RAM is an abbreviation for Random Access Memory. This is a type of computer memory, that, unlike other storage devices including hard disk drives or DVDs, enables the info to be accessed directly without reading the previous content located within it. Each time a program is launched, it is stored inside the RAM, since it may be accessed much faster than if it was read from another media device. In terms of the website hosting service itself, more RAM means that more web applications can run all at once on a certain server, especially when they're resource-demanding and are accessed by a large amount of people simultaneously. Unlike a shared web hosting solution in which the resources of a given account may be flexible and sometimes depend on what other end users consume as well, a VPS has a guaranteed amount of RAM that can be used always. That memory is allocated to one web server only and won't be used by other customers even in case it's not used.