A virtual private server (VPS) can be viewed as a hybrid between a shared hosting environment and a dedicated server. The principal feature of VPSs is that they typically share the underlying hardware with other VPSs. This inevitably brings significant cost savings over running a dedicated server. However, unlike a shared hosting environment, a VPS runs its own operating system and is logically totally separate from any other VPS running on the same hardware. This 'virtualisation' is made possible using intelligent partitioning software which manages VPSs. A shared hosting environment has inherent limitations in that you are unable to carry out certain tasks and run particular applications. For example, it is not normally possible to run your own Apache or Mysql instance within a shared account. A VPS will look and behave very much like a dedicated server in that you are able to login as 'root' (superuser) and install and / or configure software components. Under a shared hosting account, you would share the following software:

• SSH
• Apache
• Proftpd (Ftp Server)
• Mysql/Postgres
• CVS/Subversion

Running your own VPS would give you full administrative rights over these software components. For example, you may wish to modify SSH's behaviour so that root logins are not allowed or configure Mysql to change its default behaviour. Having root access has many other advantages, for instance you can create user accounts for ftp/ssh logins and set-up custom servers such as a source code repository (CVS/Subversion) or a LDAP server. Despite behaving as though it were a dedicated server, a VPS solution is still subject to contention with others users of the system as system resources (RAM, disk I/O, network throughput, CPU usage) are equally divided amongst the users of the system. There is no danger of one user monopolising the machine. Conversely, a dedicated server means you have exclusive access to system resources. Some specialised tasks normally available to a root user on a dedicated server are also not available such as recompilation of the kernel and loading kernel modules. All VPSs are preconfigured to a working state upon set-up and our support team can assist in configuring any pre-installed conponents for you. You can sign up for a VPS account here