by Arthur40A

In today’s advanced world of cloud-based computing, website hosting is undergoing tremendous change. Web hosting, once done on actual high powered machines, is now being handled virtually. Virtual Private Servers (also known as VPS) are virtual machines that run server configurations, using Virtualisation Technology. Virtualisation involves running one or more complete and unrelated server environments on a single physical machine. However, with the advent of cloud technology, newer techniques are becoming more popular. Let us take a glance at the changes.

Cloud Servers 

Cloud technologies are now concentrating towards taking data to the cloud. It comes as no surprise that even an entire server can be deployed, run and maintained from a cloud. Although both cloud servers and virtual private servers are essentially running on the same technology, there are some startling differences between them. The main difference is that cloud servers are dynamic in nature. This means that the changes made to a cloud server’s configuration become effective even during runtime. This in turn means that there is virtually no downtime for the websites being hosted on a cloud server. However, the same cannot be said of a VPS. Virtual private servers are limited by the physical machines attributes.

Advantages of Cloud Servers over VPS

Scalability, availability and choice are often seen as the major advantages a cloud server has over traditional virtual private server models.

Scalability: 

With traditional VPS, the scalability of a server directly depends on the node (machine) that the server is currently residing on. This means that scaling can take a hit if the node is not prepared for the same. For example, if the user desires to scale the server’s memory size from say, 6GB to 24GB, it may be only possible if the node itself has 24GB of RAM, and does not have other virtual private servers running alongside the user’s setup.

In case of cloud servers, scaling the server is not an issue at all, as the data is centrally stored and not placed on the node. If a higher or lower scaling is needed, the server is simply moved to a node that suits the user’s needs, even with the active server.

Availability:

When traditional VPS are subjected to scaling (increasing or decreasing resources such as memory processing power, etc.), the servers need to be shut down, so that the physical machines can be upgraded or the virtual settings can be changed. These things require the server to be offline, sometimes for extended periods of time. Moreover, the sites can suffer outage if the RAID solution being employed goes down. Such issues might take days to for rectification.

Cloud servers, on the other hand, need not be shut down, as they possess the ability to make system wide changes during runtime (dynamically). This means that the servers do not suffer even a minute of downtime whatsoever. The advantage of hosting data centrally off the nodes really becomes apparent here. If the node goes down, the server is simply moved to a new node, thus allowing the site to be back up within minutes of going down, and with virtually no data loss.

Choices:

Virtual Private Servers are often sold with fixed limits on pricing, scalability and platforms deployed within. For instance, some traditional VPS service providers may provide server hosting options, with only one or two operating systems to choose from. They may quote upper or lower limits (or both) for the scalability of resources by the VPS. 

Cloud-based servers are not limited by such constraints. The options that the user has at his disposal range from the choice of the operating systems to the scalability.

Of course if the idea of supplying your customers with a bespoke cloud tickles your fancy then also look at the opportunity to become a cloud reseller. Many cloud hosting companies offer this as an option meaning that the reseller can earn commissions simply by selling cloud hosting to their customers. Private label cloud services even allow you to completely skin the cloud user dashboard in your own branding!

It is evident from the above mentioned points that cloud servers have a real advantage over VPS, when reliability, scalability and choices are concerned. Moving to the cloud server is one of the best decisions one can make towards achieving organisational goals and objectives, while still keeping finances and risk factors in check. 

 This article was brought to you by ElasticHosts – an award winning cloud hosting platform.

Read this article at RJS Informer for more on cloud computing & cloud-based document management systems.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 at 11:46 am and is filed under Cloud-Based Solutions, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.