virtual private server

A Virtual Private Server or VPS is a great solution for small businesses that don’t have a large budget for hosting their company website, data, and email.  The best way to explain a VPS is to first explain it’s counterpart which is referred to as shared web hosting.  Shared web hosting is the most common form of hosting.  A typical web hosting account is placed on a shared server and that server may host 500+ websites.  The issues that can be found in a shared hosting environment primarily relate to the sharing of these resources.

Some of the components that are shared on a regular hosting account:

IP Address: The server may have multiple IP addresses, however most websites on the server will share the main IP.  This IP is shared for website access and all email that is sent through the server lists the shared IP Address in the email message header.  This is one of the primary drawbacks.    Let’s assume there are 500 websites on the server that your website is on.  Out of those 500 most of the sites are owned by ethical and responsibly people.  However, one of the sites on the server is sending spam to try and build their business.  Unfortunately the IP address that’s listed in their email is the same IP that your website uses to send email.  The primary server IP is then blacklisted by Spamcop, Barracuda, Spamhaus, or another RBL. This immediately reduces the likelihood of your email being delivered when you send it by up to 20-50%!

CPU, Memory, Disk Space:  In a shared environment there aren’t “real” limits on cpu/processor or memory usage.  Your website may be optimized or coded correctly, however you’re still at the mercy of all of the other websites on your server.  If any of the other sites have coding issues or memory leaks they can crash the server by going into a loop or using 100% of the server’s resources.  During downtime this is often the cause of why your website is down.

So what makes VPS a better solution?

With a VPS solution there are far less sites on the server.  Additionally, each VPS client receives dedicated resources and their own IP.  With a shared hosting plan you can purchase a dedicated IP, however the shared IP is still used for sending email.  With a VPS your dedicated IP is truly dedicated and it’s used for your website(s) as well as your outbound email.  This will ensure you’re never blacklisted by an RBL because someone else has been hacked or is sending spam.  This is a huge benefit and the increase in your email reputation is definitely worth the additional $20-$30/month.

The benefit on how IP addresses work in a virtual private server are priceless, however the resource management is also important.  A virtual private server is given dedicated resources that only their website(s) and email use.  So instead of sharing 8GB of memory with 500+ websites you might have 4GB of dedicated memory.  Don’t be fooled by thinking 8GB is less than 4GB.  It may be, however since these resources are dedicated no other websites can ever utilize your memory and take down your VPS or website(s).  Processor or CPU management is handled in the same fashion.  You receive a set number of cycles or CPU speed.