It’s fairly common for a young family to outgrow their living arrangement as the family grows and separate bedrooms become more of a necessity than a nicety. This often means moving into a detached home, and as you’ll all know that space and ability to accommodate the kids comes with a higher price attached to it. No one is going to be raising kids in a website, but the same sort of concept with outgrowing the current arrangement can apply when moving from shared web hosting to VPS web hosting. In that case it’s usually not so much the website is growing, but rather the numbers of people visiting it are increasing in numbers exponentially.
Which is a good thing, of course, and leads us to discussing the best Linux VPS hosting provider in Canada.
Linux gets tops marks as a web hosting OS because it’s widespread compatibility with websites, and then with VPS hosting an entire server is made available for that website and that website only. Here at 4GoodHosting we have your choice of Linux web hosting, Windows web hosting, or WordPress web hosting along with the option to have managed web hosting. The advantages of having managed hosting is that everything that’s required in the way of site optimization, plus SEO and security fixes as needed for the site. There’s more to those advantages too, and managed VPS hosting is a popular choice for business owners who know that their website is a pivotal resource in connecting with new customers.
Others who are a little more web savvy may choose to go with self-managed VPS hosting and task themselves with what’s needed to have their website functioning at its best. That’s fine and it is a way to save some money as part of an operating budget. We are always here to help you find your ideal VPS in Canada, but we can also do and will look at with this blog entry are tips to cut costs and stay efficient when you have standard VPS hosting and are more hands-on with what’s required for your website. One of the things you may need to do eventually is scale websites, and that’s going to be one of the more challenging tasks that can be taken care of for you if you choose managed web hosting.
That can be a different discussion for a different time though, and so without setting the stage any more let’s get right into the small amount of advice we have for making self-managed VPS hosting as easily doable as possible.
Full Freedom
The reason some may choose to go with non-managed VPS hosting is because the will have complete freedom over their hosting environment. There’s not the same level of advantage there for a regular website owner, but those needing to create a custom setup will often find that a self-managed server with root access is preferable for them. This can factor into the considerations people have when deciding on the best Linux VPS hosting provider in Canada, and especially if the provider’s VPS hosting is a decidedly better value as compared to managed hosting.
Root privileges over SSH are also required if there’s a wish to experiment with different technologies and solutions. With a self-managed server, the web host’s technical team will have fewer responsibilities, and this results in lower user fees. Good news if you’re on a budget and with a self-managed plan you’re able to implement a few additional cost-saving techniques that can make an even more significant difference on your balance sheet. Where we’ll need to start with all of this is pointing out the difference between managed and self-managed hosting.
With managed services the websites will be optimized for website owners, and this is usually very beneficial for those of them who are very busy with everything else and have a lot on their plate. The provider will deploy the server, install the OS, and sets up the remainder of the software needed for running a website. Examples being the tools that enable support for the required programming languages, the database engine and management system, the web hosting control panel, and other requirements.
Go managed and you’ll also have your hosting provider installing and configuring various utilities that promote better server performance and security. The experts configure the firewall and any additional systems included in the plan, set up automatic backups, and optimize the hosting environment for stable loading speeds and maximum uptime. The host will also be keeping an eye on your site and ensure it performs well at all times - monitoring it, addressing any issues as they arise, and installing all the latest updates and patches. Plus performing various server maintenance tasks.
When the choice is for a self-managed server then the host deploys the server, installs the operating system, and sets up a control panel. But from there you’re on your own. It’s going to be best if you have a solid understanding of how your server’s operating system works and how you can optimize it for the best possible performance. You’ll be the one who needs to do regular maintenance, managing patches, installing additional software applications, and configuring existing ones so it’s possible to keep pace with project requirements.
We’v established that self-managed services are significantly cheaper than managed ones, and that’s because much less is going to be required of the host’s technical team. Individual providers have different pricing policies, features, and packages, so it’s not so simple as to say you’ll pay x-amount less if you opt for a self-managed VPS hosting plan.
Choosing a VPS Hosting Plan
Let’s assume you’ve don that. The price of a self-managed VPS will vary based on numerous factors, and it’s good that a virtual server is going to be a lot cheaper than a dedicated one even if you choose to have a managed VPS instead. The guaranteed hardware resources and the dedicated IP are big gains when you switch to VPS hosting for a website, and they almost always deliver more consistent performance and improved security.
