Introduction: What is Virtual Hosting?
Once you are done creating the code for your website, you have to host it on a server so that it can get uploaded to the web and become functional. A server, in this context, is a physical device and it is an essential component without which your website will not get up and running.
Acquiring and maintaining a server can be quite some work. Not everyone who wishes to operate a website is capable of getting their own server. This could be due to a lack of technical know-how or it could simply be because the website owner doesn't have the necessary time or resources for its maintenance.
In these types of situations, where the person with the website is unable to acquire their own server, they use virtual hosting. Virtual hosting allows a single server to host more than one domain or website. A virtual hosting service would save you the trouble of getting your own server by hosting your website on its own. For organizations and larger companies that have their own servers, virtual hosting can act to increase the capacity of each one and maximize the number of hostable websites.
Think of it like this. When you move to a new city, you have to find a place to live. You can’t buy a house right away, so you go and look for an apartment. The land and building belong to someone else but you, for the purpose of obtaining shelter, rent out a portion of it for a period of time. So virtual hosting is like renting some space on the server for hosting your website.
The Benefits of Virtual Hosting
The above suffices as far as the basic definition and concept are concerned. Let us now look at some benefits and advantages of virtual hosting, and what makes it a better choice than other similar alternatives.
Saving Money
Suppose you are the owner of a company and you are looking to host ten different websites; one for each of your product lines. If you are oblivious of virtual hosting, you will end up getting ten different servers, one for each site.
That would entail avoidable and unnecessary costs. You will have to pay for the physical maintenance of the devices as well as their gluttonous energy consumption. You will also have to get a proper IT team for their software-related upkeep.
If, on the other hand, you were to go for virtual hosting, you could make do with a far lesser number of servers. You could work with two or three, or even one. The expenses that would come in the wake of obtaining virtual hosting services will be far less than the cost of acquiring and maintaining ten different servers.
Saving Space
Another aspect that we have to consider here is the amount of space that a larger number of servers would take up. Ten servers, for example, would take up quite a lot of room. If you are working out of a small or medium-sized premise, that much area could be utilized for other useful activities.
Saving Energy
The servers will be using up a constant amount of electricity which could have quite an impact on your budget. Virtual hosting, in this regard, has no effect on your expenditure whatsoever since it uses existing machines and the energy consumption is not increased.
Virtual Hosting for Individuals
While the above benefits are for companies and organizations, virtual hosting for lone users and individuals is also a very convenient option. By paying a regular fee to a web hosting service, individuals can bring their websites to the net and avoid the hassle of acquiring and operating their own server. It also helps to speed up the site with no downtime.
AWS or Amazon Web Services is one such amenity available for individual-level hosting.
Conclusion
Virtual hosting is the process by which more than one domain name is hosted on a single server. It is via this process that websites are uploaded to the web by parties and persons that don't have their own servers. There are different hosting services available nowadays. People use platforms like Wix and WordPress etc.
This gimmick can be given the similitude of renting a room or apartment instead of buying a house. When obtaining and running a server is not feasible, virtual hosting is a suitable alternative. There are quite a few benefits, which we discussed in the post above.
