How Cloud is Different from VPS and Dedicated Server?

By Admin-27-Aug-2016181

A server is engineered to manage business operations more efficiently and at a faster pace. So, when your business needs to select a server for your website or an application, it is extremely important to understand the various features offered by different servers available in the hosting market.

Moreover, modern businesses have modern needs of business agility like high level of scalability, remote access, advanced features for storage and critical data backup and more,to adapt to the rapidly changing business climate. Thus, there’s need of advanced hosting and Cloud hosting is the hosting of today that delivers all the above features. Although, virtual private server and dedicated server too offer above mentioned features but they lag in certain aspects.

While the differences between VPS and cloud hosting seem sleek in the first glance as both the servers use virtualization technology, but still they differ. This sleek difference will appear as major to you in the section which discusses VPS vs cloud hosting. The differences between cloud and dedicated server are also discussed.

Let’s find out the differences between the three servers on the basis of four major factors, important from the business point of view.

  1. Server set up

In VPS,a physical server is partitioned into multiple chunks i.e. servers which are further visualized so that each of them can work as a dedicated server. Each VPS runs its own operating system, has its own share of resources-RAM, bandwidth etc. but has to share the underlying physical hardware with other VPSs on board.

In dedicated server, setup is ‘single’ i.e.resources are dedicated to a single client, catering to his diverse business needs exclusively. It is a non- sharing platform.

Cloud server set up is the giant network of machines that offer/rent interconnected resources via any network like internet to the clients, on demand.

Differentiating factor– Both VPS and dedicated servers are virtual / single server set-ups whereas, cloud server is a setup of multiple connected servers.

  1. High Availability

In a VPS server, if a machine or part of the machine fails, your VPS will go down resulting in downtime. Similarly,when your dedicated server experiences a downtime as a result of CPU or hardware failure or disk space upgrades, it will too go down and leave you with no other option, besides to shut down. But in the case of a cloud server, when any instance of failure occurs, the system is re-routed to another physical node, available at that time, thus preventing downtime.

Differentiating factor- Both VPS and dedicated server do not guarantee ‘no single point of failure’ as they do not have multiple nodes to share the load of failed node,but cloud guarantees automatic fail over environment in the event of a failure, as it is inherently built with fail-first mentality. Cloud environment is redundant and fault tolerant, which ensures all time availability of the site and applications to the clients.

  1. Scalability of resources

In a VPS, you get portioned resources like limited disk space and certain bandwidth with CPU and the memory of the parent machine being distributed equally among all the other VPS clients on the server. So when requirement of the resources increases due to an increased demand flow, VPS would not be able to handle it. It will simply crash. 

Similarly, dedicated server hosting allows you to scale as per your business needs but the scalability offered is limited with some rigid specifications making resource allocation a troublesome and time- consuming task.

Whereas, scalability is the most attractive feature of the cloud server that allows you to quickly upscale and downscale server resources-computing, storage, and networking capabilities to fit any business growth.

Differentiating factor– Both VPS and dedicated servers offer scalability but the scalability offered by the cloud is of a much higher level. Cloud is a subscription based service that allows you to scale up and down on demand without affecting your existing IT infrastructure.

  1. Pricing structure

VPS servers offer cheap VPS hosting in comparison to dedicated servers as physical machine is shared among users but you may pay for those resources which you do not consume, but order.

Dedicated server is considered as the costliest option among the three- Cloud vs dedicated vs VPS, as its resources are not shared among the users. It is expensive in terms of hardware, as you have to bear the cost of the hardware, installation, set-up, and maintenance on your own.

Cloud is rated as the most cost efficient option as it delivers services on the basis of pay as you go- it charges you only for those services/resources which you procure from time to time.

Differentiating factor- Both VPS and dedicated servers charge you for those resources which you do not consume, but cloud meter charges on the basis of resource usage and reduces your capex. 

Besides above mentioned points, one major difference between cloud and the dedicated server is the anywhere anytime access that cloud offers. Cloud gives your business the global access which both VPS and dedicated servers lag. With Azure public cloud, remote access to your IT infrastructure is possible, as cloud is the set of interconnected servers.

Also, cloud storage like OneDrive and cloud backup are highly efficient than storage and backup on VPS and dedicated servers.

One thing more which is important to note- if you want to reap all the benefits of cloud technology, your selection of service provider should be right. There are multiple cloud service providers in India, who offer great services but still differ on various parameters. To name a few good ones-ZNetLive, CloudOye, GoDaddy are some of the providers who operate in India and across the globe.

If you have any questions about this post, please drop them in the comments section.


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