VPS Hosting versus Cloud Server Hosting

Understating VPS Hosting versus Cloud Server Hosting comparison is important before building your Web Hosting Solution. As you probably know, there are 2 main Cloud services available: Public and Private Cloud. If you have type 1 Hypervisor infrastructure such VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, or Proxmox KVM running in house, then you can have your own Private Cloud Infrastructure. The public Cloud is almost the opposite, the hosting provider runs his own Private Cloud and sells it as portions to the Public, hence, it’s Public Cloud.

VPS Hosting vs. Cloud Hosting

To decide, you need to understand the major differences between the 2 technologies or platforms. I will sort what I believe can be a decision maker helper to point the differences and features in both Technologies.

I wan to start by saying, unless you run a huge Enterprise, not everyone or even every business needs a private cloud infrastructure, therefore, most people and businesses rent a portion called “Public Cloud” where they can run their own few servers. That is the a brief difference between Public and Private Cloud.

It’s worth to mention, that hosting providers can host your Own Private Cloud as well (with almost full control over the IaaS platform) where you can run VPS and cloud servers as if you are running them on your own data center, it gives you almost full Control but comes with high price since the internet pipe is 10G and up.

What makes Cloud Hosting better choice?

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) resides inside every Public Cloud Hosting service, used for the cloud servers to communicate privately among each other, the Public Cloud Hosting provider set a Virtual Switch for your servers forming a Network similar to your Office LAN. Cloud Virtual Network is a type of Virtual Local Area Network, it is very similar to a VLAN concept inside your company.

One of the advantage of Public Cloud Hosting is the Range of Private IP Address you get which is similar to your LAN or VLAN IP range at home or office. However, it comes with price, hence the Cloud Hosting Server is more expensive than a Virtual Private Server (VPS) that has no Virtual Network, just a Public IP address. (FYI – Some VPS providers provide you with shared private subnet, where all users see each others. However, is not a bad idea if you have the proper protection)

A cloud server can be part of cloud servers group where all of them connected together to same private VLAN. It is most beneficial due to the fact that it is easily scalable through the Cloud Virtualization resources. Additionally, the architecture on which a cloud server is located has proven stable through rigorous installation and testing, almost everything virtually shared, CPU, Memory, Storage, and Virtual Switches.

You can say it is another type of VPS connected to a Private Network inside what is Called Public Cloud, therefore, you can assign a private IP Address for every Cloud Server. Public Cloud Network makes it easy to setup applications among the Cloud Servers without worrying about each VPS firewall rules, it is very similar to Home or Office LAN where everything is protected with centralized Firewall.

The VPS Infrastructure as a Service

DigitalOcean and Vultr uses KVM base platform which is one of the best, reliable, and secure VPS Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). I started to use both IaaS platforms since a while, and what makes me choose DigitalOcean or Vultr over other VPS providers are:

• 1G Network
• SSD Storage
• Reasonable prices
• SSH-keys Features
• Reliability and Security
• Backups and Snapshots
• Easy to use Control Panel
• Multi Data Centers around the World.

Remember that VPS’s IaaS is different than Cloud Server’s IaaS, for instance, Amazon Web Services IaaS meant for Cloud Servers and not only VPS. AWS considered a Full-blown Cloud Orchestration Platform, therefore, it’s more expensive than a simple IaaS such DO or Vultr.

What makes VPS Hosting better choice?

Network wise, VPS got its own bandwidth with one Public IP address, no isolated private network. Price wise, it’s lower than a Cloud server since it belongs to VPS infrastructure and not Cloud infrastructure Platform.

Cloud Server run inside a VPC, VPS can run inside a Private Network as well, however, the Subnet is shared among the users which makes it kind of Public. There is always a workaround in Linux World, meaning, a private network can be implemented among 2 or group of VPS servers using the OpenVPN Network above the Private network. So, VPN Network over the shared Private Network.

Bottom Line

If you are looking for a Simple Architecture, no need for Private Network, and securely host WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal for family, friends, and customers, then a single simple VPS is good enough for your needs.

Security and Performance Concern

VPS or Cloud provider’s Virtual Infrastructure is the main factor behind good or bad performance. Good providers will keep their Virtual Infrastructure always Secured, Tuned, Protected, Updated, Upgraded with the latest patches, stable tools, and useful utilities.

True Cloud Service Provider should be able to provide Advanced Services like:

a. Broad Network Access such Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

b. Elasticity through Built-in Automated Horizontal and Vertical Scaling, Load Balancers, and Application Programing Interface (API)

c. Measured Service like utilities such electricity and water for every service

d. On-demand Self-service  the ability to provision resources such vCPU, Memory, Storage, Load Balancers, and Machines based on your business needs

e. Advanced Resources Pooling such more vCPU, Memory, Bandwidth, or more Virtual Firewalls and Routers, NFS and iSCSI Storage, and of course Big Data Virtual Machines

f. Live Backup and Snapshots the ability to schedule backups or take either offline or Online backup/snapshots

VPS provider should be able to provide Basic Services like:

a. Elasticity through API

b. Measured Service

c. On-demand Self-service

d. Resources Pooling

e. Backup and Offline Snapshots

I consider AWS as True Cloud Service provider which will offer you rich and complex features, but expensive. On the other hand, DigitalOcean or Vultr are simpler and close to AWS, which make them more affordable solution for too many people, however, they don’t provide all features of True Cloud Service Provider. The 2 Performance Requirements that I am interested to look for when shopping for VPS are Bandwidth Speed and Storage Type, therefore, I highly recommend to have at least 1Gig Bandwidth and SSD storage type to run web applications.

Bottom Line

• Cloud Network equal to a Private or Virtual Local Area Network at your Home or Office
• Cloud Server equal to a Virtual Server running inside your vShpere, Hyper-V, or KVM but belongs to your own virtual switch and your own private Network.
• VPS equal to a Virtual Machine or Dedicated Server but it’s independent. It’s not part of any network except the internet. The only way for a VPS to communicate to any other devices is: using its Public IP Address.

Finally, VPS Hosting don’t provide Isolated Private Network, Cloud Server Hosting such AWS does, therefore, there are 2 ways to connect your Nodes privately together:

• Either you use the Full-blown IaaS such AWS Cloud Hosting.
• Or, Configure a VPN solution between VPS Nodes.

To finally understand the difference between Cloud and OpenVPN Networks, check the next Article.

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