Evolution of Hosting
Every website needs a web host and in this field there are a lot of options. For a new webmaster they often have no idea of where to start or even what they might need. The best way to understand what the needs are are to follow an example of a website.
Ok, we get this flash of inspiration to create a website. You spend several weeks researching, creating content and writing the web application needed to manage the site and need to get it online. You will probably get your site online with a Hosting company that offers shared hosting. This means your website will sit on a server shared with several other websites. You will get a hunk of disk space - probably a few hunderd meg to a gig or more to store your files and an allocation of a few to several Gig of bandwidth for people to browse your site. You are restricted to the software already on the server, so you need to choose carefully who will host your site.
Now, this is probably just fine for a site just starting out - as you will probably not have very many visitors until the site is promoted. Once your site starts getting a lot of visitors you might find that you want to customise it or offer more services. In most cases this will involve moving your website to your own web server so you have the flexibility to install software that you need and provide much more server resources.
Making the jump from a shared host to a full hosting server is both a costly and daunting task. There is of course another option in between and that is a Virtual Server. Now, a Virtual Server offers all of the advantages of a full dedicated server such as full root level admin access, ability to install whatever software you need, customise and tune the web server and database to suit your requirements etc. The biggest advantage offered by a virtual server is the cost. Dedicated servers usually start at over $100/mth up to several hundred, whereas a Virtual Server costs much less.
A virtual server is in essence a chunk of a very big, powerful expensive server. By using special software, the big server is effectively divided into several Virtual pieces that for all intent purposes appear to be a seperate server in their own right. The Virtual server gets allocated an amount of RAM, Disk Space, CPU etc, and within this space a complete Operating system and applications can be installed - you could even use a virtual server to set up as your own shared web host!
Another popular reason for getting a Virtual Server is to learn how to admin a server or as a test and development environment.
VR Hosted offers Virtual servers which you can use when your website grows beyond shared hosting. They have a range of plans - all of which are cheaper than a dedicated server. Their website is easy to navigate, easy to find out info on their virtual server plans and includes FAQ’s and contact information.
Visit www.vr.org
