RAM is an abbreviation for Random Access Memory. This is a kind of computer memory, which, in contrast to other storage devices like hard disks or DVDs, allows the info to be accessed directly without reading the previous content located inside it. Every time an app is started, it is stored inside the RAM, since it could be accessed considerably faster than if it was read from another media. With regards to the web hosting service itself, extra RAM means that more web applications can run all at once on a given web server, especially if they are resource-demanding and are accessed by a large number of people all at once. Not like a shared web hosting package in which the system resources of a given account can be flexible and quite often depend on what other users consume as well, a VPS includes a guaranteed amount of RAM which can be used all the time. That memory is allotted to one hosting server only and will not be used by other customers even when it is not used.