Redundancy in Cloud Hosting – How is Cloud Hosting Any Different to Virtual Private Server Hosting?
The benefits of VPS Hosting
VPS Hosting is great because it is much more cost-effective than Dedicated Server Hosting and provides greater performance than in a shared hosting environment while having full root and SSH access. There is literally no real difference between a VPS and a Dedicated Server except that it is in a virtual container and one node is running multiple virtual servers at once. Our VPS Hosting plans now come with burstable RAM and CPU for an extra monthly fee; which is to say that certain aspects of eNlight Cloud Hosting are now available on our new vLite VPS Hosting plans. However, there is a disadvantage to VPS Hosting that you need to be aware of; to understand the fundamental differences between VPS Hosting and Cloud Hosting. In a way, you can call Cloud Hosting “Cloud VPS Hosting”.
The disadvantages to VPS Hosting
First and foremost, there is little redundancy. If the node fails in which your VPS is on, your VPS goes down with it. Unless there is specific back-end redundancy to prevent this, such as multiple nodes sharing the processing and I/O requirements of one virtual server (which is the kind of set up you’ll find with Cloud Hosting Services – and there’s many you can make a redundant set up, such as automatic node switching or sharing resources across multiple nodes).
What’s a “node”?
A node is essentially a “server” which hosts multiple virtual machines or servers. For example, if you had Virtuozzo VPS Hosting, your VPS would be hosted in a Virtuozzo container on a node.
How does Cloud Hosting differ?
Well, with our UK Cloud Hosting services, we have back-end redundancy in case any one node fails. If a node fails which has your virtual machine on it, it will automatically be moved onto another node. There’s no intervention required by us or you, as it is done automatically by the eNlight system. This means that if the hardware node that has your virtual machine on it fails or goes offline for any reason, the eNlight system will automatically move your virtual machine onto another working node with minimal disruption. Our system will also automatically start your virtual machine back up as soon as it is transitioned onto another node.
What about the “Pay Per Use” model of eNlight Cloud Hosting?
It’s become clear to us that some of our customers do not understand eNlight Cloud for a few reasons:
- The Cloud Hosting back-end set up;
- The minimal technical differences between eNlight Cloud and a standalone VPS; and
- The way in which you pay for your eNlight Cloud
eNlight Cloud is very simple to pay for, because you are paying as you go. It’s not a direct debit, your eNlight virtual machines are paid for via prepaid-credit that you “top up”. Whenever your credit is low, simply top up your credit – each minimum top up is £10. You don’t need to top up at a specific time frame; only whenever your credit is low. We also provide regular notices to customers on their eNlight Cloud credit balance every seven days to keep customers up to date.
But doesn’t that mean that you control the charges?
Our eNlight system automatically deducts credit from your balance every five minutes. We have vigorously tested this area of the system to ensure that it deducts credit absolutely accurately. We have extensive logs that you can tap in to and look at to see what your virtual machines have used in terms of CPU, RAM, bandwidth and disk space and the accommodating charges of that usage.
Conclusion
In conclusion, eNlight Cloud is not to be confused as a complicated hosting product and not just for those that have business- and enterprise-level requirements; but also for those that are looking for an affordable solution to redundancy that cannot be offered or guaranteed with a standalone VPS or Dedicated Server, a Cloud Server is the way to go. As well as eNlight Cloud, which is our recent addition to our Cloud Hosting services, we also offer other cloud hosting solutions; including VMware Cloud Hosting, which has a very similar back-end redundancy set up to eNlight Cloud. If you have any questions regarding eNlight Cloud or our other Cloud Hosting services, please contact our sales team for more information. Please also see the following for more information about eNlight Cloud Hosting:
