It's a Virtual Dedicated Server.
But what does that mean?
It's actually pretty simple ... it's a dedicated server, virtualized, using the virtualization technology included with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 ... called Hyper-V. In short, it provides hardware-assisted virtualization - this gives you (almost) direct access to the underlying hardware's capabilities in a virtualized environment. It gives you the privacy and dedicated resources that Virtual Server gave you without the performance and capability limitations. You can run 64-bit operating systems, giving you access to more memory per process. You can also take advantage of the multiple processors/cores of our servers (Virtual Server limited you to 1 virtual processor).
If you look around at other hosting providers, many of them offer "Virtual Private Servers" ... and some have even gone so far as to call these "Virtual Dedicated Servers" as well. You'll see prices as low as $49/month. Don't be fooled ... you get what you pay for. Ask them what technology they use for virtualization. I can guarantee you that it's not Hyper-V. They will be using Virtuozzo or something very similar to that. Your memory and your core operating system files are shared with everyone else using that server. Because of this, other virtualized servers can negatively impact (OK ... completely and totally hang) your "VPS". That causes problems that require a complete reboot of the VPS host server. And there are serious issues with updates; even critical security updates must pass through Virtuozzo before they can be applied to either the host or the guest servers. Yes, Windows requires updates. But we can do those updates as soon as Microsoft releases them, without waiting for a third party to go through an approval process that can take a month or more.
I don't say this to spread FUD. Virtuozzo is a good technology in certain cases - like when you control all of the VPS's on that Virtuozzo server as well as the underlying host server. But it's not a good option in a hosted environment. Dana and I have worked with Virtuozzo before while we were a part of UltimaHosts and we have deliberately chosen not to go there with Kinetik. We found that these types of shared technologies did not provide the level of service and uptime that we feel that our customers have a right to expect. Mark, our former partner, didn't feel the same - he wanted to get as much money as he could while providing the lowest level of service possible. You can load a $700/month server with 50 $49/month "VPS's" ... and he was (and likely still is) more than happy to do that, regardless of the impact to customers. We aren't. It doesn't provide the level of service that we would expect nor do we feel that it provides the level of services that our valued customers have every right to expect.
It is more expensive than other offerings. We admit that. But our costs are also much higher ... we simply cannot achieve the "server density" allowed by partially-shared technologies like Virtuozzo. So our pricing is also higher - though it is competitive with other, similar offerings. It is still much less expensive than a fully dedicated server with most of the same benefits. And it comes with Kinetik's customer and developer focused support. It's what we would expect from a hosting provider and what you should expect as well.