There are a lot of web hosting solutions and plans to choose from, one of the most popular being VPS hosting. It is quite clear why big and small companies alike select this specific service. A secure, isolated virtual environment with all the resources that your VPS server will ever need is an ideal option for many. But sometimes the exponential growth of a website and the use of many applications can result in longer page loading times and slower performance. When that happens, it is time to consider upgrading your plan and getting additional RAM and CPU with it.
What is RAM and why do you need it?
This acronym stands for Random Access Memory. This is the system’s temporary data storage that is directly accessed by the CPU. It holds the information while multiple website applications and processes are running at the same time. The more operations are happening simultaneously, the more RAM they need.
If the VPS server the page it’s running on lacks this storage, various scripts won’t work, and the visitors will receive a ‘500 internal server error’ message while trying to access it. This can affect the growth of the business negatively as users will be less likely to visit it again after this. Businesses that have high traffic, dynamic sites and use content management systems benefit greatly from additional RAM as it speeds up the performance of the systems.
What is CPU and where it’s used?
This is the central processing unit. The server that the website is running on usually has multiple of them. The higher storage capacity they have, the more information they can store and process. Larger CPU’s can store data and handle it faster; thus, the page’ and VPS server’s overall performance depends on the amount of space in this unit.
A small CPU can be easily overloaded by multiple simultaneous requests. This leads to such issues as users experiencing errors while trying to access the page and prolonged site and content loading time. Getting additional central processing units is especially recommended for businesses with websites that are attracting a high or an increasing amount of traffic.
Why you should consider bandwidth allocation
Bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transfer and it is also very important for the VPS server. The higher it is, the better the speed, network, and connectivity is provided.
New website owners can calculate how much bandwidth they need by following these steps:
- Estimating the average page size of the site in kilobytes;
- Multiplying that average by the monthly average number of visitors;
- Multiplying the result by the average number of page views per visitor.
Extra space for traffic spikes should be included in the calculations. If you have a large site that attracts thousands of visitors daily, it is recommended to upscale a plan according to the expected future growth. Getting additional bandwidth is beneficial for the overall host and user experience.
The VPS server and the websites that use it work best when they have the necessary resources to accommodate all the processes and page growth. Upgrading a plan means getting more RAM, CPU, bandwidth, and storage. This is very useful for every site owner that is experiencing slowed system processes and performance.