Not that long ago, the only choice for those who needed a server was to go out and buy one. Servers are not cheap and have always represented a significant monetary investment. The cost of owning a server does not end with its’ purchase, however. They also include the constant updates that need to be to be added to it in the form of hardware upgrades and new software that is needed to keep it running at peak performance. Then there are always the high electric bills. A solution to lowering these costs was brought forward a few years back in the form of a virtual server.

A virtual server also known as the virtual private server can be leased from a company. Virtual servers easily run Linix, some versions of BSD, plan 9, and Open Solaris software. After leasing it, the lease holder has sole access to a virtual private server via the internet that can do all the things a physical server could do at a lower cost and often faster.

Shared hosting is the most common type of virtual private server service currently available, but a new option is starting to emerge. This new virtual server option is known as the cloud. The cloud cost a considerably more than other types of virtually private servers, but also offers improved performance. Rather than keeping all the information in one place cloud systems spread it out across a variety of physical machines. It is ideal for established high volume web pages. The cloud can easily handle daily web hits of 50,000 and is ready to handle occasional busy days of up to one million hits.

There are some drawbacks to virtual private servers. Once a virtual private server is leased the new leaser is tied to that hardware for the duration of the lease. Also, many companies that lease servers offer shared hosting, with this type of virtual sever your information is running in the same box with any number of other peoples. As their demands on this limited box increase performance will go down. The last drawback is if the server crashes everything could be lost so it is a good idea to invest in backing up information when going with a virtual server.

One of the trends currently happening in the world of virtual servers is virtual server consolidation. Many large companies own up to 1000 different servers, that each cost an average of 3,000 dollars per year for upkeep and electricity bills. That adds up to three million dollars per year in cost. The saddest part though as that most servers only run at 10 to 15 percent of capacity. With virtual server consolidation, an actual physical server owned by the company is configured to run 100 different virtual severs at 80 percent of capacity. The savings companies get from investing in virtual server consolidation adds up to between 500 to 600 dollars per year per server. Also important to any large company, the switch can made to virtual server consolidation without any service down time.

The invention of virtually private servers is changing the world of servers. Every year that passes increasing competition continues to lower the price and new innovations and faster internet speeds allow them to provide increasing better services. Already, virtual servers are often a cheaper service than owning a physical server and offer superior service as well. The invention of cloud technology has enabled the virtual private server to be able to handle the demands of busy web pages. Virtual server consolidation is yet another update in the technology that is now allowing companies to make most of their servers virtual while still maintaining a physical server that they have control over.