If you are unfamiliar with “VPS” and other terminology, this article will help explain the goals of virtualized hosting.
“VPS” is an acronym for Virtual Private Server, sometimes referred to as a “VM” (virtual machine). It is a common variant of web hosting, and could also be called a variant of dedicated server hosting. Read more about the technical nature of a VPS below.
A datacenter, or data center, is a professional computer hosting facility where businesses locate physical hardware. This is done to benefit from direct connections to ISPs, and to access electrical and cooling resources required for 24x7x365 operation of computers.
The premise of a VPS is to leverage the advanced benefits of physical colocation in a datacenter, while providing an end-user service that is manageable and affordable. This is accomplished with the use of virtualization technologies (called hypervisors) that manage the partitioning, or virtualization, of physical hosts into smaller sub-units, where each sub-unit runs its own isolated operating system. It is akin to setting up multiple user accounts on a computer, and allowing all of them to be used at one time, with the crucial difference that each user has an entirely separate operating system.
As an example, a fully dedicated server may have dual 6-core CPUs for a total of 12 CPU cores, and 64GB of RAM (quite a lot compared to an average system). Using virtualization technology, this server can be divided into 8 sub-units, each with 8GB of RAM, 1 or 2 CPU cores, and a separate installation of Windows or Linux. The sub-unit can then be interfaced with as a completely separate system. One user could shut down or reboot, or even crash, without affecting the other users. This is the main advantage to virtualized hosting.
Virtualization plays a major role in many areas of business and IT, and it is also beginning to play a significant role in forex trading and the hosting of financial applications. Given that trading and financial applications often require more stability and faster connectivity than any other type of application, the benefits of virtualized hosting suit it perfectly:
- Access to advanced hardware for a fraction of the full cost of colocating your own system.
- As above, the ability to utilize top-tier data networks and connectivity, without owning the entire contract yourself.
- Configuration of fail-over and high-availability systems, to ensure continuity of hosted applications.
- Easy scalability, allowing you to start with only the resources you need, and expand later.
- We perform professional maintenance and administration of the physical hardware and network components at no additional cost.