SSH, which is an abbreviation for Secure Shell, is a network protocol which is used to transfer encrypted data between a client and a hosting server, which makes it impossible for unauthorized parties to intercept any data. Many tech-savvy users opt for SSH due to the higher security level. The connection is established and the commands are delivered via a command line. The accessible options depend on the type of hosting service - on a shared server, for instance, files could be relocated or deleted, databases could be imported and exported, and archives could be set up or unpacked. On a virtual or a dedicated server, your choices are significantly more - the web server and the database server may be started/stopped/rebooted, server-side software may be set up and a lot more. These things are not possible on a shared server, for the reason that full root access is required and all the other customers on that server will be affected. Though SSH is employed predominantly with UNIX-like Operating Systems, there are SSH clients for other OSs too - Windows, Mac OS, etc.