A virtual private server (VPS) is a virtual machine sold as a service by
an Internet hosting service. A VPS runs its own copy of an operating system
(OS), and customers may have superuser-level access to that operating system instance,
so they can install almost any software that runs on that OS.
Virtual private servers are different from dedicated servers in that instead
of running one hosting account on one computer/server, virtual private servers share
a single server. This may cause one to wonder what the difference is between a
VPS solution and a shared web host.