Top 5 Factors To Consider While Choosing Virtual Server Hosting

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When you are running an online business, you need to be prepared for certain challenges you will encounter. One of these challenges is figuring out the right hosting for your website. If you are just starting up and you are a newbie to the whole hosting predicament, you may want to start with Shared Hosting. But, it can be risky as well, if your website is likely to expand soon. Moreover, if you are planning to set up an online store which requires high-end resources, then probably choosing Shared Hosting won’t go well for you in the long run.

Top 5 Factors To Consider While Choosing Virtual Server Hosting

When the Shared Hosting resources and support begins to turn bleak and inadequate for your website, it’s time for an upgrade. At this point, it would seem that Dedicated Hosting fits in perfectly, but you need to understand that Dedicated Hosting will be costly, and it could be possible that your website resource utilization is not as much as resources made available by Dedicated Hosting. So essentially you are paying excess amount of money for unutilized resources. This is okay if you have unlimited budgets, but its highly unnecessary.

Virtual Server Hosting is a great way to bridge Shared Hosting with Dedicated Hosting, offering advanced features and improved security over Shared Hosting at a cost much lower than Dedicated Hosting. But just deciding to go for Virtual Server Hosting (VPS Hosting) is not enough, you need to take into consideration certain factors that will ensure you have the right Virtual Server Hosting package and the ideal hosting provider backing you.

  1. Linux Vs Windows VPS Hosting: Preference of operating System should definitely be one of the factors under consideration. Most Virtual Server Hosting providers offer both Windows and Linux based hosting. Linux is cheaper and Open Source, supporting a wide range of applications and at the same time is user friendly. But there are certain applications better supported by Windows like ASP and .NET and if your website needs these, you may want to choose Windows based Virtual Server Hosting.
  1. Server Configuration: This acts as a foundation, the weaker the foundation, the weaker the construction. Therefore, the physical machine should be of high capacity and reputed brand. Then take into account the CPU, RAM and the Disk Space that is being allocated to you with your package and overlay it with your past performance and see if it sums up to get you better results.
  1. Full Root Access (for Linux): For better flexibility and ability to customize your system, it is essential to have full Root access to your VPS Hosting. “Root” is the administrative user that you can use to access and edit all of the files on your server (this includes system-critical files). You can also use root to install and uninstall programs on your server. With this you can have necessary scripts that, at times won’t be possible to install if you do not have Root access.
  1. Scalability and Provisioning: One of the primary reasons why you would chose Virtual Server Hosting is because conventional Shared Hosting is not scaling up to your website’s needs. You need to ensure that the VPS hosting provider understands that your business is growing and you may need to scale up on short notice. There are a few Virtual Server Hosting Providers like ResellerClub that provide instant provisioning which adds up as a plus point.
  1. Customer Support: Last but not the least, customer support. To keep it short, if the hosting provider answers the following questions positively, you are good to go on this front:

1) is support available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week?

2) Is the support team qualified and certified to handle server and hosting related situations?

3) What is the turnaround time for support via email or chat, if not the phone (as at times, call centres are busy and for some situations it’s better to have support online rather than on the phone).

There you have it, let this be the starting point of selecting the right Virtual Server Hosting plan and provider and as you move ahead with these conversations, you are sure to uncover additional aspects that you can dig in deep and finalize on a decision. Hope this helps and please share your thoughts and questions if any, in the comments section below!

 

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