Is it secure to upload an application on VPS Hosting Companies?

Question

This is the first time I've to deploy an application on a VPS host somewhere around the globe.
There are plenty of companies offering VPS services linode,slicehost...

VPN looks to me like the most configurable/secure way of deploying my app (as I'm not a big Company with its own servers/upload bandwidth)

My question is: Can we trust VPS hosting companies?

If you have an application/Database that can give you a profit of let's say $100k/year. Would you deploy it on a third party host service knowing that your code (written in java in this case) or DB could be maybe accessed by someone?

Where are you deploying your applications?

What steps can we adopt to prevent 'bad admins' to steal our work?

Answer 1

There's no difference between VPS hosting companies and regular hosting companies, except that the hardware with a VPS company is virtual.

Normal hosting plans or dedicated hardware rental still puts your hardware at the mercy of your host, who more often than not has a way of getting root access to your machine for support issues, not to mention simple physical access by the fact that it's their company hardware.

An unscrupulous company has any number of ways to get at your data if they want to, VPS or not. It comes down to whether you trust the company itself, not what type of hosting they offer. If you are really concerned about this, then you will want to host your hardware yourself. Some companies offer this as a service... you basically bring your hardware to them, and lock it up in their facility using your own key.