RAM is an abbreviation for Random Access Memory. This is a kind of computer memory, which, different from other storage devices like harddrives or DVDs, permits the information to be accessed directly without reading the previous content stored within it. Anytime an application is started, it's stored inside the RAM, since it may be accessed considerably faster than if it was read from another media. With regard to the hosting service itself, additional RAM means that more web applications can run all at once on a given web server, particularly when they're resource-demanding and are accessed by a great number of of people simultaneously. Unlike a shared web hosting package where the system resources of a certain account may be flexible and frequently depend on what other users consume as well, a VPS offers a guaranteed amount of RAM which can be used all the time. That memory is allocated to one hosting server only and will not be used by other clients even when it is not used.