Google VPS is one of the two most popular ways to use the cloud to host your website. A virtual private server is essentially a single physical server sold commercially by an Internet data hosting provider as a managed service. The virtual private server functions in a fully virtual environment but a portion of the system is dedicated to it, this is not the case with VPS hosting. If you think VPS sounds too much like a bad thing then here is a quick and simple comparison between the two.
Physical Vs Virtual - The main difference between Google VPS and other similar web hosting services is the way they are setup. With physical VPS you actually own the physical hardware, this means you are able to install any software you want on the machine and assign them a role you define. Virtual private servers on the other hand use the software package from an external source, this means you cannot modify or install anything on the machine and you must be sure that the software packages you use are free of malware and viruses. This is a major difference and is the reason why many people think that VPS is better than its equivalent.
Installing & Configuring - One of the biggest advantages of Google VPS over a physical server is that it can be setup very quickly and easily. You don't have to spend a lot of time configuring it as it comes with all the tools are configured. All you need to do is access the control panel and there you will find all the tools you need to get your computing up and running. Another big advantage with VPS is that it comes with its own operating system. If you were to use a physical server, you would have to use the operating system that came with the hosting company and may not have the luxury of picking your OS.
There are also other benefits that VPS has over the competition. The main advantage is obviously that you will save money. When you compare costs of a VPS and a dedicated hosting, Google Cloud clearly wins in the savings department. If you were to use another solution, such as Red Hat, Gentoo or others, you would also have to spend a lot more time setting up and configuring. With VPS, you simply fire up the VPS and begin computing away.
Another advantage with Google Cloud Server is that it is more flexible in the sense that you can scale up and down as required. With other solutions you have to either buy expensive hardware or take up another space for hosting. You can't do that with a cloud server. In fact, if you get too much computing power, you won't be able to run it on your own.
In addition to these two major advantages, Google VPS also offers several other perks. One of them is called Google Virtual Private Database which is used to store information for the websites that are hosted by Google. The database is quite useful and helps in reducing the amount of bandwidth needed for the websites. So, not only does VPS give you lots of benefits but it also reduces your costs to a great extent.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the main advantage of using Google VPS is the flexibility factor. You can easily use different operating systems on the VPS platform. In addition to this, many of the security features offered by Google are also available on VPS platform. However, if you think Google is the only one who offers these types of security features on VPS hosting services then you are mistaken. Many of the hosting companies offer similar type of security features for free.
Another advantage of Google VPS is that it can make you save a lot of money. As I said earlier, Google Cloud Engine can efficiently distribute your workload among multiple instances of the cloud software. This means that you do not need to purchase more servers for running your applications. Thus, the best part about using cloud computing is that you do not need to invest a large amount of money for purchasing extra servers and building additional computing infrastructure for running your applications.