Virtual Private Servers and Web Hosting

Web Hosting nowadays is more than just an Apache web server on a linux box serving static web pages (HTML). With the introduction of dynamic web sites utilizing PHP and ASP the needs for server resources like RAM and CPU power rose significantly.

Even though the resources needed to provide fast and reliably the web site to the end user raised, there is no guarantee of a web hosting provider that will reserve the resources needed for your web site. And there is where virtual private servers or VPS in short come to use.

A VPS is basically a part of the physical server, separated from the rest and reserved for the needs of the web site that it will host. By picking a VPS as your solution in web hosting you will get guaranteed RAM, Disk Space and CPU share that will be reserved for your use and will not be accessible by anyone else.

Several technologies can provide a VPS solution like Virtuozzo, OpenVZ, VMware ESX and Hyper-V. All of those technologies have advantages and disadvantages, making me unable to point to the overall best one. What can be considered true is that if your main use of a VPS is to host a web site then virtuozzo is the best solution as it is much faster than the other technologies regarding web site hosting and can provide better response rates almost identical as hosting the web site in a standalone physical server. Another major advantage of virtuozzo is the excellent integration with Plesk Panel which is a control panel used by most webmasters in order to manage their web site.

Finally since the cost of maintaining a physical server just for hosting a web site might be higher than the budget available, VPS’es are an excellent way to get what you want and save a significant amount of money.

Virtual private servers in general can do anything that a physical server can do, ranging from game servers, irc servers and online storage to mail servers.