VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. It is a term used by Internet hosting services to refer to a virtual machine. The term is used for emphasizing that the virtual machine, although running in software on the same physical computer as other customers’ virtual machines, is in many respects functionally equivalent to a separate physical computer, is dedicated to the individual customer’s needs, has the privacy of a separate physical computer, and can be configured to run server software.

The terms virtual root server (VRS) and virtual dedicated server (VDS) are also used as synonyms of VPS it involves a way where the physical server is partitioned into multiple servers. Each of the multiple servers in effect carries the appearance & capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can be rebooted independently and can run its own full-fledged operating system.

However, VDS also occasionally indicates that the server does not use burst/shared RAM through multiple machines and may use individual CPU cores. The term cloud server is also used to describe the same concept, normally where such systems can be setup and re-configured on the fly.

Virtual Private Server offers a good balance between total control and a tight budget. Having a VPS account is just like operating a dedicated server.

In a traditional shared hosting environment, one account can access other’s files when not secured properly. It is a well known fact that people can read other’s passwords located in php files since they are all running under the web server’s privilege, and gain access to sensitive data.

A VPS account is totally isolated from other VPS accounts, because each VPS account is located in its own “Virtual Environment”. Other VPS accounts cannot access your files or data in the memory. You will have your own copy of apache, DNS servers, database server, and user accounts.

Performance guarantee : VPS utilizes virtualization technology that provides performance guarantee to your VPS account, so that no matter what other VPSs are doing, your VPS environment will continue to receive guaranteed amount of CPU, Memory and network resources.

Since VPS gives you full root access, you can set up any services or daemons as you like, such as DNS servers, email servers, web servers, java servlet, database servers and more. Imagine having a dedicated server now with at a very affordable price. Virtual private servers bridge the gap between shared web hosting services and dedicated hosting services, giving independence from other customers of the VPS service in software terms but at less cost than a physical dedicated server. As a VPS runs its own copy of its operating system, customers have super user-level access to that operating system instance, and can install almost any software that runs on the OS. Certain software does not run well in a virtualized environment, such as virtualizes themselves; some VPS providers place further restrictions, but they are generally less compared to those in shared hosting environments. Due to the number of virtualization clients typically running on a single machine, a VPS generally has limited processor time, RAM, and disk space.

UNIX web hosting refers to the hosting services and system architectures provided on UNIX platform to open source companies.

Hosting means a service offered by company to allocate some disk space to physically place all website related information on a server to enduringly stay in the internet. UNIX web hosting is an operating system which has the capability of providing a user website with security which cannot be penetrated by any means. UNIX hosting is entirely compatible with the latest craze among all the programming languages, PHP. UNIX hosting provides reliability and has very easy usage, with quicker problem solving capabilities.

UNIX is one of the most famous operating systems next to Windows and Apple’s Macintosh. UNIX web hosting has several advantages in comparison to Windows hosting, but at the same time there are certain downsides to it, as well. UNIX was developed during the 1970s, at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories, and has greatly evolved in due course of time.

Free BSD and OpenBSD are the two most popular flavors of UNIX environment. Both these versions are highly stable and secure. OpenBSD boasts of being the most secure open source operating systems throughout the world. Above all, it is free and maintenance cost of the web servers running on UNIX environment is also on the lower side.
UNIX offers support to all the common scripting languages like Shell, C/C++, Python, Perl, PHP and Java. However, these days the latest web servers developed on UNIX environment also offer support to Ruby-on-Rails and all other technological developments.

As far as database support is concerned, the popular UNIX hosting providers usually support MS SQL and MySQL databases. However, the UNIX web hosting service providers may not support all the databases. Therefore, it is important that you enquire about this aspect and pick a web host that support the database you intend to use.

The most important aspects to be kept in mind which selecting UNIX web hosting services and which have enormous impact on by UNIX operating system are:

1. Performance
2. Price
3. Stability
4. Features

Due to the benefits particularly in these four areas, UNIX web hosting is the mostly opted by many users around the world. However, Windows is trying to bridge the gap between the services provided by both the web hosting service providers.

A good UNIX web hosting provider must ensure that the customers get all the necessary resources and a good control panel to manage their website with great ease. A good UNIX web host will never let you make out that you’re making use of UNIX hosting, while the poor hosts don’t give enough resources, thereby causing discontentment amongst the users.

