Hosting with VPS Linux

When it comes to hosting your company’s website, you have a hundred and one options to choose from. With multiple companies offering virtually the same type of hosting, it can be difficult to know which options are best suited for your business.

Getting to Know VPS Linux

At the entry level, you have basic shared hosting, in which your site will be shared with hundreds – if not thousands – of other sites on the same server. At the highest level you have dedicated server hosting, which involves servers that are dedicated entirely to you but can cost hundreds of dollars per month. In between these two options are virtual private servers (VPS), which offer many of the benefits of having a dedicated server but cost much less. If you have ever looked into hosting your website on a VPS, odds are the company was offering Linux VPS hosting. Linux, which has been around since 1991, is one of the most popular and fastest open-source operating systems/platforms available. For this reason many of today’s fastest computers are hosted on some form of Linux virtual server. Further, the use of Linux virtual servers is about more than just speed.

Modifying Virtual Private Servers

One of the primary benefits of using a virtual private server is that you can modify it as if it was your own dedicated server. By splitting up the server space into separate sections, or grids, the hosting companies allow you to control that particular section of the server without it affecting the other sections. In doing this, you can modify the server space as you see fit. This is not possible with shared hosting, as your modifications would affect every other website that is hosted on that server. By cutting the server space into 20, 50, or 100 virtual blocks, you are offered the benefits of a dedicated server without having to pay for it. Despite being connected to dozens or hundreds of other websites on the same server, your small block of server space is entirely yours and can be controlled as you see fit. This means rebooting the server on your own schedule, installing whatever applications you need to, opening and closing ports as you see fit (something shared website hosting cannot offer for security reasons), and a variety of other benefits. However, administration of the server is not the only benefit to Linux hosting.

VPS and Bandwidth

If you have ever visited a website that was operating abnormally slow, it is most likely because of an ongoing error in that site’s server. This is one of the main drawbacks of using shared server space: when someone ties up bandwidth with a massive e-mail blast or traffic promotion, it can cause every other website using the same server to slow down. This is a problem for many reasons. First, if your website becomes slow during peak sales hours, you will lose sales. Second, if the offending website slows the server down dramatically, it can take all the sites on that IP address offline. Aside from the fact that having your website down means you cannot do business, if Google or one of the large search engines scans your site when it is down, it can result in a penalty. While this does not happen very often, it is a risk medium and larger sized businesses should not take. By using a cheap Linux VPS, such as Linux XEN VPS, you can avoid the risks of shared hosting while reaping the benefits of having a dedicated server. Essentially a cheap VPS Linux solution allows the user to get the best of a VPS without paying top buck for it. On top of having full control of how you configure your server (which is crucial if your site requires the use of custom applications), you are guaranteed a certain amount of power (or resources) while your site is being hosted. The main factors that affect the speed and performance of your website are bandwidth, RAM and hard drive space and while every client’s requirements will be different, using a VPS means you never have to worry about someone else’s website eating into your bandwidth. This is another huge benefit of VPS hosting and one of the primary reasons high-traffic sites benefit from having dedicated server space.

The Bottom Line in VPS Linux

For those of you who are considering moving beyond shared hosting into something more comprehensive, we highly recommend you read our Linux VPS reviews. In addition to the fact that some Linux hosting options cost as little as $8/month, free Linux VPS hosting can be found if you look hard enough. If you are worried about sharing server space (despite the fact that VPS options are much more secure than shared hosting), you can always look into using a Linux VPN (virtual private network). VPNs add an extra layer of security to protect your files from malicious sources on the Internet, and may be used for sites that hold sensitive information such as credit card data, social security numbers, etc.