VPS Hosting

What is VPS Hosting?
Most types of hosting entail storing files and data on a server, an actual piece of hardware housed in a datacenter. On one end of the hosting spectrum, you have shared hosting, where your site lives on a server with thousands of other sites, and they all share resources.

On the other end, you have dedicated hosting, where your site is the only one housed on a single server, and all resources are dedicated to your site alone. Virtual private server (VPS) hosting falls in between those two extremes.

To fully understand what VPS hosting is and how it works, you must first understand what a virtual private server is. Broken down into sections, you have:

• Virtual - Not physical, but in this case, created by or related to software.
• Private - Restricted to your use alone.
• Server - The location where files and data will be stored.

The private part is self-explanatory. But when you put virtual and server together, it should become clearer that rather than a physical server, a virtual server is a server-type environment created by software.

How Does VPS Hosting Work?
This software-created emulation allows a virtual server to exist within a physical server, giving you a private space among the other sites on that server. The virtual private server runs on its own operating system, separate from that upon which the physical server runs. This is also sometimes called partitioning.

So while technically, your site is still on a shared server, the virtual private environment gives you some of the benefits of a dedicated server. If shared hosting is like living in an apartment, then VPS hosting is like having an apartment building all to yourself. Other residents still occupy spaces throughout the complex, but you have more privacy, more space, and more resources reserved solely for your use. Your space has been partitioned from the rest of the larger space and its residents. VPS hosting can be the best of both worlds, depending on your site's needs.

How to Set up VPS Hosting
First, you must decide whether VPS hosting is your ideal option. You must also choose whether you want or need managed or unmanaged hosting, as these options are often available with VPS hosting plans. Once those decisions are made, and you've found the hosting provider you want to use, setting up VPS hosting is simply a matter of signing up and paying in advance for whatever hosting period you choose, usually one year at a minimum.

Once your VPS hosting account is up and running, you'll connect your domain to the account, and your site will be ready for you to install a content management system, or program it by hand, if you have that capability and desire.

How to Choose VPS Hosting
Aside from standard features offered with VPS hosting plans, your selection may simply come down to cost, particularly if you opt for managed hosting, which can add substantial costs, depending on the hosting provider you choose. Make sure you're getting your money's worth, but at the same time, you don't want pay for features or resources you don't really need.

VPS hosting may be a better choice than shared hosting if you plan to build a medium- to large-sized site, or you need to move an existing medium- to large-sized site to a new host. VPS hosting will give your site more storage space for more data, and will allow it to run more quickly and efficiently. This can be especially important for e-commerce sites, or any type of site that sees a high volume of traffic.

Very large enterprise-level sites will usually benefit from dedicated server hosting. Depending on the growth rate of your site, you may opt for that with the thought that your site will "grow into" the vast space and features dedicated hosting offers. However, be careful because it will not be cost-effective to spend more on dedicated hosting you don't really need yet when you can use VPS hosting as an intermediate step.

Do your due diligence to ensure you understand what you need, know what you can afford, and are aware of what you're getting. Also, make use of the hosting provider's sales team to ask questions and gather information before making your choice.

VPS Hosting Benefits
Depending on the hosting provider, you may still get some of the affordability and cost-effectiveness of shared hosting, while also getting features more often available with dedicated hosting.

Some of the benefits of VPS hosting include, but aren't limited to:

• A higher level of security and privacy than that offered by shared hosting
• The ability to reboot your virtual private server when necessary, without affecting other sites housed on the physical server
• Maintained uptime should other sites on the virtual private server go down; unlike a shared server, their failure will not affect your site
• The ability to access the server to upload and install software
• The hosting provider performs all maintenance on the hardware
• You can choose the operating system you want to use
• The ability to host multiple sites on the same virtual private server
• The ability to customize firewall configurations

Note: Although the hosting provider will maintain the hardware, you may need a dedicated system administrator to manage the server and ensure its consistent and efficient functioning.

For additional costs, you may also be able to add features such as more disk space, bandwidth, or RAM, if the hosting provider offers them as separate features. These additional features may also be available in the form of plan upgrades.

If your host offers more than one VPS hosting plan, be sure to choose the one that's going to offer you the most benefit for your site as it currently exists, and as you anticipate your site to be in the near future, say, six months to a year. This gives you a little room to grow.

If you underestimate your site's growth or needs, you can always upgrade to a higher hosting plan should it become necessary sooner than you anticipate.

VPS Hosting Limitations
Although you have your own virtual private space, because of the fact that your site is still housed on a shared physical server, and thousands of other sites are also hosted on that server, resources may still be limited to a certain degree.
A virtual private server may experience limited*:
» RAM
» Processor Time
» Disk Space (Storage)
» Bandwidth

Again, some of these limitations may be alleviated by paying for additions to your hosting account. In addition, some applications and software may not perform well - or run on your site at all - if they're not compatible with virtualized environments. If you know ahead of time what programs, applications, and software you'll need to install and run, double check with your hosting provider to ensure compatibility.

*It's not uncommon for hosting providers to offer "unlimited" features - email accounts, disk space, bandwidth, etc. However, these features are only unlimited insofar as your usage does not put an unreasonable burden on shared resources, and you do not abuse these "unlimited" features.

One word of caution: Be wary of hosting providers that offer VPS hosting at roughly the same prices as shared hosting. While it's still a cost-effective option, and not as expensive as dedicated server hosting, VPS hosting should still cost a bit more than shared hosting. Its pricing should fall somewhere between the costs of shared and dedicated hosting. If it doesn't, the hosting provider may not offer enough features to make it worthwhile, or may be intentionally failing to disclose that lack of features. Always do your research when selecting a hosting provider.

If you're ready to go beyond shared hosting, but maybe you're not quite ready for the power and cost of dedicated server hosting, consider VPS hosting as an interim solution. Depending on the type of site you have, you may even find it's the ideal option for your site now, and for the foreseeable future.

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