When a company’s website achieves rapid success, it can be both the best of times and the worst of times. Every business wants to see a substantial number of visitors on its site, yet if a company website uses a shared hosting plan when a boom hits, the increase in traffic can eat away at resources and slow load times. It can also potentially crash the site and turn a shared hosting plan into an obstacle to growth.
At the point when a shared hosting plan can no longer sustain a website’s traffic, a hosting upgrade will be a necessary step. An upgrade doesn’t necessarily have to be to a dedicated server, though. A virtual private server, or VPS, improves upon shared hosting and actually has some advantages over a dedicated server.
The Pros and Cons of VPS
When compared to shared hosting, VPS has only pros. Although it costs more than standard shared hosting, that extra expense pays for the dedicated resources a successful online company needs. When compared to dedicated hosting, though, VPS has both pros and cons as shown in the following table.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Lower cost |
Maintenance issues |
|
Dedicated resources |
Software upgrades |
|
Security |
Resource limitation |
The Pros
Let’s take a look at the VPS advantages in more detail:
· Lower cost: A dedicated server is pricey and since that server is allocated to only one company, that company carries the full brunt of the operational costs. Depending on the technical needs of a business, a dedicated server can cost hundreds of dollars more per month than a VPS server.
· Dedicated resources: A VPS server is actually a partition on a shared server, but it provides a company with dedicated resources, eliminating the issues of storage space and bandwidth experienced on a shared server. This partitioning also allows a company to install its own operating system, which shared hosting doesn’t support.
· Security: Partitions on a shared server also keep data separated, which increases security. Companies can even install their own firewalls and antivirus applications on a VPS.
The Cons
In order to present a complete picture, let’s delve into the downsides:
· Maintenance issues: Although a shared server runs only one operating system, a VPS may be running multiple operating systems. This can make it more difficult for the hosting company to keep up with upgrades in system maintenance. A business’s dedicated server is unlikely to run as many operating systems as a shared VPS server.
· Software upgrades: One area of maintenance where VPS hosting companies can fail to keep up is in software and security upgrades. Lax upgrading may leave company data less protected.
· Resource limitation: The dedicated resources provided by a VPS are also finite. Once a company reaches its allotted storage and bandwidth, it’s possible the company will experience some of the same issues it had with shared hosting. Although a dedicated server also has finite resources, the server is the limit, providing significantly more space for a company’s technological infrastructure to grow.
Weighing the Pros and Cons
The cons of VPS hosting can have a negative effect on a company’s data and online presence. Both limited resources and maintenance issues can cause a site to function less efficiently, while security issues can leave data vulnerable.
These issues with a VPS are simple for business owners to overcome, though. By taking control of server management, such as upgrades to the operating system and security applications, company leaders ensure the security and optimal operation of the server. By monitoring actual usage on the cloud server, business leaders can determine when a hosting upgrade is needed before issues arise due to limited resources.
Although large companies with a lot of data and complex websites generally need a dedicated server, as an e-commerce site would, most SMBs can get by and save money with a VPS hosting service. Just as companies would never spend money unnecessarily on desks or computers they don’t need, they shouldn’t spend money on virtual resources they don’t require. Choosing to use a VPS can enable efficiencies in both time and money, allowing a company to streamline its functions and focus on its business goals.