Young children are always going to be outgrowing shoes and other footwear and garment types quite quickly, but it’s not as guaranteed that a business is going to outgrow it’s web hosting for their business website. Many will be just find with shared web hosting plans in Canada, but it’s usually a good thing when one of them finds that they need to upgrade from shared to business VPS hosting. That’s because in most of those instances they’re experiencing ‘traffic spikes’ to their website. That type of traffic doesn’t mean going nowhere, and instead it means a lot of people are coming to the site at the same time!
That’s exactly what you want to have happening as it means greater numbers of prospective customers, and this type of visibility will be what you had hoped to receive from your website. People find their service providers, retailers, and pretty much everything online nowadays. It’s for this reason that business often spare no expensive in having the best website possible and that it’s 100% SEO-optimized so that they are in those customer’s search results as often as possible.
The type of web hosting you choose is also going to factor into the gains your business get from the site. We talked about those traffic spikes earlier, and if they’re not prevented with business VPS hosting then it’s an immediate problem. It can mean some of those visitors making server requests aren’t going to have them returned and finding themselves on the homepage of your business website. This may or may not mean you lose on a potential customer.
If you’re a business in a competitive local market like Vancouver then it’s especially not something you especially want to take your chances with. And that goes double if you are a relatively new business and you are very focused on establishing yourself and starting to become profitable. With business VPS hosting from 4GoodHosting the chance of having your website unavailable to any customer at any time is next to zero, and another big plus is that you’re able to scale a website as needed so that it can be better set up as future growth occurs too.
What we’re going to do with this blog entry is discuss how to set yourself up similarly if you are in Vancouver, but the same will apply for any business in any big city in Canada. We’ve only touched on two aspects of why VPS is better, and there’s more to how you can ynlock the potential of your business with a VPS – learn how!
Better Fits
All businesses of all sizes are relying more and more on technology to meet their operational needs. What’s needed is a reliable and efficient hosting environment to accommodate their websites and applications in a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective manner. A VPS server is the best means of doing that. But setting up and configuring a VPS can be challenging if you’re new to the world of server management and web hosting. A VPS needs to be set up right if it’s to deliver optimal speed, performance, and security for your site or app, the complexities .
Even the most tech-savvy types can find configuring it to be overwhelming, and for a small business owner who want to do as much themselves as possible it may be too much to take on. Not to worry though, here we have six simple steps to configure your virtual private server like a pro and with any type of web hosting OS.
Some people may not really get what makes a VPS different from a server but it has everything to do with the concept of the server being yours exclusively. Up until not long ago websites were hosted on physical servers, each hosting multiple websites simultaneously. There are limitations to this, where the performance of one website could be affected by the traffic and activities of others on the same server. There’s not enough of the resources needed to go around.
With business VPS hosting you have a dedicated portion of a physical server for your projects. Your dedicated virtual space operates independently from and unaffected by others, deliver better performance, superior security, and increased control over your website. When you have a VPS hosting plan the hosting provider employs cloud virtualization software to partition a physical server into multiple virtual servers.
Each virtual server is isolated and operates with its own set of resources - CPU power, RAM, and storage. This segregation is what promotes the benefits of a dedicated server being offered at a fraction of the cost. It will be the perfect web hosting fit for a lot of businesses and while VPS hosting plans do cost more it is often well worth the investment in an online presence for a business.
VPS or Dedicated Server
For the very few out there who don’t find a fit with it then the only 1-higher option is a dedicated server. Plenty of large corporations and major retailers will have one of these, and as you’d guess it is the most expensive type of web hosting. Probably not going to be a consideration for most mid-sized businesses in Vancouver that are weighing their options with this, but if there is a VPS vs dedicated hosting discussion going on then it might make sense for us to look at it for a bit.
A dedicated server is an entire physical server devoted solely to your website or application. With one there is complete control and exclusive access to all of its resources, such as the processor, memory, storage, and bandwidth. You have the freedom to customize and configure the server according to your specific requirements.
Dedicated Hosting Advantages:
- Faster load times, enhanced security, and improved overall performance
- Best for websites or applications that experience high traffic or require substantial computing resources
- No external draws on the server’s performance
- Explore dedicated server options
This is in comparison to a VPS which will offer:
- Better affordability for small to medium-sized businesses or websites with moderate traffic.
- Scalability to easily adjust site resources as your needs evolve, upgrading or downgrading your plan without the need for physical hardware changes
- Flexibility and freedom to install software, choose operating system, and configure server settings
- Virtual cloud VPS isolation on the same physical server, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches
- A step-by-step guide to VPS setup and management
VPS Setup for Web Server
A good web hosting provider in Canada will take care of all of the details for you if you want to move from shared hosting to VPS business hosting, but here we’re assuming that this is something you’re doing on your own so here’s what you need to know to set up a web server for business VPS hosting if that’s the case. You’ll first need to install a web server software such as Apache or Nginx so that you can host websites and deliver content over the internet. Next you’ll need to configure the server to listen on the desired port, typically port 80 for HTTP or port 443 for HTTPS, to ensure encrypted traffic.
Step three is to set up your website files in the appropriate directory on the server, and then the you’ll need to open the necessary ports in the firewall to allow incoming web traffic You can test the web server’s functionality by visiting your VPS IP address in a web browser, and this is usually done when you set up a database server. The most common choices are based on their practicality, and that’s why most people choose MySQL or PostgreSQL.
The remaining steps here are:
- Configure the server to listen on the desired port, usually port 3306 for MySQL or port 5432 for PostgreSQL
- Set up your user accounts and have the necessary databases for your applications created
- Open the relevant ports in the firewall
- Test the database server’s connectivity using a client application like MySQL Workbench or pgAdmin
The last part we’ll go over here is the process for setting up a VPN server. Most people moving to VPS hosting will install a VPN like OpenVPN or WireGuard. They next configure their server according to your desired settings, including network configuration, encryption protocols, and authentication methods. After this the next move is with client configuration files that will allow users to connect to the VPN server, and you will also need to open the necessary ports in the firewall to allow VPN traffic.
Keep in mind that managing a VPS involves several ongoing tasks to ensure optimal performance, security, and reliability. It’s important to be on top of resource usage and performance, updating software and applying security patches, regular data backups, and troubleshooting and resolving any issues that may arise. VPS management does require considerable knowledge and expertise. Unlock the potential of your business with a VPS – learn how!
