Cheap virtual servers share physical hardware with other customers. When one tenant uses a lot of CPU or disk, others can feel the slowdown. The effect is called the noisy neighbour problem, and it can appear as random freezes or delayed order handling.
Symptoms often appear at predictable times, such as evenings when other users run backups or batch jobs. Latency looks normal in ping tests, but the platform stutters, because the host is starved for resources.
Monitoring CPU steal time, available on Linux and visible in some Windows tools, reveals when the host is overcommitted. Consistent steal above a few percent signals a poor host.
Dedicated or higher-tier plans with guaranteed resources reduce the problem, at a higher price. For a strategy where milliseconds count, the extra cost is often justified.
Switching providers is also an option, and a one-month trial across a couple of hosts shows which performs best under real load.
Has a VPS ever shown signs of overcommitment, and what was done about it?
Advertisement
Noisy neighbours on shared VPS plans
Recommended broker for automated trading & scalping
