Cloud Hosting Vs VPS

If you have recently started a new business, or are launching a website for the first time, you may be wondering which web hosting service is right for you. There is no right, wrong, or one-size-fits-all answer to this question, it depends on your unique needs and preferences. To help make your decision easier, however, we have compared the differences and benefits of VPS and cloud hosting below!

What is VPS?

VPS, or virtual private server, are basically hosted on one physical server, split into smaller dedicated servers. Although there are multiple instances on one dedicated server, there is no exchange of data or resources between each individual server. Most providers offer fixed resources such as CPU, RAM and Storage. You can select the operating system of choice and control panel if required. As they act just like a dedicated server, you can configure the server to meet your requirements. VPS servers, however, can be slightly unreliable compared to other hosting services, as their performance can vary depending on the up-time of the physical server.

What is cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting is similar to VPS, expect rather than hosted on a single server,  a cloud platform is provisioned on a fully redundant cluster of dedicated servers and storage devices. Utilising virtualisation technology such as VMware, if there is any hardware failure, your server will simply move to another server seamlessly,  giving you the up-time required for missions critical websites and applications. Resources on a cloud server can also be scaled with ease, to meet the demands of your business.

Benefits of VPS

• Flexible

Root access is available to your VPS to allow you to customise your VPS as your wish. For example, you have complete control over the OS and can change and adapt your server software as desired.

• High-performance

With a VPS you are guaranteed a certain level of performance and are granted access to specific server resources. If you check your requirements against your guaranteed VPS performance and server resources, you can find a suitable VPS for your needs.

• Security

VPS is very secure, especially compared to shared hosting services. A VPS operates independently and sites sharing the same server will never be able to gain access to another site.

Potential limitations of VPS

• Software limitations

Due to the nature of a VPS, there may be some limitations about software configuration due to the physical capabilities and capacity of the server.

• Scalability

With a VPS you are guaranteed a specific amount of server space and resources. This, however, means that if you dramatically need to scale your website, your VPS host may be unable to accommodate your growth or handle a surge in traffic.

Benefits of cloud hosting

• Scale

One of the primary benefits of cloud hosting is its flexibility. Any sudden requirements to scale your resources or network capacity can be easily accommodated.

• Reliability

With cloud hosting, there is no single point of failure which means you can benefit from very high uptime and consistent website and application performance. Should a physical server fail, your cloud server will simply move to another physical host.

• Security

Cloud servers are just as secure as a dedicated server, you will be given full root access to the servers to configure the firewall rules, and if required an external cloud based firewall can be configured as well.

• Customisation

Due to the nature of the cloud infrastructure, your servers resources can be customised to meet your exact requirements.

Potential limitations of cloud hosting

There aren’t really any downsides to cloud hosting, other than the fact that there are a lot of companies who use the words “cloud hosting”, very loosely. A true cloud platform will be based on a cluster of servers and storage and should have no single point of failure at all. Many organisations are selling a VPS as a cloud server, but they are very different, so be careful when selecting your host.

VPS vs cloud hosting: which is right for me?

As previously mentioned, there is no right or wrong answer about which hosting service is right for you, it depends on your unique preferences and requirements.

If you are looking for a cheaper platform, your website or application isn’t mission critical, and scaling isn’t an issue you are currently concerned with, you may be better of using a VPS server. If, however, you’d like to future proof your business and plan to scale and grow your business, cloud hosting would be the right choice for you.

Contact CWCS

If you’d like to learn more about either VPS or cloud hosting, or would like to move forward and secure one of these services for your website, do not hesitate to contact CWCS today. We can talk with you at length about your business needs and requirements and help you find the hosting solution that best addresses your needs. For more information about our hosting services, get in touch with a member of our expert team.

Have your own opinion on the VPS vs cloud hosting debate? Tweet us at @cwcshosting