Traditionally web hosting was provided by either Shared hosting or Dedicated hosting.

Shared Hosting provides low end services for website owners that have basic website needs, with a large number of websites are hosted on a single server, but with restrictions on access (eg no Telnet, limited software flexibility). All sites share the same webserver, email, ftp and database applications. If one site is compromised or crashes, then all other sites are affected as well.

Dedicated server hosting provides a single account to meet the needs of sophisticated website owners who demand robust and mission critical performance and/or high security. The entire hardware and software resources of the machine are dedicated solely to that site.

Unfortunately, many Website owners do not fit into either of the above categories. Once shared hosting customers begin to augment their sites, they require more services that are unavailable through a shared hosting solutions. In addition, these Website owners cannot justify the transition to a dedicated server solution because of the cost penalty this entails. As a result, this customer segment does not receive a full solution for its Website needs. Having a dedicated server with its constant demands for technical support and enhanced Website functionality, it can become an unprofitable burden.

Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) hosting is an exciting new technology that bridges the gap between traditional shared hosting and dedicated hosting. A VDS offers all the security and flexibility of a dedicated server, but in a shared environment. All VDS’s are sandboxed for security; each receives guaranteed portions of CPU, disk etc and each runs its own copies of the web server, email, ftp, database applications. However as a number of VDS’s can still physically share the same server the cost of hosting is greatly reduced.

Irish Domains offer Virtual Dedicated Servers at Shared hosting prices.