Make The Move Towards Virtual Dedicated Web Hosting

Most webmasters today are familiar with what the industry calls "shared" web hosting accounts. A shared hosting account is where you rent a small amount of space on a server which is shared amongst many other users.

This is a cheap way of getting started online but it has many disadvantages. For example, you might encounter email delivery problems because of spam complaints against other sites on the same server. You’ll find your site will be grinding to a halt when someone else does some heavy database work on your server. You might even find your site going down because of a denial of service attack against someone else’s hosting, hacking or piracy related material on your server. These type of sites can attract antisocial elements!

How can you avoid all of these problems?

You can avoid this problem by upgrading your system to a virtual dedicated server. A virtual dedicated server will let you run your sites as if you had your own "dedicated" server, except that it is cheaper because you are really just using part of a server that has been split into multiple virtual dedicated servers.

You can find out more about this by searching Google or any other search engine for "virtual dedicated hosting". Virtuozzo is one of the main commercial softwares that web hosts use to run virtual hosting services.

You’ll find virtual dedicated server accounts starting at just $30 a month. You will get a much larger chunk of bandwidth compared to shared hosting, and none of the problems that go with a shared host. You will also be able to get multiple IP addresses that are exclusive to your sites.

So where's the catch? Not very big. You might spend a bit more on hosting each month. The main disadvantage of upgrading to virtual dedicated hosting is that you’ll need to be more technically proficient so that you can administer the server.

This will require a bit of time learning the necessary Linux skills to make sure that your server runs smoothly.

Many hosting providers will have a "premium" support offering which includes a bit more hand-holding. This is definitely recommended if you do not have much experience with Linux, or are new to virtual dedicated hosting.

With the increased speed and bandwidth that a virtual dedicated host can offer, and none of the shared hosting headaches, the move is one you’ll never regret. So, the question now becomes, are you ready and willing to take-on the challenge of virtual dedicated web hosting and save yourself some hard earned cash? The choice is always yours...

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