Virtualization

SolidHost is one of the pioneers of virtualization technology. Virtualization technologies have existed since the late 90's, but have never been more interesting than today. Back then, each system hardly had sufficient processing power for one simple application, but today's servers usually have much more power than an average application requires. If your project or customer(s) doesn't require 200GB of diskspace and 1+ GB RAM, virtualization technology could be very interesting to you, as it can save a lot of resources, thus save you money.

Virtuozzo
Since 2003 we have started working with Virtuozzo, a product by SWsoft. After carefully comparing and evaluating virtualization technologies such as Virtuozzo, Xen, UML, Microsoft Virtual Server and VMware, we decided to use Virtuozzo for our production environments, as Virtuozzo provider by far the best performance, compatibility and stability. It has the additional benefit that Virtuozzo is a commercial product, meaning it comes fully supported by SWsoft. This is also one of the reasons we quickly became an SWsoft Gold Partner.

VPS technology
The backends of virtualization technologies are very complicated, but the funtionality and usability are not. Afterall, you won't have to worry about the backend, that's what we are for. Virtualization basically means splitting up one physical server into multiple - completely independent - environments, called VPS's. So one such an environment is called a VPS (or Virtual Private Server). Each VPS has it's own processes, diskspace, RAM, sockets, guaranteed CPU share, full root access, and so on. This means that each VPS is completely independent from eachother, and functions as if it's a complete dedicated server. A VPS can also be operated and treated as a dedicated server, as you can install your own software, control panel, system libraries and so on, at just a fraction of the cost of a complete dedicated server.

In order to make it easier to understand what a VPS is, we have come up with the following metaphore: You could compare VPS technology to a block of appartments. The block has one roof, but under that roof are multiple apartments. Each apartment has its own kitchen, living room, etcetera, so it can operate individually. Everyone goes in and out through the same door of the building though.

Performance
Virtuozzo’s lean architecture performs at levels consistent with native servers. Virtuozzo has no virtualized hardware and uses native hardware and software drivers making its performance unbeatable. Virtuozzo’s performance makes it suitable for high I/O applications such as data bases and email servers.

Scalability
Each VE can seamlessly scale up to the resources of an entire physical server. This is an advantage that even dedicated servers don't have. You can upgrade your VPS to have more RAM, diskspace, and other resources, without even having to reboot it.

Migration Capabilities
Virtuozzo features some unique migration features, allowing to dynamically transfer a VPS environment to a different physical server. This has numerous advantages, for instance if the physical server is due for replacement we can transfer the VPS environment to the new physical server without service interruption. Or if you ever would like to upgrade your VPS to a full dedicated server, we could simply install Virtuozzo for you on the dedicated server and transfer your existing VPS to the new dedicated server.

We understand that it might still be slightly confusing as to how it all works. If you still have any questions, please contact us at info@solidhost.com , we would gladly answer any questions you may still have. Afterall, we have gained all of the required knowledge so you don't have to.