When you are searching for reliable offshore hosting, it is essential to know the difference between cloud hosting and VPS hosting. Many companies confuse these two concepts. Understanding these services will help you to choose the best option for your company. In this article, we explain what VPS and cloud have in common and how they differ.
Virtual Private Server
VPS/VDS is a remote version of a physical server accessed via the network; divided into several smaller server slices that each act as their virtual server environment. You have an environment with dedicated virtual CPUs, disk space, RAM, your IP, a backup system. This environment is single-tenancy, i.e. not shared with anyone else. Users have root access to the server and can install applications and software of their choice.
Offshore VPS is a great opportunity to save money. After all, having on premise system, even in its minimal configuration involves huge initial investments, plus the cost of installation, configuration, maintenance, electricity, and so on. Renting the same capacity from a provider, you only pay a monthly fee. Best VPS hosting provides an excellent level of security and privacy, gives you full control over the remote equipment.
Cloud server
This is a virtual machine that can be created and running on-demand, using the pool of resources from the provider. You set server parameters – the number of cores, memory size, disk capacity, and type – and can easily change them during operation without interrupting the system. In other words, a cloud server is created using the required capacity from the resource pool.
Cloud server clusters serve multiple clients simultaneously, providing them with the necessary capacity and automated services: storage/disk space, application servers, terminal, web servers, mail servers, database servers, etc.
There are two options for deployment infrastructure – creating a private cloud or migrating to a public cloud (IaaS). The last is cheaper, while private cloud s more secure, give the user more options, and provide a server cluster for each client.
The differences between cloud and VPS
When you buy a virtual server, you actually receive part of the resources on one physical machine. If the resources of the rented virtual server are not enough, then to scale them you need to change the tariff plan, or buy additional resources (vCPU, RAM, etc.). This is because a virtual server can divide the physical resource of one machine into several less powerful ones, but VPS usually does not support resource changes and migration to other compute nodes.
With a virtual server in the cloud, customers can request additional resources anytime, simply changing settings in the control panel. There is no need to suspend work or migrate data.
Infrastructure in the cloud is also much more flexible in its management. For example, you can change the operating system and the environment, configure and run several virtual machines with different parameters and distribute resources between them. VPS servers do not have these options.
Since VPS involves sharing the same hardware with multiple users there can be security concerns. If a shared server is hacked, this can negatively affect your VPS. When choosing a cloud provider, explore whether they offer additional services: virtual networks with NAT, VPN, different kinds of firewalls and virtual routers, anti-virus systems, backup, etc.
The Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model gives the user the maximum freedom to choose the equipment configuration, allows customers to build their virtual network using a convenient control panel, install operating systems and applications of their choice.
The cloud is also more reliable as it has the advantage of distributed data storage: if one of the servers fails or is overloaded, the traffic will be redirected to another working resource. Cloud hosting is stable – the failure of any particular component does not affect the operation as a whole.
VPS vs Cloud: making a decision
VPS is suitable if it is important to save money. You get a full-fledged server but in virtual form. However, it is not the best option in terms of scalability and fault tolerance. Besides, it requires technical knowledge to configure and manage.
If you need a full-fledged automated service (especially for high-loaded projects) opt for the IaaS cloud model. This is a scalable and flexible solution, provides almost unlimited resources, and you pay only for actually consumed resources.
