VPS stands for “virtual private server.” A VPS server is engineered by splitting a physical server into tens or hundreds of pieces.
Each of those pieces is known as a virtual server and is allotted a specific amount of the physical server’s RAM and storage resources.
Whereas in cloud hosting, your data is spread out amongst an array of physical servers.
These servers are then connected together in a virtual environment.
So just to reiterate, with VPS, your data is stored inside a segment of a physical server.
And, with the cloud, your data is stored inside the segments of each and every physical server located inside the virtual environment.
3 reasons why you would use Cloud instead of VPS:
- Better performance
With VPS, your website (amongst others) is still stored on a physical server.
During traffic hours, your server might face high demands of RAM and CPU power from one of the websites stored by said server.
As a result, your website will receive fewer resources than that website.
Needless to say, your page speed and uptime will be negatively affected.
- Better uptime
VPS servers face downtime. And, when it does, there’s nothing you or the server can do anything about it.
On the other hand, the very moment a cloud server faces downtime; your site is immediately migrated to one of the other servers located in the virtual environment.
- Easier scalability
As you continue to gain traffic, there will be a time when you need extra RAM and CPU cores.
With VPS servers, you won’t immediately be able to gain the resources because there are only so many resources that a physical server can allocate to you.
On the cloud, however, resources are not restricted to a single server. Need resources? Boom, you’ve just gained access to a second physical server.
3 reasons why you would use VPS instead of a cloud:
- More customizable:
With a VPS server, you essentially have root access.
In addition to having access to more settings, you can easily ask your host for an extra feature, and an adjustment will be made for you.
However, although you can configure firewalls and play around with some settings, it’s possible your host won’t allow some of the changes.
Especially because they also have to be applied to every single server that stores your data.
- More secure
On a cloud-based system, whatever security feature you decide to add to your website will have to be added to every single server.
Again, that’s pretty hard. In comparison, using VPS hosting means your site is stored entirely on a single physical server.
So, whatever security feature you add to the server will be added to the whole website.
- No technical expertise needed
With cloud hosting, you’ll need to be very tech-savvy to take advantage of the configuration settings provided to you.
Cloud hosting generally costs more than VPS. It would be quite a shame if you are unable to tweak the settings to improve your site’s performance.
Since VPS servers are just part of one large physical server, most of the settings are straightforward and easy to implement.
So to round it all up, if your website is small and doesn’t generate enormous amounts of traffic, you might want to stick to VPS hosting.
However, if you own a very large site that contains a huge number of web pages, then go ahead and buy a cloud hosting package.
If you’re looking for a hosting company that provides tailored hosting solutions to clients who want to scale their website to the next level, then look no further.
CloudItNow – Toronto’s leading hosting company, has been providing VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and shared hosting services to clients all around the world.