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A common question among growing web businesses who are expanding  beyond the capability of a shared hosting environment is whether they should go with a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Dedicated Server.  What should a business consider when looking to upgrade beyond their basic shared or reseller account?

There are many reasons why you might be expanding beyond a shared environment and these must be addressed before you can make an informed decision.

What is a VPS, Anyway?

A VPS is a fairly recent development in the IT world that has opened many doors for medium-sized web operators.  Basically, it is a dedicated server with several “virtual machines” running on it.  For instance, you can have four different operating systems running at the same time, completely independently of each other.  In datacenters all over the world, this technology has revolutionized how things are done.

In the old days, you might have a dedicated server sitting around using 100 GB of disk space, but only using 2-5% of a processor’s capability.  Not only is this extremely inefficient, as the Internet expanded, having a dedicated server for each client got to be a monumental task for IT teams.  Then virtualization was born.

Let’s say you have five dedicated servers in the same situation as above, each using 5% of a processor’s capability and 100 GB of disk space.  With virtualization, you can take all five of those systems and put them in virtual environments on a single server.  That server would then be using 25% of a processor’s capability and 500 GB of disk space.  To handle  bursts of traffic, there is a buffer built in so if the processor starts getting used more than usual, things do not fall apart.  This is one use advantage to a VPS over a shared hosting environment: stability.

Now let’s think about the savings involved.  You just took five individual computers and combined them into one.  This reduces hardware costs, electricity costs, cooling costs, backup power requirements, the amount of space you need in your datacenter, and so much more.  It only makes sense to virtualize servers where possible – this is why the technology has exploded in usage over the past three years.

A huge advantage is that the virtual servers are all independent of one another, so if you need to reboot, you can do so without taking other people offline.  Since the VPS isn’t aware of the hardware underneath it, it does not have to physically power off the server, it can just erase and reload itself into memory (which is much faster)!

Checklist of Considerations

• Do you need 768 MB or more RAM available for your services?

Typically, if your applications regularly require large amounts of RAM, you are better off going with a dedicated server.  Our VPS plans do go to 1 GB of guaranteed RAM, but it is my personal recommendation that you go with a dedicated server in these situations to allow for future growth.

• Do you need 150 GB of space or more?

Again, our plans go up to 200 GB – but if you need 150 GB already, you might want to consider looking forward and getting a dedicated server to scale for growth.  It is never a good situation to be close to your space limits – especially in situations where you might suddenly need more space and not have it readily available.

• Do you need basic Shell and/or Root access?

In situations where you need more access than shared environments give you, like accessing SSH as root and maintaining total control over a given system, a VPS works just fine.  VPS gives you all the software control benefits of a dedicated server, without the added costs of going dedicated.

• Do you need more stability?

If your services are absolutely mission-critical, you are better off going with a dedicated server.  If your services are important and you are looking for something just a bit more stable and reliable than a shared hosting environment, a VPS is your best option.

• How quickly are you expanding?  Where do you see your business in 6 months to a year?

If you are rapidly expanding, it is always critical to look to the future.  Where do you see your business’s needs in 6 months to a year?  Are you going to be adding significantly to your offerings?  If the answer is yes, you might go with a dedicated server just for the growth potential.  It is much easier to add another hard drive into a dedicated server than to migrate from a VPS to a dedicated server (although it can be done).

Costs vs. Benefits

There are significant costs in going with a dedicated server, but you must take a look at your particular requirements to be able to make a good determination.  I can not stress enough that it is vital to always be looking forward up to a year in advance to anticipate changes you need to make.  I have been involved in too many projects where the system requirements were conservative and it later came back to bite, ending up costing more than it would have to over-estimate the expansion possibility.

If you have any questions additional questions, don’t hesitate to contact our sales department.  They’ll be happy to help you out!