A virtual private server is usually an instant fix for any website that has outgrown its shared hosting plan and now needs the full complement of operating resources that come with a VPS. As that relates to eCommerce websites, it’s often an added expense that you’re more than happy to take on if you are moving to a VPS server because your site is experiencing traffic spikes in a way it never did before. We don’t need to explain how that will be a good thing if you are in business online, but we can lay out how Managed Linux VPS hosting is best for anyone who’s the furthest thing from a webmaster.
Being hands-on with management of your website and larger online presence may be preferable for any number of reasons, but sometimes a person’s hands are spoken for in the same way their time is spoken for. It might be nice to be much more involved in the entirety of what’s involved with managing a site, but if that’s asking too much of your time then choosing to go with a Managed VPS plan through your Canadian web hosting provider.
Further, it’s best for optimizing forums with VPS and if one is an integral part of your website and your forum there is increasingly active it’s also a very good thing. The same Linux hosting advantages come into play here too, and it’s the universality of the way Linux servers work well with websites that makes all of this possible for websites with online forums. Many businesses online will be serving a customer base that has a strong interest in the subject matters connected to those businesses, and having them interacting on your site around those subjects and topics is great for your site’s visibility and prominence.
So this is what’s to come here in this blog entry, a more detailed look at VPS hosting benefits for Forums. And even if you don’t have one, there’s still helpful information to be gleaned here about the way VPS hosting allows your site to be much more robust in its operations in nearly every way.
Good Traffic is Good
We know the word in the literal ton-of-steel-on-wheels sense has a negative connotation, but with our look at Linux VPS hosting benefits here we want traffic to be at the forefront of your viewpoint. Especially as it relates to an online forum. Search engines will view your site favorably if they can see you have extensive engagement on this through your site. If the number of people on your site and engaging through the forum is what’s causing the site to slow or fail because of the in volume then it is definitely time to move to a VPS.
But let’s rewind at least a bit and start at the start with all of this. Linux and Windows each possess inherent traits of their desktop counterparts in the context of web hosting. The distinct advantages to the Linux Operating System (OS) really do give it a lot more appeal for people who are looking for the most reliable web hosting in Canada, and that is particularly true for VPS servers and part of the reason why optimizing forums with VPS is such a good idea.
It’s fair to say that Linux is seen as the superior choice when it comes to server-based operations. It made its arrival as freeware in the early 1990s, and since then has reintroduced itself from time to time in different variations. The ongoing improvements seen in those variations has made Linux an OS that is cost effective, flexible, and highly efficient.
Superior Linux Host
Linux Hosting is the use of the Linux OS as the base for a web hosting server. Whichever OS you choose to go with is going to be the most important application to run on any device including servers. It will function as a link which allows all hardware on the server to communicate with and respond to application requests. We can see that the OS is indispensable for even very basic single-user devices, but when that’s put up beside web servers the role of the OS becomes even more important.
That’s because it needs to manage all the hardware for multiple users, and assuming roles that include but are not limited to:
- Running applications
- Dictating resource allocation with CPU time, memory, etc.
- Managing input / output operations
- Error detection and handling
Along with all of these we can clearly see that Linux VPS hosting has extensive benefits that you won’t get with Windows or any other of the types of web hosting. There have been many arguments about the superiority of various operating systems as the base for web servers. Not to say they’re vastly inferior, but the advantages that Linux brings to the table in this context are undeniable. First and foremost among them is host / end user costs
Cost
This has everything to do with the fact that Linux is an open-source OS, and without going into too much unnecessary detail that means it is built and ongoingly supported by the global web development community. It’s great that 30 years after its arrival Linux remains free to use, and we like that even though it has morphed into so many forms there are very few paid-distribution versions of Linux in the market.
As a result Linux is a highly cost-effective choice when it comes to web hosting. With the cost of the OS itself laid out in front of you, all that remains is how much you pay for server administration. While Linux server admins may not come cheap, Windows server admins do not either and factoring in some of these administrative costs is what starts to add to the expense of VPS web hosting.
But Linux hosting advantages can again be seen in the way the OS is less demanding on server hardware, and this leads to cost savings for the Canadian web host who is then able to pass those savings in their operating costs along to customers in the form on more affordable web hosting Canada. There have been some configurations of Linux known to run for over ten years without significant hardware upgrades being needed.
Windows web hosting, on the other hand, has always been resource hungry and has an appetite for them that seemingly grows as more resources become available. This may not be technically true, but it isn’t entirely unfounded at the same time. But what you can take away from all this is that running Linux for web servers is less capital intensive both at the beginning as well as for long-term operations.
Flexibility
Linux was very much created with a certain design philosophy, and as a result it offers web hosting administrators a level of flexibility that is unmatched to this point. Its highly adaptable nature means that it has been able to mold itself to almost any conceivable environment when a ‘distro’ (distribution) for that has yet to be created. How this relates to optimizing forums with VPS can starts with Linux’s ‘building block’ concept that makes it so powerful in this regard.
The Linux webhost OS is made up of several distinct areas that function as a whole together. Linux is made up of:
- Kernel – This is the innermost sanctum of Linux and handles core instructions. It is the kernel that passes on instructions to critical areas like the memory, processor, and other devices.