There is also the way that it’s a much more flexible platform in terms of hardware utilization, so you have more upgrade options when the site needs to be expanding. Modern cloud technology also allows your virtual server to be redeployed with next-to-no delay, and this creates a more reliable service overall and one that will factor into finding the best Linux VPS hosting provider in Canada. If they have a self-managed VPS hosting option then you need to decide if you’re willing and able to take care of the website upkeep or if it’s better to pay to have it managed for you.
It’s hardware configuration that often sways people one way or the other. Sufficient resources to guarantee excellent performance for your project is going to be a primary need, but you also need to be certain that you’re not overspending on a VPS that is more powerful than is really required for your website.
So start by looking at what sort of resources you need to run the software powering your website. Anyone who is assembling their website from scratch may well find this to be plenty challenging. But those who have enough of the savvy to develop the site on their own probably has enough expertise to predict how much power it will consume. Things are more straightforward if you use an off-the-shelf content management system. The hardware requirements for these products are usually well-documented and not difficult to find.
Those building WordPress sites also have to take into account the number of resources required for both the core plus the plugins and other add-ons. And as we touched on at the beginning here it’s also true that web traffic must also be accounted for. What’s recommended here is to make some rough estimations based on the type and scale of the marketing efforts you plan to undertake in the build-up to and immediately after the launch. Even if you underestimate that the good news is that with a VPS you can easily upgrade your hardware configuration when needed. It’s pretty standard for any performance issues to be fixed by adding more CPU, RAM, or disk space.
What you’re able to do with resource scaling is also going to be a consideration here. Every server has a predetermined volume of processing power, memory, and storage.
When a virtual server is based on a cloud infrastructure it is common for the web hosting provider to allow for upgrades or downgrades with individual components as you see fit. But you need to know when your hardware configuration needs an update and if a server has a control panel, it will probably come with a tool that provides information on the current system load.
Resource Optimization & Efficiency
Often there will be graphs that you can use to determine exactly what percentage of the server’s resources you use at any given time. In the absence of them you can use your operating system’s built-in utilities to monitor load. This isn’t as easy but can the utilities can contain even more important information and checking these utilities regularly is something you should be doing. They’ll show you when your server capacity is reaching its limit and give you an accurate idea of which components you need to upgrade.
These utilities means there’s no need for guesswork as to what’s needed for adapting your server to your site requirements. If there’s a drop in site performance it may not be a simple matter to determine whether you need more processing power, memory, or storage space. They can also be useful when you’re scaling the site in expectation a brief influx of traffic because of a particular event or a marketing campaign. There will be a need to beef up your hosting infrastructure to ensure it can handle extra requests.
When traffic subsides you may need to do the opposite and scale down. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be reverting to the previous configuration. That will be determined based on what the utilities measuring your system’s load have to say about it. It’s good to be aware that not all hosts will give you the flexibility you want with a self-managed server. Choosing the best Linux VPS hosting provider in Canada may also involve determining whether or not they provide the utilities needed to efficiently monitor the load on your machine, and options for scaling the hardware configuration up and down.
We’ll conclude this week by talking about a few standard approaches to improve your site’s loading speeds and reduce resource usage. The first one is caching. It serves to improve your site’s performance by copying portions of your pages and storing them in a cache. When a user sends a request for that data files are fetched straight from the cache rather than processed. Web pages start to load faster and caching also reduces the number of requests the server needs to process repeatedly. The load is lower, meaning the server can serve more traffic with the same hardware resources.
Next up in this look at how to find your ideal VPS in Canada and getting these website improvements for yourself is using a CDN (content delivery network). These bring much of the same benefits that caching does, with copies of static files like images, CSS stylesheets, JS scripts, etc., stored in a cache. The cache is replicated on multiple servers spread worldwide instead of being located only on the production server. When content is requested it is delivered from the location closest to the user, and this reduces latency and means it appears on their screen much faster.
It’s also al good idea to minify CSS and JS files and choose better media file formats for improved server functions. Doing so will reduce the volume of storage space needed on the server plus lower the volume of data needing processing every time a user sends a request. All of this contributes to less server load and less needed bandwidth.
