What is RAM in Web Hosting and what is it for

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What is RAM in Web Hosting and what is it for?
The web hosting service has many features similar
to those found on personal computers. Among
them, we can highlight disk space, processing,
and RAM. In this article, we will deal
exclusively with RAM and its applications in the
universe of web hosting. Lets understand what
it is, what it does and how companies make it
available to their customers. In addition, youll
understand what difference it makes to have more
or less memory in your hosting. Stay with us and
find out! What is RAM? A hosting server is a
computer, but with resources dedicated to the
task of hosting and making websites available on
the internet. Just like on a personal computer, a
server also has a certain amount of RAM. The
RAM memory is responsible for storing and making
available, temporarily, all the data needed to
run a program or an application. Data stored in
RAM is lost whenever the server is restarted, or
when the application terminates. In order for
them to be stored
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indefinitely, data must be recorded on a hard
drive or HD. This way, they are taken into
memory only when needed. The acronym for RAM is
Random Access Memory. This means that the data is
randomly stored on the memory card for
non-sequential access, unlike what happens on an
HD. Because of this feature, data can be accessed
faster when in memory as compared to the speed
of access of information recorded on an HD. RAM
memory is like a workbench
To facilitate understanding, lets compare the
operation of a computer with that of a kitchen.
Lets suppose you want to make a cake. For this,
we will need to pick up the utensils that will
be used in the preparation of the cake, such as a
bowl, mixer, wooden spoon, in short, all the
instruments necessary to prepare the cake. In the
same way, we also need to have the ingredients
that are in the recipe of our cake, such as
flour, sugar, yeast, eggs, etc. After gathering
all the necessary apparatus, utensils and
ingredients, we will need a bench or a table to
prepare the cake. Lets take all this stuff to
the counter and use it while preparing the
recipe. After the preparation, everything will
return to its place. The utensils will be stored
in the cupboard and unused ingredients will be
returned to the pantry.
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In this analogy, RAM would be the workbench. It
is used temporarily and contains all the
material needed to perform the task in question.
Going further, the closet and the pantry would
be the hard drive where the information is
stored. And the cook would be the processor, who
is responsible for picking and moving the
information from disk to memory, and making it
happen. What Memory Serves on a Hosting
Server As we have seen, the role of memory in a
computer is to leave at hand all the files and
data necessary for a particular application to
function. When you open a text file in an editor
such as Word, for example, the program loads into
RAM along with the information written to the
file in question. When editing the text, the
modifications are temporarily written to RAM but
are only stored on the hard disk when you click
on the Save option. A similar process occurs
on a hosting server. When using a CMS like
WordPress, for example, the server loads the
service into memory and leaves it ready for use.
When someone visits your site, the information
that is in memory is used. A CMS also consumes
memory for management tasks such as editing a
post, installing a theme or plugin, downloading
and uploading, and more. If by chance some
requested information is not available in the
servers RAM, it will be requested and located
on the hard drive by the processor, and taken to
the RAM so that it can be used. What difference
does it make to have more memory in your
hosting? As we saw earlier, the memory is used to
make the data necessary for the operation of an
application available. Therefore, we can deduce
that the greater the amount of RAM in a server,
the greater the capacity of data
availability. Thats exactly the difference
between a low-memory server and one with a lot
The ability to provide information. In times of
peak traffic, when many users are browsing your
site, more memory will be required. If your site
does not have the amount of memory compatible
with traffic, it may be slow or even
inoperable. In summary, the more memory in your
hosting, the greater the servers ability to
perform concurrent tasks, such as handling
increased traffic on the site.
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Differences in memory usage among hosting
companies Hosting companies treat memory usage
differently in the hosting plans they offer. Some
limit memory usage to a fixed amount for each
client. Others make this limitation by the
percentage of total server memory usage. For
this reason, it is not always possible to find
out how much memory is available in a particular
hosting plan. While some hosting services declare
that they offer XGB of RAM (e.g., 1 GB), others
will report that memory usage cannot exceed X of
the servers total memory in a given space of
time. In this scenario, to know how much memory
you have available, you will need to know the
total memory allocated to that hosting server,
specifically. This information should be
available in the service contract or in the
company knowledge base. Remember that this is a
characteristic of Shared Hosting plans. In VPS
Hosting, Dedicated or Cloud, the amount of
memory is always specified and may be modified,
more or less. Conclusion The use of RAM on a
hosting server is directly linked to server
performance and can impact the ability to
respond to requests. A site with a lot of traffic
will need more memory than a site with little
traffic. Before choosing a hosting plan, it is
interesting to gauge how much RAM will be
required for your site. If you already have a
website, you can check how much memory it
currently spends and plans for audience growth.
If the site does not yet exist, one can start
with low memory and make upgrades (either flat or
memory, depending on the situation) overtime.
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