- Bootloader – The bootloader is task exclusive, and manages how the device that’s running Linux starts up. Linux offers users flexibility with their choice of bootloaders. Various bootloaders have different characteristics such as increased boot speed or the ability to handle multiple OS.
- Daemons – What Windows calls processes, Linux calls daemons. There is little difference between them except that Linux allows users much greater control over what daemons are to be running at a time, even with system starts.
- Shell – In much the same way the DOS command line that Windows tries to pretend it doesn’t exist, the Shell allows Linux users to input direct commands to the system.
- Desktop environment – Linux is far and away best here and helps less technical users work in a more convenient way. While Windows integrates it as part of the OS, Linux desktop environments are treated like themes and designed to be replaceable.
- Packages / Package Managers – These are the GUI-friendly options that lets users manage and install applications. Aside from applications, package managers also handle dependency, making decisions along the lines of does application A need application B in order to work. But with managed Linux VPS hosting you can have your web hosting provider handling all of this for you.
All of these items work together to constitute an entire Linux distribution. It’s a shining example of Linux’s flexibility. This is part of what makes it ideal to be configured as a highly focused web hosting platform solution.
Security
A server is always only as secure as it is configured to be, and that applies to Linux web host OS or Windows web host OS equally. But what you will do well to know is that Linux offers a massive number of options you can work with to harden it to the extreme. Again, this can be attributed to the way Linux has been so smartly designed.
However, optimized website security will almost always involve knowledgeable web host administrators working to implement the best security measures. It’s something your average webmaster usually isn’t capable of on their own, and again this points to managed VPS web hosting in Canada if you are one of them but you have site that has more inherent security concerns.
The extent to which you can build Linux security comes with the caveat that users are able to handle it, especially consider the way it can be time consuming given the level of detail required. Managed Linux VPS hosting means you pay more for your web hosting but you receive much more in the way of website security guarantees.
For many, it’s so very worth it but the best way to be aware of that is to not be aware of security concerns at all. They’ve been thwarted before you even had a chance to know of the way your site was threatened by them. We can see communication interests in this with relying on many security elements such as Secure Shell, Secure Copy, or Secure File Transfer Protocol.
These elements govern everything there is about all communications, and most relevantly with how files are moved from A to B. Among Linux hosting advantages is the way it enables needed services to help reduce its potential vulnerabilities. Each service, application, or open port is a potential weak spot that attackers can use for the infiltration or attack of a server. When Linux is shut down sufficiently tightly then any attack is unlikely to be successful.
Add to this the regular defenses that most web servers have (including Windows OS ones) like Malware scanning and detection.
Reliability
Greater reliability is a long-standing attribute that people have awarded to Linux over a Windows web host OS, and that’s because of its rock solid performance and secure design. But as Linux servers have grown in popularity that gap has widened even more, and today Linux is even more regarded as having the edge in reliability with lower incidences of successful penetrations.
One major frustration seemingly everyone has with Windows is the need for frequent system rebooting. It may be the resources are being handled just fine, but then even a single application update suddenly necessitates a reboot of the entire device.
If you’re running in any type of VPS environment and with eCommerce websites or similar ones, you’re going to see uptime as another critical need considering losing even one sale or new customer to site inaccessibility is going to a deal breaker. And needing to reboot your system while customers are trying to pay for their purchases is going to be a huge problem too.
Choosing Linux for your VPS environment can help you prevent system instability leading to frequent reboots. This in turn improves the reputation of your site plus helps you lower both operational and administrative costs in the long term.
Simplicity
At first glance it might appear that Linux now works very similarly to Windows with an easy-to-use GUI and smooth setup process. But the simplicity that gives Linux VPS the real edge goes back to the way it was designed and with so many distributions of Linux available there is literally something for everyone. This applies not just to the capabilities of the OS but even down to management, and VPS hosting benefits for forums are tied into this too. It’s true that certain Linux distributions are much easier to handle and deploy than others, making Linux the better fit or those with lower server management skills.
Getting your Optimal Linux VPS Hosting
To this point in the blog we’ve covered Linux in the context of web hosting in a decidedly general way. But even between web hosts in Canada with Linux OS servers there can be an extensive variations from one to another. You’re encouraged to compare them all, but if you do so then you’ll likely find that 4GoodHosting has much more of a collection of advantages when it comes to Linux VPS hosting. And foremost there is going to be the lowest cost for affordable VPS web hosting in Canada.
We have all of the same superior hardware and technical expertise that you’d find with other VPS hosting providers, but with other key differences that makes our web hosting better choice much of the time. And leading those is the availability of cPanel controls that come with all of business and advanced web hosting packages. It was built to be highly compatible and allows the direct port in from other sources speedily and simply.
Optimizing forums with VPS is made very doable here if you go with a VPS web hosting package. We’ll conclude by advising you that choosing between Linux and Windows as the OS of choice for web servers often isn’t so much based in performance interests as it is in just matching website infrastructure with a web host OS that best accommodates the function dictated by that infrastructure.
From where we’re sitting Linux much more user-friendly too while offering the same core benefits it always has. And with VPS hosting, Linux is a far better option when you have a website with a forum incorporated into it and that forum is seeing increased activity and participation all the time. Which is a darn good thing for your site’s SEO if so!
