VPS Hosting At The Beginner Level
VPS is short for the term ‘Virtual Private Server’. It’s a virtual dedicated server, also known as a ‘VDS’. This system works using parts of the computer mainframe that are sectioned off and made into multiple servers. This enables each section to work like a dedicated server. These working parts then contain their own individual operating systems that can be re-booted independently and will give the appearance they’re running their own individual virtual machine. It’s a practice that was made common just a few years ago, but has grown since then and become quite popular, and there are good reasons for this. Mostly it’s due to the development of specific virtualization software that is re-surging in VPS, causing it to become popular once again.
VPS hosting is kind of a middle of the road type, lingering between dedicated and shared hosting types. Shared hosting is when you have a web host that shares its hosting among many websites using that same server. Dedicated hosting involves a server that is used only by the owner exclusively, giving them total control over what happens with it. It costs more for dedicated hosting, but if security is a great need, then the cost can be well worth it. You gain an advantage with dedicated servers as far as bandwidth, storage capacity, Ram, CPU time, and disk space.
VPS falls somewhere in the middle of these two. You can’t call it shared hosting, nor can you call it dedicated hosting. Not shared, because virtually everyone rents their own server that is independent. Not dedicated, because many websites may be housed there on a single server, being split into several pieces. So like it was said before, the pieces have the capacity to operate totally independent from each other, while still remaining within that same mainframe. So you could say that VPS hosting can deliver all the benefits of dedicated servers, minus a few of the bigger resource limits, while costing you less.
To find a company who can deliver VPS might be tricky for you at first, but once you get started you’ll soon see there are quite a few to be found, and that it’s becoming more popular all the time. But still do your homework on all companies you’re considering using. If you’re lucky, you can find a good VPS host that can help you bridge the gap between shared and dedicated hosting, at least until you’re able to make that leap up to using a dedicated server.