The virtualization race is on.\u00a0 Now that concept of hosting several accounts on a single server as if they are on their own server has taken off, multiple platforms have been developed to try to perfect this emulation.\u00a0 Each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses, and there already exist long online discussions about which is better.<\/p>\n
The battle is just in its opening stages, but so far as best as we can tell, the leader in this area seems to be Xen<\/a>.\u00a0 This is all dependent on exactly what you most need it for, and do note that some hosts will provide more than one platform.<\/p>\n A quick summary of Xen’s appeal<\/strong><\/p>\n What makes Xen attractive to many users is its powerful flexibility.\u00a0 It uses a type of architecture known as \u201cparavirtualization.\u201d\u00a0 That convoluted word may be the last straw for some of you technophobes, but don’t sweat it.\u00a0 What that means is that underneath the Xen kernel is an extra layer virtual kernels.\u00a0 This means that each user on a Xen-backed VPS machine effectively has their own virtual operation system.\u00a0 The advantage to that comes from the fact that, since there is an invisible kernel controlling the action in the background, system resources that are normally static can shift around a bit as the users on the machine require it to.<\/p>\n The bottom line is that this creates a very robust type of type of VPS server.\u00a0 Many web hosts have seized on this and offered some very worthwhile packages utilizing it.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at some of the best ones out there.<\/p>\n BudgetVM<\/strong><\/p>\n Each of the VPS packages that BudgetVM<\/a> offers has roughly double the specs of the one below it.\u00a0 With 11 packages this gets pretty big.\u00a0 Since you are not likely to want to pay $1,899\/month for 64 TB of bandwidth, we suggest looking at their lower-middle packages instead.\u00a0 $19.50\/month for 1GB of RAM, 1TB of bandwidth and 40GB of disk space is one of the best deals you’re going to find anywhere.<\/p>\n Their Xen platforms run on 11 different Linux variants, and BudgetVM themselves operate out of 4 different locations.\u00a0 One minor drawback is that cPanel and DirectAdmin are both addons with large monthly fees, $20 and $10 respectively.<\/p>\n Crucial Paradigm<\/strong><\/p>\n Crucial Paradigm’s web site<\/a> explains their services in great detail.\u00a0 They also off a number of packages that more-or-less double each other, but they don’t go hog wild like BudgetVM.\u00a0 Just about all of their account types are arguably good deals for the appropriate customer.\u00a0 Even their top-level choice, the CP-Xen-8192, is only $199\/month for 8GB of RAM, 4TB\/month of storage and access to all 4 of your machine’s cores.<\/p>\n As usual we’re going to push customers towards the middle options here, though CP’s under-$10 bargain plans cannot be ignored.\u00a0 Their installed control panel gives the user many types of server reboot controls, from restarting the virtual server, to a hard reboot, to rebuilding the VPS’s operating system.\u00a0 You can even install multiple operating systems, and change them at the touch of a button!<\/p>\n