reselling and shared space is ‘overselling’. What this means is selling more in terms of services than what physically available, with the hope that the end users wouldn’t use up all the service that were advertised to them. In the VPS setup this can be a bit more 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 you might be able to access more resources during peak or spike periods but since the VPS environment limits you to your slice of the server resources, it can be a drawback.
Apart from storage space and bandwidth you must also deal with CPU cycles and RAM. It is somewhat harder to figure out how much CPU time or RAM you might need, so seek out a Dedicated or VPS hosting provider that will provide you with some benchmarks and the ability to upgrade or downgrade the VPS service if needed.

Conclusion:

VPS allows complete control of your resources.
VPS allows you to run web applications without affecting anyone else.
VPS is cheaper than dedicated hosting, expensive than shared.

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