Virtual Private Servers

What is VPS, or Virtual Private Server?

According to Wikipedia a Virtual Private Server (VPS) sometimes referred to as a Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) is a method of partitioning a physical server machine into multiple servers that each have the appearance and capabilities of running on their own dedicated machine.

Each virtual server, or VPS host environment can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted. The practice of partitioning a single server so that it appears as multiple servers has long been common practice in mainframe computers, but has seen a resurgence lately with the development of virtualisation software and technologies for other architectures.

Different Types of Virtual Private Servers

There are 2 kinds of virtualisation: software based and hardware based.

Software based virtualization environment, the virtual machines share the same kernel and actually require the main node's resources. Within a hosting environment this aids in real time quota incrementing and decrementing without having to restart the node.  Within software based virtualisation, the main examples are Virtuozzo (an SWSoft product), and HyperVM (an lxlabs product), and VMWare (a VMWare product).

Hardware based virtualisation, the virtualization mechanism partitions the actual or real hardware resources thus removing the ability to modify burst or real-time quota modification.  These limits are thus hard, and the systems need to be restarted for any modification to function. Although it has a glaring deficiency it does tend to be a little more secure and thus useful in an enterprise usage.

VPS As flexible as a dedicated server

With VPS hosted systems users share resources like the CPU and memory but unlike a shared platform, where you are a virtual host on a shared hardware server, the file systems are fully partitioned. This means that only you have access to them! This provides you the flexibility to customise your own 'server' to your specific needs, adding modules and installing software for your particular requirements.

As cost effective as a shared server

Partitioning a single hardware server into multiple servers has been around for a long time.  In fact, mainframe computers have long been partitioned into multiples.  By sharing the resources you are able to get far more 'bang' for your proverbial 'buck'.

With VPS Hosting you therefore combine the benefits of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting allowing you to virtually run your own virtualized server at a fraction of the cost!