Managed Hosting versus Virtual Private Servers
What is managed hosting and how does it differ from a Virtual Private Server (VPS)? Great question and one which often is on the mind of individuals looking to get their product on the Internet. The short version of the answer to that question is simply one of level of expertise and need for total control..
In a managed hosting environment the client receives a portion of a server, the size and capabilities of this portion all depends on the hosting plan. This type of plan would include a certain number of sub-domains, email accounts, databases, an amount of disk space, and bandwidth. Each of these can then be configured by the client through a Website known as a hosting panel.
Generally in a managed hosting environment all control to the hosting environment is through this hosting panel and an FTP account. Since the physical server is shared, you would not get complete control over the server, but rather simply over the portion of it which your hosting environment is on.
Alternately in VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting you get full and complete control over a server. You control which operating system (of a list of available ones) is loaded, and you then receive the full access username and password to the server. Its not unlike receiving the keys to the car. From that point forward you can configure, load and install any software you wish. However, unlike in a managed hosting environment, there is no hosting panel, and no automated method for creating E-Mail accounts or sub-domains. There are some programs which can assist in managing the server via a web-based application, but all management tasks are still manual.
Both types of hosting (managed and VPS) include a hosting environment which is based on high-availability virtualized server configuration. The disk storage for each server exists simultaneously in two locations. Each virtual server is equivalent to a physical machine which exists inside of a larger machine, and each server is completely duplicated on a secondary system. In the event of a server failure, your site will continue to operate on one of the remaining redundant environment servers.
Additionally in both types of plans we're available to assist if you need help. We're a company born in the premise that technology should work for everyone in a manner which should be affordable. So we will strive to help you make it work for you.