A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a virtualized server that is typically hosted in the datacenter of a private or public cloud infrastructure provider. A virtual private server can be either stood upon a shared platform with a virtual hypervisor that allocates resources on-demand or on dedicated hardware with zero contention. Which one is right for you truly depends on what type of workload the virtual private server will be performing.

In the majority of use-case scenarios, a shared platform is the preferred option. This is often due to the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of shared, multi-tenanted solutions. Cloud infrastructure is so powerful and reliable that huge numbers of small, medium, and enterprise businesses are taking their production workloads to the cloud.

What is driving this change? What are the benefits of using a virtual private server for your business? Below, we have completed a list of what we think are the major benefits of moving a virtual private server to the cloud.

Cost Savings

One of the significant appeals of a virtual private server is the cost-effectiveness of operating a server in the cloud. You simply cannot match the cost using a DIY model. Compute nodes are available in a large range of configurations. Small, medium or large setups compute with high memory availability, others with multiple high-end CPU configurations.

The cost of purchasing or leasing a like-for-like server will cost at least $10,000, most likely a lot more. Additional costs are incurred buying the software licenses and paying employees or contractors to build, manage and maintain the server.

There are also the running costs to power and cool the server, not to mention the cost of implementing ultra-high-speed network interconnect capabilities that are readily available from a cloud provider.

Improved reliability

Cloud computing is designed from the ground to be fault-tolerant, redundant, and highly available. This means that the infrastructure is created to be always-on and capable of handling infrastructure problems.

Some virtual private server providers take this to the next level and offer a 100% uptime guarantee. For an uptime guarantee to be met, cloud providers invest heavily in safeguarding server infrastructure. Systems are built with multiple redundant power, network, and storage capabilities as standard. If a problem is detected, the systems automatically failover, resulting in zero downtime for the customer.

This reliability spans datacenters and regions and is particularly important for data retention and data backup. Disaster recovery services are also in scope, and successful implementation can enhance the always-on capabilities of a business.

Improved performance with guaranteed resources

No matter if you choose a shared or dedicated cloud tenancy, a cloud virtual private server has guaranteed system resources 24/7. Host nodes are scaled and load balanced to ensure no customer suffers from the noisy neighbor syndrome, meaning you always have the resources you need, on-demand.

Cloud providers invest heavily in computing hardware when building datacenters. You can find providers with SSD exclusive storage layers that implement the very latest intel CPU architecture, complemented with a network layer that operates at breakneck speed. Performance that simply cannot be matched with a DIY model.

Security-as-a-Service

Securing cloud infrastructure has become arguably one of the most important concerns for all digital industries. Security is everywhere, and the need for a secure and robust infrastructure is formidable. Security operations are typically built into cloud server providers architecture from the ground up, and virtual private servers have the ability to be inherently secure.

The overriding infrastructure that hosts virtual private servers is extremely secure and subject to constant security upgrades and improvement initiatives. Cloud providers include application and server templates as standard that can be deployed at the click of a button. These templates are created to be rock solid for security. Industry-standard server hardening is included in the template, and applications are patched and secured to the very latest levels.

Simple Licencing

A feature that is often overlooked when working with a virtual private server is the licensing.  There is no denying that licensing can become extremely complex, especially if working with multiple operating systems and applications, in a growing enterprise environment.

Virtual private server licensing is simple. All the associated costs of the license are already included in the monthly charge for the server. Therefore, you know the costs you will encounter prior to deploying the virtual private server. So if you wanted a Red Hat Server, with cPanel installed, the monthly cost you pay the cloud provider will already include the license fee for Red Hat, and the license fee for cPanel.

Fully managed service

Most cloud service providers offer a fully managed service as part of their virtual private server service offering. A managed service provides additional consumable platforms that are designed to enhance support features, enhance disaster recovery capabilities, and provide 24/7×365 technical support.

Obviously these services are not always free, but they can work out incredibly affordable when compared with managing an in-house IT support team. Plus you are working with subject matter experts in the cloud computing field, techies who have most likely already seen the type of issue you may be experiencing.

Aside from technical support, services such as Cloud Backup and Cloud Snapshots are features most organizations will benefit from. Cloud Backup services do not just backup critical business data. Some services include data protection capabilities out-of-the-box.  Data replication services deduplicate backup data between multiple data centers. This design ensures data integrity in the event of a disaster scenario.

Cloud Snapshots enhance these capabilities further by enabling clients to revert, migrate, and stand up exact replicas of a server, in any pre-selected location, all in a matter of seconds. Some providers Cloud Snapshot services have a great feature built-in which makes it possible to complete file-level restores, directly from the snapshot image into the live system.

Scalability

Every business wants to grow, and many achieve this aim. Some grow slowly over a long time, while others grow exponentially over a very short time period. Most businesses fit somewhere in between, but no matter what your growth expectations are, a cloud virtual private server can grow with you.

Virtual private servers can grow as demand is needed. Servers can scale up, down, in and out. Expansion usually results in a server resource increase, more memory, more CPU, and more disk. These features can usually be added on the fly by converting your existing machine to a new system plan. Typical plans include storage optimized, memory-optimized or compute-optimized.

A virtual private server can also scale-out. This is the practice of implementing multiple virtual private servers in a clustered resource. This is commonly used by organizations seeing rapid growth in web server demand. New virtual private servers can be deployed and network traffic load-balanced between multiple nodes to improve performance.

We have just scratched the surface on the many benefits that a virtual private server can offer businesses. We encourage you to reach out to your preferred cloud partner to discover the world of benefits afforded to virtual private server users.

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