Simply put, if you want your businesses to have a beneficial online presence, reliable web hosting is essential. In addition to choosing the best web hosting provider, to ensure that your website is effective, you also need to choose the right server as well. Many don’t actually realise how much of a difference the server that they host their website on will make to the overall success of their website and it is essential to make the right decision in this regard.
Arguably, two of the most well-known servers are shared servers and dedicated servers and when arranging their web hosting, lots of businesses will choose to have their website hosted on either one of these. However, they aren’t the only option available nowadays and there are two other server solutions that are undeniably worthwhile exploring.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and cloud computing are modern solutions that all businesses should know about when they’re making important decisions about their web hosting and both of these options have a number of advantages. If you’ve never heard of either of these types of servers before and you’re keen to learn more about them rather than simply choosing a shared server or a dedicated server, keep reading today. Below we have covered all of the basics that you need to know about these solutions when deciding which will be best for your website.
What are virtual servers?
Virtual Private Servers are one physical server that has been split into several different virtual servers. Although VPSs are all part of the same server, they act independently and they provide businesses with their own dedicated server environment, meaning they don’t have to share their virtual server with any other website owners. Simply put, a VPS has many of the benefits associated with a dedicated server, but it is a much more affordable solution.
When you use a Virtual Private Server for your website, you will take up a certain amount of resources on the server. In order to ensure that you have the bandwidth allowance, disk space, CPU and RAM that you require for your website, you will have various different VPS packages to choose from. A VPS can also be tailored to your precise needs, so you can ensure that your website will function at its best.
What is cloud computing?
As the name suggests, cloud computing is a server that is on the cloud infrastructure. Unlike other types of hosting where your website will use resources on one single server, cloud computing spreads the resources out amongst lots of different physical servers. This essentially means that you will have virtually limitless resources available to use.
This type of server is known for its flexibility and it enables you to ensure that your website performance is always optimal. By not being confined to one single server, you can use more resources whenever you require them to meet the demands of your website. However, cloud computing doesn’t offer as much customisation and to tailor the server to meet your websites’ specific requirements, technical knowledge and skill is required.
Which of these solutions is best to use?
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to servers and one option isn’t necessarily ‘better’ than the others. When it comes to choosing between virtual servers and cloud computing, there are lots of different factors to take into consideration, including;
Price
Both VPS and cloud computing tend to be more expensive than a shared server, but they are more affordable than a dedicated server. They’re often a good solution for anyone who is wanting a hosting package that doesn’t break the bank but is still reliable.
As mentioned above, there are different VPS packages available and they will increase in price depending on the resources you require for your website. Once you have chosen a package, you will know how much your server is going to cost you monthly or annually, making it easy to budget for. Different providers charge in different ways for cloud hosting. Some will have packages to choose from whereas others will just charge you for the resources you use. Whilst this can make budgeting harder, it can also sometimes be more cost-effective.
Scalability
Depending on what your website is used for, scalability might be absolutely essential. It is important that your server will always be able to meet your website’s needs and keep up with the traffic that you experience.
When you opt for VPS, it is likely that your web hosting provider will enable you to upgrade to a bigger package if your needs change in the future, but there will be a limit to the resources available for you to use in the one server. Whereas, because cloud computing enables you to use the resources from numerous servers, as your business grows and your website’s needs change, you won’t have to worry about running out of resources, so to speak. Even if your needs were to change overnight, your server wouldn’t let you down.
Performance
Generally speaking, both VPS and cloud computing have better overall performance than a shared server and when using either of these servers, your website shouldn’t frequently crash or take a long time to load.
Due to the fact that VPS provides you with your own server to use, the performance of your website won’t be affected by other websites, making this type of hosting really reliable. That being said, VPS is still on a physical server which has its limitations, so whilst it is very unlikely, there is a chance that your website will be affected if there is an extremely high demand for resources all at once. However, by using several different servers, cloud hosting offers ultimate reliability and is able to handle any demand that it faces.
Security
Ensuring that your server provides adequate security is absolutely essential. You need to know that your website is protected from any cyber-attacks and ideally, you shouldn’t have to worry about malware, privacy or security.
By using a VPS, you can rest assured knowing that your data is on a private virtual server and even the other websites sharing the physical server won’t be able to access your data. When security is an utmost priority to your web hosting provider too, you can trust that the server and your website will be protected by a variety of defensive measures. Cloud computing does have more cause for concern when it comes to security because your website is spread across multiple servers, making it more vulnerable to attacks.
How Catalyst2 can help with your web hosting needs
Ultimately, both virtual servers and cloud computing are brilliant options for businesses to explore and they shouldn’t be overlooked, even if you’ve never heard of them before. Each of these types of hosting has an abundance of advantages and they can be just as good, if not better than more well-known alternatives. When it comes to choosing between the two of them, hopefully, the information above will be useful and it can help you to ensure that you’re opting for the best solution for your business’ website as well as your individual requirements.
No matter whether you choose VPS or cloud computing, or even if you’d like to play it safe with a dedicated server, here at Catalyst2 we can provide you with a server that will be able to meet all of your needs. We provide a huge range of hosting solutions that are as vast and unique as the businesses that we work with. With a selection of monthly solutions with various price plans that are loaded with benefits, we have a solution that suits each and every website, and we can help you make an informed decision about which will work best for you.
Not only are our hosting services exemplary, but our customer service is too and we are always happy to go the extra mile to provide support to those who need it. We pride ourselves on keeping our promise to our customers and we invite you to read more about this on our website. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
