Virtual Server Hosting

Nowadays the phrase virtual server has become widespread in the online hosting community. This is not really a completely new technology, since the idea has been around since at least the 1980’s, developed by the big computing companies at the time on the Unix system (DEC, IBM, etc.).
Virtual server software (also referred to as a VPS software), is a technology that splits physical computing hardware into multiple logical hardware containers which each operate their own OS, separate from each other. Such VPS can be used for many motives including:

• Optimising hardware resource usage
• Roaming desktop substitution
• Presenting hardware independent hosting systems
• Running groupings of low intensity applications

There are numerous virtualisation technologies now available, such as:

• VMware
• KVM
• OpenVZ
• XEN

They all have their particular good and bad points, however basically perform a similar function, which is to generate a virtual hardware environment so as to run a private OS.
Customers don't need to build and deploy physical servers for the bulk of their hosting demands, as they can often simply hire a virtual server from a hosting company. Instead a client simply leases a virtual private server within the hosting company’s facilities and thus removes the requirement to buy any hardware at all. More people are now virtualising their online services due to the current economic climate. The need to not deploy physical servers for many people has been a huge benefit in terms of saving time and money.
In addition, the use of a virtualised server often leads to increased uptime for the client, as they are less affected by hardware failures. In the event of a physical server experiencing a hardware failure, most hosting companies will be able to move the affected VPS to another physical node with very little downtime.