A VPS or virtual private server allows businesses to maintain the privacy and integrity of their own private server without needing to physically host the server on premises. When you choose a VPS over a traditional, in-house server, your business benefits from the reduced expenses, responsibility and maintenance. The growth of cloud VPS gives businesses two models to choose from: Traditional VPS or the cloud alternative.
Traditional vs. cloud VPS
A traditional VPS can share resources with other VPSs hosted on the same server but remains physically isolated. The cloud VPS may be spread across several different servers. Since you’ll never see either system, because they’re remote, physical makeup may seem like it makes no difference, but this may affect other aspects of system performance, such as:
— Speed: A cloud VPS can be quicker than a traditional model due to the spread-out nature of the server. While most of the time the systems may perform equally, speed will differ under load — when it matters most.
— Dependability: Because the cloud VPS is not physically located on one server, issues of server downtime that affect traditional VPSs are mostly not a problem for cloud systems. If one server is down, the cloud system can relocate elsewhere. The traditional VPS cannot. There is also speculation that cloud systems can recover more quickly from system attacks such as the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.
— Size: With a traditional VPS, you can only scale your server up to the max available resources on the physical machine. With a cloud VPS, you can scale up or down as needed. If your business doubles during the holiday season, scale up for those critical months when you need server space and scale down when you no longer need that extra capacity. You can scale up a traditional VPS, but not as quickly as you can the cloud model.
Picking a VPS provider
Either style of VPS will cost less than purchasing and housing your own server. VPS providers can charge widely varying rates so it pays to shop around. If your budget is tight, a cloud system’s ability to scale up and down means that you can adjust your package to suit your physical data needs, then increase your plan when the need arises. Ultimately, the decision of whether a cloud or traditional system meets business needs is up to you. Before you pick a provider, investigate what type of software that company supports. If you use a range of operating systems or need specific software installed on the server, you may have to pay extra fees. Factor this into budgeting to make an informed decision.
With either type of VPS, customer support is important. Look for a provider that offers 24/7 customer service so that it’s easy to get help whenever something goes wrong.
To compare the true cost of different options, find out how much space is offered, how much bandwidth you’ll have each month and how much it would cost to upgrade packages should your needs change. Finally, read the small print on any contract before you purchase a plan. This way you’ll know what exactly you are — and aren’t — receiving from your VPS provider.
Originally posted on July 11, 2013 @ 3:27 pm