Cloud Server vs Cloud VPS

With the fast-paced and highly technological environment that we have these days, it is quite difficult to keep up to date with the knowledge and information. One of the more prominent concepts in technology right now is cloud computing. This is a very vast topic as it entails a conundrum of other hybrid concepts derived from precedent technology and completely new ones. You cannot be a cloud expert unless you are well-equipped to identify and differentiate the different dimensions of the technology. First came the “as-a-service” models, then came the combination or hybrids to better address the varying needs of customers ranging from individual end-users to giant, multinational corporations and enterprises. Two of the most popular concepts now are cloud server and cloud VPS. The instant question is, “What is the difference between the two? Are they the same or are they only similar?” Here is an explanation on how the characteristics of the two define the fine line: A Bit of History VPS is an older term used to describe the difference between a real "bare-metal" server and many virtualized OS's running on one real server. Now that cloud or virtualization has become the normal, VPS is used again to define the amount of flexibility. An old VPS was usually on one server that had RAID 10 array. Not bad but cloud uses a centralized SAN system for disk storage and many separate hypervisors providing the CPU and Memory resources for the virtual servers running on them. What Relates and What Separates? Both cloud server and cloud VPS are running on the same virtualized environment, this basically means that resources like CPU and memory come from the same hypervisor. "Cloud VPS" is different in that total resources for all VPS's is set to one overall account.  Also, the OS templates available are usually restricted for VPS. While "Cloud Server" is different in that the resources available are only restricted by the plan ordered by the customer.  That plan can be changed to allow more if needed.  There are more OS templates to select from. Also, it should be noted that more than one hypervisor can be used. So in summation, "Cloud Server" versus "Cloud VPS" is trying to define how much flexibility a user has.  "Cloud VPS" is shown as restricted and "Cloud Server" as more flexible.

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Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.   About the Guest Author: Bryan Kinney is a technical engineer at GMO Cloud. He has been working in the I.T. field for the last 18 years but have been into computers personally for 29 years.  Always loves good logical puzzles and non-logical human ones too.  Originally from the Northwest USA and can get into hiking and survival camping.