VPS vs. Dedicated Servers Vs. Cloud Servers
As a business, you have plenty of choices when it comes to choosing the hosting model to support your company’s website, data, and IT network. Some of the most popular server hosting types are virtual private servers (VPS), dedicated servers, and cloud servers. At our Boston and Dallas colocation company, LightWave Networks, we offer all three server hosting options. At our two data centers, we host VPS, cloud servers, and dedicated servers in Boston and Dallas. When it comes to comparing VPS vs. dedicated vs. clouds servers – here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of each option.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
Virtual private servers (VPS) are virtualized servers sold as a service called VPS hosting. A combination of shared and dedicated hosting, your company’s website and network is hosted on a server shared by other companies, but the server is divided into different virtualized server environments. You have administrative control of the maintenance, repair, and overall management of your private environment.
Pros
- You pay for what you need, so it’s more affordable than dedicated servers.
- More secure than traditional shared server hosting, because software separates your private server environment from other clients.
- Greater control over the customization of your private hosting environment.
- Scalable with a VPS growing as your server needs increase.
Cons
- Oversold and crowded servers may lead to crashes during particularly high peak traffic days.
- Without comprehensive help from your hosting service provider, unmanaged VPS hosting options may be difficult to configure.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated hosting allows a client to lease an entire server not shared with anyone else, a dedicated server. No other company except yours is hosting their website and network on your dedicated server. With a dedicated server, your company has full control over the resources in your server and its configuration. The choice of operating system, hardware, and other exact specifications are up to you.
Pros
- You get an entire dedicated server all to yourself which provides you uninterrupted high performance.
- Full control over settings which allows you to completely customize the server to your exact specifications and in a way that best suits your company’s needs.
- Fast speeds because you don’t have to share server resources with other clients.
- Higher level of security free from any “bad neighbor” effect.
Cons
- An expensive option. It’s one of the more, if not the most, costly hosting models.
- Your company needs its own in-house IT staff that will have full responsibility for your server’s management, maintenance, and repair.
Cloud Server Hosting
Cloud hosting, unlike other hosting models, doesn’t rely on one physical server at a time. Based on the cloud computing concept, cloud hosting allows for an unlimited number of servers to act as one unified system. With cloud servers, your company’s website and network will be hosted on a virtual subsection of a server, but it will use resources from a network of multiple existing servers.
Pros
- Reliable; cloud hosting is supported by the hundreds of servers found in a data center with multiple redundancies.
- Flexible and easily scalable; cloud hosting can quickly accommodate your need for more resources over time. Your company won’t be limited to a single server and the physical constraints that come with it.
- You only pay for the resources you use, so this is a cost-efficient option.
Cons
- Setting up a cloud hosting solution often involves a pretty significant learning curve. This is mitigated when you rely on colocation specialists like ours at LightWave Networks.
- Since you share resources with other clients, cloud hosting shares similar security concerns to traditional shared hosting.
At LightWave Networks, in addition to the colocation services we offer at our Boston colocation and Dallas data centers, we also offer remote backup services, disaster recovery planning, IP transit services, dedicated servers in Boston and Dallas, managed networking, and more. To learn more about our top-notch IT services, contact us or call 844.722.COLO today!