With a VPS plan, small businesses can take advantage of dedicated services for about the same cost as a high-end shared solution.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is like driving in the middle lane – not exactly the dedicated fast track, but unlike the inferior shared hosting lane too. Right now however, the VPS path is looking wide open, with more and more choosing that route over shared and dedicated solutions. TopHosts examines why the trend continues and what to expect down the road.

With a VPS plan, small businesses can take advantage of dedicated services for about the same cost as a high-end shared solution. Simply put, VPS is a server within a server, allowing Web hosts to partition a single unit into multiple “virtual” machines. It acts as a dedicated server but, like a shared solution, the cost of hardware and software is distributed across many clients.

VPS Popularity Surging
John Enright, Vice President of Marketing for Affinity Internet’s Gate.com, believes VPS hosting is currently taking off and will gradually steal more and more business away from dedicated and shared.

“Every year VPS plans become a more appealing alternative to high-end shared hosting customers and a more attractive alternative to dedicated solutions,” Enright said. “VPS is truly carving out its own niche and I think in the next 5 years it will overtake shared and dedicated servers, which are the options of choice right now.”

One of the primary forces driving the VPS rush, according to Enright, is the evolving technology behind it. When the virtualization concept began about six years ago, servers could not maintain a significant amount of customers, and the servers that did so were “high end” making it unappealing to end users and Web hosts alike. The Virtualization of servers also once demanded more resources and required a great deal of overhead costs.

Finer VPS Technology
Today however, VPS servers are vastly more powerful, with almost no overhead costs associated with it Enright explained. Prominent VPS management software programs, such as SWsoft’s Virtuozzo, Plesk, Ensim, H-Sphere or Sphera, have also come a long way. “VPS remote management interfaces are incredible these days, and they’re so powerful and easy to use,” Enright said. “The technology’s open to so many more right now.”

Thanks to the improved technology surrounding VPS solutions, Web hosts are finding it easier to offer it, which is in turn driving prices down and making it available to a wider market. With technology also delivering much more power and convenience, the service is becoming just about as attractive as a dedicated service, at a much lower cost.

A Happy Medium
Will Childs is Director of Partnerships for Canada Web Hosting (CWH), a leading provider north of the U.S. border. Childs says VPS hosting plans are growing in popularity every day because it supplies customers with a happy medium, for less cost.

“If you look at virtualization technology today, it’s coming into maturity,” Childs said. “Most developers in today’s climate don’t necessarily want to initially invest in a fully managed dedicated service without test driving the hosting organization first. On the flip side they don’t want to go through a shared platform either. VPS let’s them focus on developing rather than managing.”

Childs explained that evolving VPS technology is providing many of the same advantages of a dedicated solution. Every day, developers and small businesses are growing more comfortable with the power and capabilities of a VPS solution, Childs said, which also keeps them free from having to manage a larger infrastructure environment.