Virtual servers work great for the web developer that is short in the pocket. Although Linux virtual servers and Windows virtual servers are the most popular, virtual servers come in many different forms.
A virtual server host make lots of use of virtual servers. Voice server hosts spread their services all over the world- The UK, US, Canada and Australia. This makes virtual servers perfect. The cost of renting several dedicated servers can soon add. Virtual servers can be rented at a small amount of the cost and offer the same service.
Website hosting is perhaps the most popular use for virtual hosting. Smaller website hosting providers, again might not have the financial resources to opt for the resilience of a top end dedicated server. A VPS that is well setup will have a redundant hard disk array, as well as CPU and memory on demand. If you are hosting one or two websites, virtual servers are also ideal. The benefit of a VPS is you are isolated from other users. Something you can’t do with traditional shared web hosting.
Creators of social media apps also make use of virtual servers. If you use Facebook you will know exactly what I am talking about. Facebook applications are used in their millions. You can do everything from manage a virtual caf, to tend to virtual crops! Again the benefit for developers is they can host these applications on a virtual hosting environment without the need to opt for an overkill dedicated server environment.
Virtual hosting also houses databases. Never have all your eggs in one basket. Using virtual servers keeps databases offsite and safe.
DNS in this same respect benefits massively from the virtual server. Just recently I setup a slave DNS server on a virtual server, at the fraction of a cost of doing it in-house. The benefit of this is that our main DNS is hosted on our web servers. Should primary DNS go offline, secondary DNS kicks in. This allows for total service!
Virtual servers have many uses, and above weve identified the 5 main uses. If you can add any weird and wonderful things you have utilised them for, please do let us know below.