Money is in the data. This statement is truer today than ever before – and the majority of enterprise executives agree that companies that do not embrace big data, will soon lose their competitive position. The amount of information we can learn about our website visitors is astounding and companies and website owners are on a constant lookout for new ways to collect, process, and use data. But the whole process of gathering and analyzing the data is still facing many challenges and can be very resource-hungry. Owners of websites that rely on big data don’t have to invest in expensive hardware to process all the collected information. Instead, they can “outsource” their computing power to the cloud – and, more specifically, get VPS hosting, which is short for a virtual private server.
What Is a VPS?
When you purchase a virtual private server package what you really get is a place on a physical server machine. Every such server gets divided between its users, and each of them receives access to part of its resources, which get allocated based on the selected VPS tier. The best thing about a VPS is that every virtual server instance provides the user with exclusive access to RAM, CPU power and disk space. This means that no matter what others who host their sites on the same machine do, your projects won’t be affected. Considering all that and its highly affordable prices (which at as low as a few bucks for the basic package), there are numerous reasons why a VPS could help your big data website.
1. It’s a Great Starting Point
Thanks to its low cost, a virtual private server is an excellent starting point and a bridging gap, on which you can learn, run algorithms and grow your business, before you invest in more expensive solutions such as managed cloud or in-house dedicated servers. It’s also a perfect choice for any company that’s just starting to grow its IT team as it usually requires a lot less management and workforce to control compared to a physical server. On top of that, if you sign up with a hosting provider that offers extra support, they might be able to give you a hand with your big data projects and help you optimize the server in a way that makes analyzing data most efficient.
2. You Can Run Complicated Algorithms 24/7/365
Speaking of analyzing and processing big amounts of data, a VPS allows you to run even the most complicated algorithms (naturally, within the server resource & power limits) without affecting the functioning of your website. For example, you can use a VPS hand-in-hand with your current hosting and deploy on it any applications that collect data about your website visitors. That way, the performance of your main site won’t be affected (so that your site visitors won’t experience any drop in the quality of user experience) and you will be able to access new data 24 hours a day.
3. You Can Fully Customize the Virtual Environment
No website is the same. The same applies to your business. While some websites might be okay with analyzing data on the same, pre-configured server that they already host the site on, others will require a completely fresh hosting environment. By getting a clean, unmanaged VPS, it’s up to you to decide what to deploy, which systems to install, and how to use its resources. That way, you don’t have to pay for stuff that you don’t use. And while this means renting another server, in the long run, customization will help you save a lot of money. How come? An optimized and customized server requires fewer resources to function properly and is less prone to causing any problems or server failures. This allows you to save not just on the infrastructure but also on management and the cost of fixing any server issues (not to mention the cost of your main site going offline).
4. You Can Use a VPS as a Security Environment
Another benefit of a VPS for a big data website is the huge increase in security and control over your assets – which is a must, considering that business cybercrime is on the rise. Because an unmanaged VPS provides you with root access, which allows you to choose how to configure it, you can ensure that all the necessary security scripts and addons are in place. But not only that. If your VPS is a separate server from the one that your website is hosted on, you can use it as a disaster recovery and backup environment. This means that you can host all the backups of your main website and data collected on a separate, completely independent server that won’t get affected should anything happen to your main machine. On top of that, you can set it to activate and take over the main website anytime there is a server failure, performance issues or security breach on the primary server. And if you want to take the security of your data up a notch, you can implement a VPS in a completely separate geographical location and balance the requests sent between the two. This helps you make data processing from different users much more efficient.
5. Deploy and Run Automated Scripts and Software
One more thing for which you can use your fully customized virtual private server are automated scripts and cloud software. By having a separate, independent server in the cloud, you can ensure that the scripts and software get enough resources to function properly and won’t affect your website should there be any spike in usage. Why it’s important? Imagine having a SaaS website with a sales page, customer service form, and a control panel on one server. These elements are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to running a successful SaaS business. If you don’t ensure the stability and proper functioning of the software itself, you will quickly lose customers who will choose other solutions. The same applies to running automated scripts designed to reduce the complexity of data analyzed by your team. If the environment is not fast enough, you’ll be wasting both time and money waiting for the results. This is also why the next benefit of a VPS is so powerful.
6. Scale as You Grow Easily
On top of everything that has been mentioned so far, probably one of the most important benefits of a VPS is its scalability. Assuming that you choose an offer that comes with at least 5 – 6 different tiers, you will be able to increase the allocated resources exactly when you need to, without overpaying for unused power or suffering from the lack of thereof should you experience very quick growth. The good news is, the latter can be avoided using one more feature that not all virtual private servers offer – dynamic resource boost. How does it work? If you have worked with data for quite some time, you can easily spot certain trends in resource usage. If you identify them, you can configure your server to unlock extra resources during the peak time. Where to find such an option? An example company that offers this is Hostinger (they call it Burst RAM). On top of that, they offer as many as six VPS packages with great resource allocation increase. You can learn more details about them following this link: https://hostinger.com/vps-hosting The best about scaling on a VPS is that you don’t have to move your scripts, applications and data files anywhere. Just log into the Control Panel of your hosting and order an upgrade – the resources will get allocated to you automatically.
Final Thoughts
A VPS allows you to manage your data with a lot more agility while helping you cut down the costs. By being able to access your infrastructure from anywhere around the world, easily scale (or downgrade) based on the required resources, you can run a perfectly optimized data center even on a relatively small budget, without having to invest heavily in an IT department. These savings, together with great scalability, security and instant access to data make your business a lot more flexible while providing it with a huge competitive edge over its competitors.