Ideally a UNIX web hosting plan must include all the features offered by a shared Windows web hosting plan, and there must never be any difference between UNIX website hosting and Windows hosting plan.
One will always get the added advantage in terms of pricing, if you pick UNIX web hosting services, and the reliability and flexibility of the web server hosted on UNIX platform is always higher.

Therefore, if you don’t have any business requirements that can be exclusively accomplished only on UNIX hosting environment, UNIX hosting can be a better bet. Moreover, if you happen to be a developer, UNIX hosting environment will give you the choice of making changes to the codes and also getting complete access to the root level of the web server.

Last but definitely not the least, Windows hosting can’t match the offerings of UNIX hosting environment, while vice-versa doesn’t hold true in majority of the cases. Hence, this gives an unfair advantage to UNIX hosting over Windows hosting environment.

BY:
Harshita Bhambhani

A service web hosting is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for other servers located in their data center, called colocation.

The most basic is web page and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web with minimal processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to subscribers. Individuals and organizations may also obtain Web page hosting from alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or inexpensive. Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Types of service hosting

Free hosting service: offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting.
Shared web hosting service: one’s website is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU.

Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a reseller. Resellers’ accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.

Virtual Dedicated Server: also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), divides server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualization may be done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers.

Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the server, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated server.

Cloud hosting : is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. A cloud hosted website may be more reliable than alternatives since other computers in the cloud can compensate when a single piece of hardware goes down. Also, local power disruptions or even natural disasters are less problematic for cloud hosted sites, as cloud hosting is decentralized.

Clustered hosting service: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution. A cluster may separate web serving from database hosting capability.

Grid hosting service: this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Apart from these service hosting there are other service hosting like managed service hosting, File

hosting service: hosts files, not web pages, Image hosting service, Video hosting service, Blog hosting service, Shopping cart software, E-mail hosting service etc.

Web hosting service is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these types of web hosting.

If you have started your business then this is the time when its presence must be felt online through your website. To have your website you need business web hosting services. Now there are many business hosting firms available on internet. The problem is to choose the right one that suits your needs and fulfil your requirements of business. Actually the success or failure of your business can be very much dependant on your website.

Online web hosting generally serves two kinds of web sites, first are those which are developed for personal use and the 2nd ones are developed for business purposes. Each of these categories further has more sub categories like free or paid personal hosting. Similarly there are different levels of business and hosting services are offered according to the requirements of the business web site. The key difference between two categories is that first one is hosted on same servers or shared servers, and they generally don’t allow you to run business websites through those servers. As there is business web hosting companies which offer you to have your business websites hosted at them.

Business web page hosting services have special servers to run your business websites. The cost of business hosting depends upon the factors like the traffic on your website, the storage capacity you will need for the data on your website. There are many other great features offered by business web page hosting firms like more database table, enhanced CGI packages and sometimes business email hosting too. There can be a facility of customer support depending on your need. Mostly small business website hosting firms are not really good at customer support department, so if you want to have good support in case of any problems, then find out what means of customer support they use.

Before signing up with any web hosting for business first you must check all the packages in detail offered by the firm along with the reviews of people about them. It is very helpful most of the time to read the views of people about different companies and their packages to have the real idea about the deal. As, not all companies provide services according to their claims.

Business web page hosting must have a very good system of customer support. Your business may not require the support 24/7 but still make sure that the support is available in reasonable hours to be availed in case of need.

If you have plans of selling things on line through your website then check for the required facilities with your host. Internet business hosting firm must provide you with the service of shopping cart also check if there are any extra charges for these services or are they included in the basic package.

It is very important to ask your provider of web hosting for business that how much bandwidth will be allocated for your website. Let’s say if they allow you to use bandwidth of 500MB per month and you have website which is 50 KB in size then you can only have ten thousand visitors on your website per month. If you have expectations of visitors more than this then you must ask for more bandwidth, but in that case you will have to bear extra charges. Business web page hosting can play vital role in getting your business a successful future.

Apart from that there are few more things which must be kept in mind like domain name which should be registered and easy for users to remember then there is security which is of utmost importance, then there is disk space with its entire graphics.

Now days it has become very important to use internet as wisely as you can for the spread of your business. As through this medium you can reach millions of people at a time without spending too much money. All you need to do is choose right firm to host your site and make it attractive and easy to browse for people.

BY:
Harshita Bhambhani