When we read the acronym VPN, and although we do not know where they come from, almost all of us know what we are talking about. In short, it is an intermediary between us and what we visit, so our information is masked and we move safer on the internet. But, What is a VPS? This is not widely known, and here we are going to explain what they are and how they can help us, whether what we need is business management in the cloud or if what we are looking for is something more fun like playing.
The acronym for VPN comes from Virtual Private Network, which in Spanish would be translated as Virtual Private Network. A Vps (Virtual Private Server) is something that in Spanish we call Virtual Server, but in English they also include the P for Private. Explained its name, what is it and what is a VPS for? Is about a virtual partition of a physical server which allocates exclusive resources to each partition. One of its main uses is web hosting.
Synchronized, secure and well-performing web hosting
As a blog editor, the use that strikes me the most is that you can host a multisite configuration of a content manager such as WordPress. A VPS that offers this option allows networks like ours to have a general configuration for all blogs, and that is something you can check, for example, by visiting our sister blog Linux Addicts: everything you see, and what editors see in the tools section, is the same, with the only difference being the main color of the blog theme. That is a possibility offered by a virtual server.
Another example is that players or gamers can use a VPS to host your games with other groups of players. Many of the advantages offered by dedicated servers are available in virtual servers, but there is a difference: if you do not need absolutely everything that dedicated servers offer, choosing a virtual one is the best option, since the price is lower.
No less interesting is another option offered by virtual servers: sandboxing. Linux users can quickly relate the word “sandbox” to an isolated environment, and that is exactly what this possibility offers: an isolated digital environment, with which we can develop and test new products and solutions without compromising anything on our system, server or network, simply because we will be doing everything in an isolated environment. In addition, the separation will also benefit customers, because they too can try and use everything they need in complete safety and privacy.
What else does a VPS offer us
Depending on the chosen service or company, a VPS can offer us the following.
- Maximum scalability, with which we can find the best balance for our business and grow if necessary.
- High performance, which will improve if the company uses NVMe SSD storage.
- Dedicated environment with full access to the VPS, all customized for our needs.
- Simplicity and autonomy. Usually we just have to worry about our work. The rest, which includes managing hardware and support, is something we can forget about; the company is in charge.
- Available for different platforms, which includes Linux.
- Unlimited traffic. This will also depend on the chosen company, but there are options with very fast bandwidth, so everything you do will feel smooth.
- Possibility of making backup copies exact snapshots. This is something that is always important: if we save the configuration today and a disaster occurs tomorrow, we only have to re-choose the control point that best suits us to take care of the problem that has annoyed us at a stroke.
It is clear that, like the VPN, the VPS is not something that has been designed with all types of users in mind, but if you need to manage your web hosting, improve your gaming experience or test projects safely, among others, you need a private server.
VPS vs dedicated server
A frequent question among webmasters is whether to decide to hire a VPS or a dedicated server, even further, new people do not know if they should choose a Windows server or a Linux dedicated server.
The quick answer is simple, always keeping in mind that we speak in a generalized way. A VPS in the end is a part of a virtualized server for us. If you do not have a website or websites with a lot of traffic, a VPS of today will serve you. Really if you are wondering that is that you still do not need a dedicated server, start with a shared hosting or a VPS and if it falls short you can upload whenever you want.
As for the servers, always Linux server unless you need to use Access databases or very very particular situations.
