Trends in Technology

Virtual Private Server (VPS)—What It is and Why It’s Just Like Buying a Car

June 9, 2019 by Bobby J Davidson
Read similar articles in: Uncategorized

Ready to get your website up and running? Looking for a web hosting solution?  Then, you may have heard a lot about virtual private server or VPS. But, you may not be entirely sure what VPS hosting is. Luckily, we’re here to provide you with the answers.


Virtual Private ServerSo, you were on this online forum, asking people to recommend a web hosting solution. All sorts of ideas were floated your way, but nothing clicked. That was until you heard someone say, “Use a VPS. It’s cheaper than most web hosting solutions and still runs better and faster than them”. Possible immediate reaction can be:

“Wow!”

“What a deal.”

“I should have been using VPS a long time ago.”

But, then counter thoughts started to infiltrate your mind:

“Why should I trust what this person says about VPS?”

“If VPS was really the be-all, end-all of web hosting, then I would have heard about it a long time back.”

You wrestle with these thoughts and go on a mission to find everything there is to know about a virtual private server (VPS). You turn to Google for answers, typing in the query box “what is a virtual private server”. The search engine returns a wide range of results, but this further complicates matters for you.

However, a few seconds later, something catches your eye; a link to a page on how subscribing to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) is just like buying a car. You decide to click on it and voila, you’re here.

Since you’ve chosen this write-up over all other pieces of information on the internet, we will make sure that you get all the answers that you seek, starting with what VPS means.

What Is a VPS?

Sold as a service by an internet hosting provider, a virtual private server (VPS) is an isolated machine on a physical server. Depending on the specifications of the physical server, several virtual private servers can be created on a single physical server.

In a technical sense, VPS hosting is both shared hosting and technical hosting as it mimics a dedicated server within a shared hosting environment. A server within a big server with its own copy of operating system and allocated server resources, VPS uses virtualization technology to split a powerful server into multiple virtual servers. Since VPS is a ‘private’ server, you won’t have to share RAM, CPU, or any data with other users.

VPS vs. Dedicated Hosting and Shared Hosting

To truly understand the benefit of using VPS, one needs to compare it with the other two web hosting options available today—dedicated hosting and shared hosting. Considered the most common form of web hosting, shared hosting works well for many website owners but there are several downsides to it, mainly because you have to share the server. If you opt for shared hosting, then the increased traffic on the server is likely to affect your website’s performance.

While you get complete control over your resources and can customize software to meet your individual needs, dedicated hosting can be extremely expensive. For most people, it’s like buying a car they can barely afford. So, unless you’re loaded and have no financial constraints, then it’s best to ditch this hosting option. This leaves us with only one, truly viable web hosting option i.e. VPS hosting.

VPS offers the best of both dedicated hosting and shared hosting. Your website is the only domain allocated to a dedicated virtual server. This means that you have dedicated storage, unlimited bandwidth, powerful CPU, your own operating system, and a scalable RAM. And, all this is available for far less than what you’d have to pay for dedicated hosting.

Why Getting a VPS is Like Buying a Car?

Since you are curious about our title, we’re going to tell you why getting a VPS is like buying a car. When you want to buy a car, what is the first thing you look for? It’s affordability. The same is the case with web hosting. The first thing that website owners look for when choosing a web hosting solution is affordability.

Let’s say you like a car and its features but can’t afford to pay for it in full, what would you do? Give up buying the car? No, you would look for other ways to secure the car, leasing the car being one of them. Leasing a car is just like buying a car. Even though you don’t have complete ownership of the car, you don’t have to share it with anyone.  You and your family are the only ones who get to travel and drive the car.

Similarly, when you opt for VPS hosting, you don’t have complete ownership of the server, but you still get to avail all the features of the server without having to share it with anyone. Now, you could have gone for the more expensive option of getting dedicated hosting, which is like paying for a car in full or shared hosting, which is like sharing a car with a sibling, a neighbor or friend. You get to drive it, sit in it but since it used by more than one person, it may not perform like you want it to.

You get the basic point, right? Subscribing to A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is like buying a car you want for its features without having to pay for it in full. You get the hosting service provider you want, the space you require, and the service satisfaction you need.

For more information on Virtual Private Server (VPS) and how it works, get in touch with us today!

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Percento is a Professional IT Consulting, Implementation and Management firm.  To find out how we can help your organization, please contact one of our friendly sales representatives for a review of your system and a comprehensive (No Obligation) proposal of services. Call today toll-free at 800.614-7886 [Austin | Dallas | Houston | League City | Sugar Land | The Woodlands  | San Antonio] or email us at sales@percentotech.com.