Virtual Private Servers

Virtual private servers have been in increasing demand ever since it was discovered, and this especially goes for computer security. For security purposes, Virtual private servers are employed to establish sandboxes. A sandbox is a mechanism for safely running programs by executing untested code, or programs from doubted third-parties or users. It provides a controlled set of resources such as scratch space on disk and memory. Examples of sandboxes include: Applets, Jails, Virtual machines, and Capability systems.

Another function of Virtual private servers is to provide honeypots, which allows a machine to run software with known security flaws. The honeypot is a trap used to detect, deflect or counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Because it is quicker to deploy multiple virtual private servers on a single computer, honeypots are easier to deploy for computer security.

Form these examples then, Virtual private servers or Virtual dedicated servers are used to split a single physical server into many virtual servers. This practice of partitioning a single server has been common lately with the development of software like FreeVPS, Virtuozzo, VMware, User-mode Linux, and Xen.

Behind softwares and hardwares, the Internet hosting service industry also has its share of virtual private servers to fill a gap between shared web hosting service and dedicated hosting service. Through them, root-level access are given to individual clients even without the physically dedicated servers. One of the competitive examples below is used by a growing number of people that need a customized solution to fill up the gaps in a shared hosting environment.