What is VPS Web Hosting & Who Will Benefit From It?

Virtual Private Server (VPS) web hosting is a form of hosting where a single server is divided in such that each partition is able to work like a dedicated server.  It's fundamentally a combination of        shared and dedicated hosting.  This makes it a great alternative to the two extremes in which you get an abundant amount of independent resources that shared hosting cannot provide, but at a fraction of the cost of having a fully dedicated server.

With the technology of virtual software enabling the creation of virtual private servers, each VPS can independently have its own operating system, and resources like RAM and disk space; with few shared aspects as CPU.  This makes a VPS ideal for website owners who need the extra, more reliable resources that can handle things such as site expansion, high traffic to their blog, e-commerce and so on, without having to make constant upgrades.  Moreover, VPS hosting would be very ideal for business owners who want complete control over their site with the provided independent operating system that gives extensive administrative rights to the user.

Even more benefits of VPS web hosting include:

Email Server
You have your access to your own email server that handles only email from your domain, which gives you more control, increased performance and provides additional security.  In addition, since the email will be coming from your own unique IP address, it also helps ensure proper delivery.

Root/SSH Access
With a VPS you get “server-level customization,” which was previously only available with dedicated hosting due to security reasons.  In addition, you can utilize the command line access and have the option of operating as the root user if you've got the experience to do so.

Burstable Memory for Unpredictable Usage Spikes
If your goal is to gain more traffic to your website, then you should definitely be prepared for it.  Let's say that the popularity of your blog is on the rise.  In addition, links to your website are added to larger ones like Digg or Slashdot.  On a shared server, this can become a major disaster that can quickly cripple your website.  But on a VPS, this wouldn't be much of a problem with the availability of “burstable memory,” which is a  pool of reserved memory that's available when needed, such as in times of very high traffic.

Security
With a VPS from a good hosting company, you should have full control over the firewall and can customize it to fit your needs. You dictate what services are accessible by what IP addresses. For example, you can restrict access to sensitive areas (such as the control panel) to specific IP addresses, so that only someone in your office can get access to these areas.

Conclusion
VPS hosting offers many advantages such as greater control, a higher level of security, and superior performance for high traffic and resource-intensive websites. It's a great option for small and medium-sized businesses or popular bloggers, and provides excellent value on a modest budget.