Server Hosting Comparison
How does a virtual machine in the cloud compare in functionality, service and support to other server hosting technologies offered by Net24?
Key Metrics Comparison
The top five metrics showing overall differences between services.
| VPS | Dedicated | VMware vSphere Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target Market | Designed for customers moving from shared hosting for increased flexibility at a low cost. | High security, total isolation. 100% dedicated resources. | High availability, high performance. Ideal for systems requiring high uptime with scalable resources. |
| Redundancy |   |
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| Reliability | |
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| Scalability | |
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| Security | |
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| Flexibility | |
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| Cost | From $59.95 | From $265.00 | From $195.00 |
| SLA | 99.5% | 99.5% | 99.98% |
Redundancy – Measures the ability of the
service to withstand hardware failure without impacting service. This
redundancy metric measures the complete chain from the server itself through
to connectivity to external internet carriers and all access, distribution
and core switches in between. A five point rating represents end-to-end
redundancy along all paths with no single point of failure – the highest
possible redundancy.
Reliability – Measures the overall reliability of the service, including any software used to power and support the service. Software being one of the common causes of downtime. Reliability is a measure of visible availability of the service.
Security – How secure is the environment the machine runs in. Security factors include isolated VLANs, firewall options and level of isolation at the virtualisation layer.
Scalability – Can the service be upgraded with additional resources as your requirements grow. Such resources include RAM, Storage Space and CPU processing power.
Flexibility – Measures the available options and flexibility for each service , such as support for hardware firewalls, networking configuration options, and the amount of machine customisation that is available.
Detailed Feature Comparison
Compare detailed specifications of the three server hosting technologies.
= Not Supported,
= Supported
| VPS | Dedicated | VMware vSphere Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated VLAN | |
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| High Availability | |
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| Automatic Resource Management | |
Not Applicable | |
| Dynamic Resource Scaling | Up to 50GB Storage Up to 4GB Memory | Not Applicable | Yes Unlimited Storage 32GB Memory |
| Storage System | Local. RAID 5 | Local, Software RAID, or Hardware RAID 0.1.5.10 (Hardware Dependent) | High Performance SAN Storage. |
| Paging/Swap Support | |
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| Redundancy | - Redundant PSU, HDD, FANS. - Single Switch Port Connection | - Possible Redundant PSU, HDD, FANS (Hardware Dependent) - Single Switch Port Connection |
- Fully Redundant. Dual paths to all storage fabrics and networking. - Hosts /w Redundant PSU, HDD, FANS. – No Single Point of Failure |
| Underlying Host Virtualisation Software | Parallels Virtuozzo 4.0/4.5 | Not Applicable | VMware vSphere 4.0 ESXi Hypervisor |
| Operating System Support | Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Debian CentOS Ubuntu | Any Supporting Hardware | Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003 Linux FreeBSD Solaris Other |
| Net24 Maintenance Scheduling and Impact | Regular monthly patching to Hardware Nodes. Requires restart of nodes and VPSs. | None – Patching is performed by customer. | None – VMs are non disruptively migrated to other hosts during patching of Hypervisor. |
| Access to Server's Console (IP KVM/VMware Console) | Not Applicable | Hardware Dependent | |
| Remote Power Controls (Virtual or Physical) | |
Hardware Dependent | |
| Service Level Agreement (SLA) | 99.5% | 99.5% | 99.98% |
| Managed Backups Included | |
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| High Availability Hardware Firewall Support | |
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| High Availability Intrusion Prevention System Support | |
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| High Availability SSL VPN Support | |
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| High Availability Layer 7 Load Balancer Support | |
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| Private Network for Inter-Machine Networking | |
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| Free Domestic Traffic | |
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| Net24 Professional Services Support | |
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| Minimum Commitment | 1 Month | 1 Month | 1 Month |
| Provisioning Time * | 90 minutes during business hours | 3 business days | 24 hours during business hours. |
| Available Support | General Phone, Email Support: 8:30 – 5:00 PM Mon-Fri Fault Reporting and Resolution: 24/7 | General Phone, Email Support: 8:30 – 5:00 PM Mon-Fri Fault Reporting and Resolution: 24/7 | General Phone, Email Support: 8:30 – 5:00 PM Mon-Fri Fault Reporting and Resolution: 24/7 |
| Cost | Low – Starts from $59.95 | Moderate – Starts from $265.00 | Variable depending on resources required – Starts from $195.00 |