The Advantages of a Cloud VPS over a Reseller Account for a small web host

When I first dabbled into web hosting in 2001 there was a new craze starting: reseller accounts. People could now start their own web hosting business with only a minimal up front investment. Web hosting became a cash crop of web hosts running out of their parent’s basement. Since that time reseller accounts have improved, and have grown cheaper with enormous amounts of resources given. More importantly (for us!) virtualization technology was adapted for use in the web hosting environment, bringing about virtual private servers (VPS).
Let me first explain how shared hosting works, what a virtual private server is, and then how a cloud virtual private server from VPS.NET differs.
What is shared hosting?
Imagine you’re a resident of an apartment complex. All of you live in the same building, share the same resources like electricity, gas, and water. Shared hosting a lot like that. On a shared hosting account, multiple websites are all placed on the same server. Those websites then share all the resources the server has to offer, like CPU, Memory, Disk Space, Disk I/O and the internet connection. Each user placed on the server is typically given login to the server, with limited privileges. The privileges typically include the ability to create new email addresses, MySQL databases, and then the ability to upload your files through an FTP server.
What does a reseller account get you?
A reseller account works the same way as shared hosting. You’re still limited to a certain amount of resources as defined by your hosting account, and you still share all the resources available with every other site on the server. The difference is you’re given a login to an administrative panel; for a cPanel based server, this login gives you access to WHM (Web Host Manager). Inside the administrative panel you’re able to setup new accounts, so each website can have it’s own individual account. As well, this administrative login (typically) gives you access to monitor each individual account.
How does a VPS solve these problems?
A VPS gives you all the benefits of a dedicated server; you get administrative access, meaning you have the capability to login to the root of the server and make any necessary modifications. Whether it be installing a certain piece of software, or tweaking the configuration, you have the ability to do it.
Getting back to the apartment to metaphor that I used to describe shared hosting, with a VPS server imagine that you’re still in that same apartment building, only anything your neighbors do, has zero effect on you. Because each VPS installation sits in it’s own environment on a server, as a separate operating installation, the users you’re sharing a server with can’t bring down, or get your site hacked. It’s more secure, and reliable.
So how does a cloud VPS up that?
The fundamental problem with a VPS is that users are still being placed amongst one server, meaning if there is a hardware failure, all the users located on the server are still going to experience downtime while the hardware is replaced. The way a Cloud VPS Server beats that is multiple servers are “clustered” together to a create of servers sharing all the work. This means that if one server experiences a hardware failure, the other servers in the cloud will take over the work the failed server was doing with only minimal effects. The 2nd benefit is the cloud allows users to scale much easier, as additional servers can be added to the cluster, expanding the cloud, allowing users to easily upgrade their resource allocation.
Tell me, how is a Cloud VPS going to help be successful?
Simple, a Cloud VPS has 4 unique and significant advantages over a reseller account.
Security
Because of a VPS server has it’s own unique operating system installation, and you’re not relying on a server-wide security policy, your Cloud VPS server is going to be more secure than a reseller account. You know the sites you host – you’re able to implement a security policy that is catered towards your specific needs. As well, you’re not dependent on other users updating their script installations. A user who consistently fails to upgrade their forum on a reseller account is a security risk to you; that’s not the case with a cloud VPS.
Reliability
Much like security, reliability works the same way – what your neighbors do affects you! If a site is overloaded with traffic, the entire server is going to be overloaded with traffic. If a site has a poorly configured script causing memory leaks, the entire server is going to run slower, meaning your site loads slower. With a VPS, because all the resources that are given are guaranteed, your hosting experience is going to be much predictable and pleasant.
Freedom
With a reseller account, you’re stuck running the software your host wants. With a VPS you have administrative access; choose the OS of your choice, choose the control panel you like, choose whether you want to run Apache or Lightspeed. You have those options with a VPS, allowing you full control over your hosting experience.
Scalability
The scalability that a Cloud VPS & VPS.NET offers you is unmatched. With our cluster of servers, you’re able to scale to having the power of multiple servers almost instantly. In addition to the cluster, VPS.NET has two content distribution networks, with Highwinds and Akamai. Both of these networks can handle millions of hits per minute, meaning there is almost no site that VPS.NET can’t handle.