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Is There Any benefit of EC2 Over VPS Offered by Dedicated Server Providers?

Although both EC2 and VPS service providers use the virtualization technology, there is a significant difference. VPS is a split portion of a physical machine and relies on that single machine to perform. EC2, in contrast, is a cloud hosting technology that runs on a cluster of interconnected servers.

A physical server is partitioned into two or more compartments to build a virtual private server. Each VPS functions like a dedicated server with its own copy of operating system. VPS is often referred as an affordable alternative to the dedicated server although the resource capacity is lower in VPS.

Another factor is that VPS is in a fixed location while cloud is a cluster spread out in undetermined locations as chosen by the cloud service providers. It can or cannot be on one single physical machine.

The cloud is a further improvement upon the virtualization technology. In the cloud, the servers are referred as virtual machines or instances rather than as virtual private servers. Another important improvement in the cloud is the users do not rely on the service providers for the servers to function. Customers can do it themselves. Cloud is a self-service model.

In VPS Hosting, you must choose a plan predetermined by the host and pay for the entire month whether you use it or not. There could be many resources you do not need and yet pay for it. Cloud billing is different. You subscribe to the services and pay only for what you use. There is minimal wastage since users will pay only for what they have consumed.

A significant difference between VPS and cloud EC2 is the ease of scalability. When there is a considerable increase in traffic, VPS may falter in performance since it relies on the physical machine to enhance the resources. They are not built to scale automatically and rely on physical human intervention. VPS cannot scale on demand.

EC2 and other public cloud services scale instantaneously. Numerous virtual machines can be created on demand. There is no way a business can face hiccups in performance for want of resources when there is an increase in traffic.

The Amazon EC2 offers the resources like databases and others as a service which you may not have physical access to or any control over. In dedicated servers, you do have the control and have the flexibility of technically managing it. When to move from VPS to EC2 or rather whether to move or not, will entirely depend on the client, the traffic their business generates, the performance you are looking at, and the cost-effectiveness.