SSH, which is an abbreviation for Secure Shell, is a network protocol which is used to exchange encrypted information between a client and a server, which makes it impossible for unauthorized parties to intercept any info. Many tech-savvy customers choose SSH mainly because of the enhanced level of security. The connection is created and the commands are sent through a command line. The available options depend on the type of hosting service - on a shared server, in particular, files could be moved or deleted, databases may be imported and exported, and archives can be created or unpacked. On a virtual or a dedicated server, the options are much more - the web server and the database server can be started/stopped/rebooted, server-side software could be installed and more. These things aren't possible on a shared server, since full root access is required and all the other clients on that server would be affected. Although SSH is used predominantly with UNIX-like Operating Systems, there are SSH clients for other OSs too - Windows, Mac OS, and so forth.