If you’re like most folks, you’re probably hosting your websites on a shared server. That means you have to share that server with scores, and sometimes hundreds of other people. So when they misbehave, or create problems, you end up paying the price in terms of speed, access, security, and down time on your own account.
While shared hosting can seem cheap, you actually pay extra for the lack of customization, the unreliable service, the lack of security, the lack of backups or compromised backups, the limited bandwidth and system resources, the frequent down time, the slow load times and more.
Now imagine having your own dedicated server – fast, responsive, secure, reliable, and configured just the way you want it.
No we’re not talking about expensive, bloated, dedicated servers that cost an arm, a leg, and one eye, we’re talking about a Virtual Private Server (VPS).
VPS is a term coined by Internet hosting services which refers to the use of a virtual machine . A virtual machine is functionally equivalent to a physical computer, but is mimicked in software and represents the state-of-the-art, cutting edge future of web hosting.
Here are a few things that may surprise and amaze you about Virtual Private Servers…
1) Virtual Private Servers can be a lot more secure than shared servers. With a VPS you will no longer have to put up with incompetent, middle-of-the-road security that leaks like a sieve. This is especially important if you’re doing any kind of eCommerce work, providing downloads, secure web page administration, membership areas, chat areas, or just hate having your website hacked by a 15 year old with too much time on his hands. A Virtual Private Server gives you absolute isolation and security.
2) Virtual Private Servers can run their own operating system which can be independently controlled, rebooted, and adjusted at any time. In a word, you have full control over your server’s administration. So if you want to run a cron job once a second – you can. If you want to provide reseller accounts – you can. If you want to install you favorite blog software, shopping cart, chat software, IRC application, streaming service, Internet radio broadcast, or favorite programming language – you can. If you want absolute control over email, MySQL, Apache, PHP, Ruby On Rails, Pear, account and visitor statistics, the way errors are handled, leech protection, and much, much more – you’ve got it. Virtual Private Servers put you in full control at all times with everything you’ve ever wanted in a web hosting service at your fingertips.
3) With a VPS you can host as many websites on each account as you want, or even provide multiple reseller accounts – all at no extra charge. Even though VPS solutions are incredibly cheap, think how nice it would be to spin off a reseller account or two and let your customers pay the monthly fee for your entire account.
4) Everything you need to run your Virtual Private Server is FREE and is easily obtainable as open source software. And many VPS providers not only equip you with this software, but with a ton of other tools as well. You’ll even get complete root access – something a shared server company would never consider providing you.
5) It’s impossible for anyone else to crash your VPS. Virtualization technology provides complete and absolute isolation from one VPS to another. Other VPS’s can’t even make your VPS hiccup! And while shared server technology can have a couple hundred users, virtual technology is usually limited to 30 or fewer users.
6) Virtual Private Servers are simply faster. With shared hosting, you’re fighting with hundreds of other websites for resources which can slow your machine to a crawl and often damage your load times and data delivery. With Virtual Private Servers however, you have your own virtual machine, in its own private partition, with ALL the machines private resources at your disposal – guarantying faster load times and better over all performance.
7) Remember the old adage, “You get what you pay for?” In the case of cheap vps hosting you don’t get what you pay for – you get way better than you pay for. When was the last time you heard that? Here’s one more tip: Virtual Private Servers can cost less than many shared hosting accounts!
While the features and services of VPS hosting will vary depending on your provider, you can finally have your own private web server, run just the way you want it – fast, reliable and secure – at a cost that will make you say “Wow! not “Whoa!”