Data storage and access remain a major problem for many businesses. The ability to store massive amounts of data, secure it from hackers, and access it easily and reliably is as essential as any other IT function for a business.

Two of the biggest changes in data storage of the last several years have been the greater affordability of servers and the creation of virtual storage. In time, these two came together in the world of virtual private servers (VPS), which are an online storage space dedicated for your use but with no hard equipment on your site.

For a business trying to manage their server needs, a VPS through a service such as http://www.ipage.com/advanced-hosting/vps.bml could be just the solution they need. It is a solution that helps them manage their data without getting into a lot of the complexity of traditional hosting. The benefits fall into three main areas:

No local equipment

As we already noted, you don’t need an actual server at your site in order to use a VPS. That means no concerns about power surges, theft, water damage, dust, or any of the traditional enemies of computer equipment at your workplace. You won’t have to get wiring done, conduct backups, or upgrade the equipment periodically.

Instead, you establish service, get connected, and let the server take care of itself, all while you get the full functionality of having a server of your own. A VPS arrangement provides the best of both worlds by letting you have that committed space without doing all the upkeep yourself.

Greater security

Managing cyber security has become one of the most critical issues in technology today. The long list of hacks, breaches, and data losses experienced in thousands of businesses, units of government, and other entities has every consumer concerned about the safety of the data they’re providing online.

And as long as you have a hard server on site, you are at a very high risk of being one of those data sources. With a VPS setup, you have a dedicated team of experts monitoring your storage space along with their other clients, and they’ll probably fix any problem you have before you even know it, reducing website down time, security issues, and access problems. They will update firewalls, carry out software upgrades, and monitor for threats as you go about your daily business.

No need for local staff

Good IT personnel have two distinct characteristics: They’re hard to find, and they’re expensive. The first reservation many of us had when we considered a hard server in the past has been that there wasn’t a practical method for ensuring that someone would be able to resolve problems that developed along the way.

By carrying the storage off site in a virtual system, this entire issue is bypassed. The actual storage is managed elsewhere by qualified people, leaving the staffing up to them.

The move to a VPS is a complicated one that certainly calls for some careful thought and planning. It represents a very fundamental shift in how you handle your data, so it’s not a solution where one size fits all.

But if you’ve encountered some of the problems that a VPS can address, the things we’ve just discussed could open doors toward a better understanding of how a VPS would work for you.