Cloud-based hosting has become very popular in recent years, although it still competes with virtual servers, or VPS. However, there are many indications that cloud computing is the future, as this method is superior to traditional solutions in many ways. What exactly is cloud hosting and what makes it different from VPS?
What is a VPS and in which cases will it be a great fit?
A VPS service, or Virtual Private Server, involves renting server space with allocated resources – RAM, CPU usage limit or drive capacity. Unlike shared hosting, in the case of VPS, the quality of a website’s performance will not be affected by other sites on the server (unless the hosting provider oversells, i.e. give more resources to users than it actually has; overselling can lead to a reduction in website performance). If using a VPS, knowledge of server management is required.
The service will prove useful for companies with constant or steadily increasing traffic, which are keen to utilise the capacity of their server space and minimise external factors, such as the effects of load on other sites on the server. Servers in the VPS service allow you to install your own solutions and applications. It is possible to utilise the full capacity of the server, thus ensuring high page loading speeds and potentially higher rankings in Google Search.
The cost of renting server space on a VPS will vary depending on the needs of the business and the specifications of the machine. VPS is paid for on a subscription model and the price is fixed each month, regardless of the level of resource usage.
Let’s see what the “FOTC Google Cloud Platform specialists” have to say about VPS vs Cloud.
Google Cloud Platform hosting service
In contrast to VPS, the cloud is not only server space, but also dozens of other ready-to-use services, e.g., Google Cloud Platform databases or serverless services for rapid deployment of applications in programming languages such as PHP, Python or Java.
Cloud hosting provides greater reliability, availability and security. The cloud offers the possibility to easily scale and adapt to the current load. If one day the traffic is low and the next day the website is visited by a million users, the service will handle all the visits without any loss of even loading speed – thanks to automatic scalability and adaptation to current requirements.
In the case of hosting or VPS, there are times when the service is unavailable, for example, due to breakdowns or maintenance work. Most hosting providers stipulate a service availability of 90-99%. GCP provides the highest availability of the popular providers – at 99.95%, regardless of load or location of users. This means that your system, website or application will be available continuously 24/7.
The cloud is a flexible solution that is ideal for sites that are growing rapidly or have seasonal increases in traffic (e.g. e-commerce sites).
The cost of the cloud is dependent on the consumption level. For Google Cloud Platform, consumption is charged on a per-second basis.
