RAM is an abbreviation for Random Access Memory. This is a type of computer memory, which, different from other storage devices like harddrives or DVDs, enables the information to be accessed directly without reading the previous content stored inside it. Whenever a program is launched, it is stored inside the RAM, due to the fact that it may be accessed considerably quicker than if it was read from another media device. In terms of the hosting service itself, extra RAM means that more web apps can run at the same time on a particular web server, especially if they are resource-demanding and are accessed by a large amount of people all at once. Different from a shared web hosting solution in which the system resources of a given account can be flexible and often depend on what other end users consume as well, a VPS offers a guaranteed amount of RAM you can use all the time. That memory is assigned to one hosting server only and won't be used by other clients even when it's not used.