Businesses seeking growth understand the need to implement new tools and services, as well as to update and expand their IT equipment pools. In the face of fierce competition, the speed and performance of such tools are becoming crucial for business survival. However, purchasing expensive equipment, as well as its maintenance is often a non-core investment, and the payback period can last long.
The modern IT industry flexibly responds to business needs and offers services and solutions to expand the equipment fleet without significant investments. Virtual server rental is among such solutions. In this article, we explore the advantages of a virtual server.
What is a Virtual Server?
The virtual server shares software and hardware resources with other operating systems (OS). It is more efficient in terms of resource management and more cost-effective due to server virtualization technology.
Usually, a virtual server is located in an offsite data center and its resources are shared by multiple users, each having control over it. In simple terms, it is the transformation of a single physical server into multiple virtual machines, each running a different operating system.
For users, a virtual server is similar in functionality to a physical server. Several virtual servers can be implemented on a single bare-metal server, each with its own OS, independent provisioning, and software. A virtual machine server uses the virtual infrastructure, virtualization software, and abstracts the computer resources of a physical server to create a virtual environment.
Some of the benefits include faster provisioning of resources, improved disaster recovery and business continuity, as well as lower operating costs and capital expenditures, and simplified management.
Types of virtual servers
There are several different forms of virtualization. For example, OS virtualization involves moving the desktop OS to a virtual environment and hosting it on a server.
With server virtualization, the entire physical server is moved to a virtual environment. Instead of using only the operating system, this virtualization method can emulate a physical server and helps reduce the number of servers to be used.
Virtual servers can also be used for storage or to combine multiple physical hardware units into a single virtualized storage environment.
What are the virtual servers used for?
First, let’s consider the difference between Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS). Both terms refer to hosting services, in which the user rents virtual server resources with predefined parameters. The concepts mean the same service. The difference is in the way of virtualization: VDS stands for hardware virtualization while VPS – for OS virtualization.
From the user's point of view, there is no difference between these approaches.
For small sites, it is enough to use virtual hosting – a service that includes support for several domain names, web development tools, a database, and disk space. With the growth of the enterprise and the introduction of various information systems, the capabilities of virtual hosting will be insufficient. The fact is that in virtual hosting a client owns only a small portion of the processor and the disk space. Renting a virtual server provides the company with much more resources.
How to choose a virtual server?
The virtual server rental is a profitable alternative to buying your own equipment, but before using this service, it is worth taking into account several things.
Service Provider. Besides experience, consider the conditions and limitations of the server rental. Pay special attention to the SLA (Service License Agreement) as it may vary depending on the provider.
Software and hardware. Find out what hardware and software components are used to build the infrastructure. This will indicate both reliability and additional performance features.
Datacenter. An important point is the reliability of the datacenter in which the infrastructure of the service provider is located. This will determine whether the figures specified in the SLA are true or not.
