The ramblings of a developer
This is the third post in a series of blog posts that I will detail various lessons I have learned fromJavabean Hosting.
The term RAM is thrown around pretty frequently in the computer world without knowing what it means. I've even been at an Apple Store where I've heard a sales person explain to a customer that RAM stood for 'read-only memory' and proceed to "educate" them on why it is important. sigh Typically, however, the average consumer knows that more RAM is better. This is very true. The more RAM your computer has, the more information it is able to store in a very fast and easily accessible location. For instance, when you open an application to create a spreadsheet, this document may be created in RAM for quick and easy access. In the hosting world, memory usage is directly related to the number of concurrent visitors a server can handle. Every time a visitor goes to your site, there are a series of connections made that all consume RAM. Generally speaking, more RAM is more potential for more simultaneous visitors. This is a good thing.
Finally, since all applications use RAM, having more RAM available gives you more overhead to run your routine maintenance and other server tasks without impacting your visitors. This is essential to keep your server up to date, backed up, and fully patched.
Your barista, Greg