How does VPS work?

Virtual Private Server is the next step after typically shared Webhosting. Getting to know how it works is crucial in your online business journey. Most businesses today are hosting their shops specifically on VPS thanks to the advantages they pose for their online presence. 

You can say that the VPS term is all over the net, but can you state that people know how it works from a technical perspective? We have decided to compile a small article about it and guide you through it.

What is a VPS?

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. It is basically a server that was being created by virtualization software as a part of a larger dedicated server or a cluster of dedicated servers if we talk about the cloud. If we talk about user experience, VPS doesn’t differ from the dedicated server, but it has certain differences. Let’s learn more about Virtualization to understand why. 

Virtualization. The parent of VPS. 

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is the technology that allows you to use the available hardware resources of a computer system to create a virtual version of one or more systems and run them in isolation on the same hardware. The most popular method of virtualization generally uses idle computer resources to create a "virtual machine" capable of running different operating systems and/or applications on the same computer. A common example would be installing a Linux application on a computer with a Windows operating system.

With the purpose of making it possible to use hardware resources in a virtual way, virtualization also adds optimization and sustainability from the most common to the most complex IT tasks.

Hypervisors

The hypervisor acts as an interface between the physical machine and the virtual machine: it enables the virtual machine to use the physical resources for its operation.

Hypervisor is a software used to manage VMs or VPSes: it represents a layer between the hardware and the operating system, thus being responsible for providing the operating system with the abstraction of the virtual machine, and for controlling the guest operating systems' access to the hardware devices.

Benefits of VPS

Customize however you want

Greater autonomy to automate and customize applications is one of the main advantages of a Virtual Private Server.

You get more control from the admin panel. This ends up being very useful when you want to install and run applications, customize the DNS according to the domain or even manage hosting through the cPanel/WHM control panel.

Cost-efficient

Any company looks for solutions that are cost-efficient, isn't it true? This is exactly why VPS hosting is widely requested by managers looking for an alternative between shared hosting, which is cheaper and limited, and dedicated hosting, which has a very high cost.

VPS hosting can be found at different prices, something that can vary according to the chosen plan, which ends up providing an excellent cost-benefit for the most varied types of businesses.

In short, even with a lower cost, the VPS contains several characteristics of a dedicated server. Amazing, huh?

Fast scalability

Does your site growing and you need to upgrade to a bigger server? Another advantage of the VPS consists of providing a great facility to carry out expansions as the site grows.

This is how VPS hosting is an instrument that needs to be taken into account by managers of smaller websites. This is a great choice for site administrators who start small but don't want to hit a few hurdles when expanding quickly.

Independent resources

Storage space, CPU cores, and RAM are three examples of dedicated resources when we talk about VPS, and thanks to KVM virtualization no neighbors can take advantage of your resources as it would be on shared hosting.

Secure

Security is an extremely important issue for every business, isn't it? This issue is even more relevant when the subject is technology, mainly because we know that, in many cases, companies do not feel safe in the digital environment.

In this way, know that the VPS is considered extremely safe. In practice, each company has its data kept separately on virtual servers.

Also, when looking for a reliable service provider, know that your business website will be hosted in an environment with several layers of security.

Safety information is always important. This goes for all situations involving technology, not being restricted to VPS only. Just remember that if you buy a bulletproof door remember to close it when leaving because no door can save you from thieves if it is open if you know what we mean. 

Comparing VPS to other types of hosting

VPS vs Shared Web Hosting

Shared Web Hosting is quite limited by the hoster itself. You may be restricted from using certain plugins for WordPress or limited by queries per minute etc. VPS on the other hand allows you to be flexible and use it however you want. If you wish to throttle your server, you are free to do so. Shared hosting is being called shared because you are sharing hardware resources and if you start to pull the blanket over yourself you’ll leave other customers with no resources to run their own websites. Bummer.  

VPS vs Dedicated Servers

They do not really differ one from another because VPS is basically a virtualized piece of a cake called a dedicated server. Dedicated server on the other hand can offer a significantly bigger amount of hardware resources. The only thing you can potentially share with the customers while staying on VPS is the port bandwidth because you cannot give VPS a different physical ethernet port because VPS is again a virtualized server from a bigger one.

VPS vs Cloud

Cloud in a very basic definition can be called a VPS with extra-fast scalability. Because the cloud is not a dedicated server it’s more of a cluster of servers sharing one pool of resources, which clients can dissect however they need. When virtualizing a standard server you need some time, while on the cloud scaling is done instantaneously. Of course, the ability to pay on an hourly basis allows the cloud to stand beyond other hosting solutions.

Conclusion

As you can see there is nothing difficult in understanding how VPS works. The only difficulty is understanding what you need exactly. If you have certain doubts about what to choose, make sure to contact BlueVPS team. We work 24/7/365 and can find the best configuration for your project and budget.