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Fast VPS Server

Factors Affecting The Speed Of A VPS

The benchmarks of Virtual Servers show a massive difference in performance between the different vendors. With some offers you get a fast virtual server, with other providers, however, the vServer is hardly usable, especially not for compute-intensive applications.

Be aware that you can’t rely on the marketing promise of many providers regarding the number of cores and the size of RAMs.

Below are the three main reasons why the performance of VPS is so different.

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Shared Resources

One webhoster operates several VPS per physical server. Since there is a fierce price war between the providers and vServers are offered at ever lower prices, the number of customers per physical server continues to increase.

A very common practice is the overbooking of resources. If, for example, a server runs 30 vServers with 4 cores each, the physical server would need 120 CPU cores. However, often only 24 cores are installed in the server. Thus, the 30 vServers effectively only have the computing power of 0.8 cores per vServer. One receives thereby clearly less computing power, than the 4 cores in the offer suggest to one.

For this reason, many vendors do not talk about dedicated CPU cores, but about virtual CPU cores (vCores). What a vCore is and what performance it delivers is completely open. So 8 vCores may sound like a lot, but if you are unlucky, each of these virtual codes is very slow. Only a few vendors guarantee dedicated CPU cores. Netcup and php-friends are among the few vendors that offer dedicated CPU cores.

fast server

A similar problem with RAM. With some providers, the physical server does not have enough RAM to offer the promised performance to all VPS. The 30 vServers may be equipped with 8 GB RAM per vServer, so the physical server would need 240 GB RAM. However, if only 128 GB RAM are installed, one can only effectively use 4 GB RAM per vServer.

For this reason, many vendors only talk about “up to xx GB RAM”. Some vendors guarantee a minimum amount of RAM that your VPS can actually use. But this information has to be searched for as it is usually very hidden. If a provider does not provide this information, one must assume that in the worst case hardly any RAM remains for one’s own use.

Regarding the overbooking of resources, the rule of thumb applies: The cheaper the offer, the more overbooked the servers are and performance problems occur.

Server Hardware

In addition to the number of vServers per physical server, the server hardware also plays a decisive role. Unfortunately, with the very favorable offers, hardware savings have to be made so that obsolete and / or slow hardware can be used. vServers often run on decommissioned, old physical servers, which the provider can no longer rent out directly.

This makes it very difficult to compare data. Even if certain computing power and RAM are guaranteed, it is difficult to judge how modern the server hardware used is. If the vServer runs on a 5-year-old server with a weak CPU and slow RAM module, you can’t expect top performance.

As before, the rule of thumb is: The cheap provider with competitive prices usually uses the cheapest and / or oldest hardware for its vServers.

Virtualization Software

Server virtualization generates additional load on the physical server, since a virtual computer and a virtual operating system must be simulated here. This causes a certain performance loss.

How large this factor is depends strongly on the server hardware used and the virtualization technology used.

Good server CPUs offer hardware virtualization support, that is, the virtual operating system is simulated with hardly any overhead on the CPU. Thus the performance of the vServer can reach up to 99% of the physical server.

On the other hand, cheaper setups rely on software virtualization. Here the virtual computer is simulated by software, which generates a clear overhead. Such vServers sometimes only achieve 30% of the performance of the physical server.

The so-called hypervisor, which provides the virtual environment and coordinates the various virtual machines, also has a major influence on performance. All that is left is to test the VPS and see what performance they achieve.

software

Conclusion

It is hardly possible to know in advance which service a vServer will provide. The decisive factors (number of customers per server, hardware used, interaction with the virus authentication software) are unfortunately not shown transparently by almost any provider.

Therefore one should fall back on experience values as well as compare different providers by benchmarks. Cheap VPS discounters should also be avoided. Its offers sound tempting, but unfortunately never keep what they promise and massive problems with the operation of the vServer are unfortunately not uncommon. Then it’s better to spend 2 Euro more per month to get a fast vServer that runs without problems.

Best High Speed VPS Server

Our comparison shows the best providers of fast VPS servers available on the market. We tried to compare packages that are (relatively) similar in terms of bandwidth, CPU, RAM, storage, OS and pricing.

Images: Acceleration Concept © Olivier Le Moal; server room © monsitj – Fotolia.com
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