It is the dream of every organization or business to grow but the challenge, however, is if you are ready to accommodate growth.
The first impact of growth is seen by the number of visitors to your website and if your servers are not capable of handling your demand then there will be trouble.
Virtual Private Servers are the way to go to help you handle growth without slowing down or crashing your website. The use of private servers has exploded and there has been a tremendous increase in its demand.
According to MarketWatch industries such as Finance, Retail, Insurance, Telecom, IT as well as healthcare are all switching to private servers.
Businesses that use sensitive customer information should also strongly consider making the switch. Research also shows that 98% of shared hosting platforms fail the PCI compliance test which is crucial to allow your website to receive payments online.
Before getting into the benefits of using VPS in a Linux environment, it's important to first understand some basic concepts. So the need benefits of using a Virtual Private Server cannot be overemphasized. This will give a clearer picture of virtual private server hosting's role in the scheme of things.
A Web hosting typically is of three categories:
On one hand is the dedicated physical server which is the most expensive of the three categories.
With a dedicated web hosting, a client rents their own physical server from the hosting company. This physical server is dedicated solely to such clients and hosts their site only.
On the other hand, we have a shared server and it is the least expensive. It features multiple websites from multiple clients hosted on a single server running a web application like Internet Information Services (on Windows OS) and Apache (on Linux OS).
As a result of being a shared hosting, these websites all share the same server bandwidth and resources.
In between these two options is VPS hosting. These are dedicated virtual servers hosted in a virtualized environment. A Virtual Private Server mimics the functions of an actual physical server. A physical server can host numerous Virtual Private Servers.
It is important to note that a VPS has its own operating system, which is why it is called a “virtual” server. In essence, a VPS functions almost exactly the same as a physical server. However, the cost of hardware is eliminated.
This means virtual private server hosting gives clients all the benefits of dedicated physical server hosting without the higher prices associated with renting a dedicated physical web server.
The choice of an operating system is especially crucial in the virtual or physical dedicated hosting solutions. This is so because clients that use these categories of website hosting will have full access to the server at the operating system level, so they will have the ability to administer the OS and applications.
This is not usually the case with the shared hosting option, where clients only administer their own sites while the underlying hardware and software are maintained by the hosting company.
Just like desktop computers, servers also require an operating system to function.
Basically, there are two choices here:Windows OS and Linux OS hosting platforms with Linux OS hosting usually the preferred choice due to a number of benefits.
So, what are the benefits of choosing a Linux OS as your preferred hosting platform?
Linux is an open-source operating system and unlike Windows, Linux was developed as “open-source”, meaning it is free to try, use and distribute.
You don’t have to pay any license fees and you can install it on any number of computers you desire.
Benefits of using Virtual Private Server in Linux environment therefore includes:
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Stability: It just can’t be overstressed how much stability Linux OS provides. It has the reputation of being the most stable OS currently in existence. Rarely would a Linux OS server require a restart and it barely suffers from crashes too and this ensures optimal uptime and increased performance.
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Security: Linux OS offers an unmatched level of security. History shows that malware and viruses usually have trouble in trying to penetrate the set defenses of Linux. As an open-source OS, everyone in the Linux community network is able to access the source code, detect and fix bugs and vulnerabilities ensuring the highest level of security.
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Cost-effectiveness: As stated, Linux OS is open-source and free therefore one is not required to pay license fees every month like you would for a Windows OS. Also being a virtual server means prices are tailored according to client-specific requirements or needs.
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Scalability and Flexibility: Having more traffic means that the server needs to do more work and use more resources. With Linux, you can tweak your VPS to fulfill your server requirements and also allot your website a larger amount of resources where need be ensuring stability. Linux comes with an array of tools and utilities which lets you perform various tasks. One of the most powerful is the “shell”. It has a programming construct that lets the user execute commands repeatedly, automate server administration tasks, and also build new tools and utilities.
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High Performance: Linux possesses superiority over other operating systems when it comes to performance. It can accommodate multiple users on the same server without any hassle. It has improved processing power and capacity which means websites load faster, improves user engagement and any processes you run on your server will also run quicker and hence, have less impact on other operations taking place within the server.
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Privacy: Unlike Windows OS, Linux OS gathers so little information about its users. Along with the customizable nature of Linux, a user has control over what information or applications that reside within the server.
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Dedicated Resource: With your virtual server you have the luxury of owning higher capacity RAM, disk space, and CPU. This makes it possible to accommodate more traffic and also run more apps.
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Direct Root Access: A VPS gives you full access and total control over your servers. From your control panel, you can easily configure your server and control any application installation.
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Dedicated support: Being on VPS ensure that you get comprehensive technical support at all times to handle any issue or challenges you might be facing.
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Hosting of Multiple Domains: Even though this functionality is possible with shared hosting, it comes with certain limitations. These limitations such as performance issues are eliminated with VPS and you have peace of mind knowing that your websites will run optimally.
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Cloud Backups: You have the option of setting automated cloud backup schedules to keep your data safe in case of future occurrences. You will be able to recover any data if such should happen.
Linux dedicated server offers multiple benefits to businesses and being an open-source OS, it is far more budget-friendly than a dedicated Windows server hosting.
It also enjoys the support of an active community of developers always making improvements. You get to share challenges and successes with a group of like-minded individuals who share your passion.
Getting a Virtual Private Server will definitely be one of the best decisions you can make to support your business growth!