Just what IS dedicated hosting?
First, some basics. We need to set up a good foundation for future posts, and so the first step is to define the basic types of web hosting.
Most webmasters are accustomed to using shared hosting. Shared hosting involves many customers all using one machine. But while shared hosting plans are generally less expensive than dedicated servers, sometimes paying a bit more can have important benefits..
First, let us define what is meant by “dedicated server.” A dedicated server is a web server that is dedicated to the use of a single client. Therefore all of that server’s resources are put at the disposal of that one client. As a result dedicated hosting has some important advantages over shared hosting despite the price difference.
POWER: Dedicated servers are many times the only way to provide enough horsepower to deal with a popular website. Because a single user controls 100% of the server’s resources, they can be used more efficiently to handle traffic. But in a shared hosting scenario the server’s resources must be spread among the clients using it, and some resources are wasted.
SECURITY: By its very nature, shared hosting is less secure than dedicated hosting. This is beacuse a shared server is nearly always being used by many unique users at once. Therefore there is no risk of security problems being caused by other users.
FLEXIBILITY: On a shared server, the server has to be configured for the lowest common denominator. Dedicated servers, on the other hand, can be tailored to the specifications of just one customer. This leads to increased reliability and performance, as well as being perfect for specific situations.
RELIABILITY: A dedicated server often has greater reliability than shared hosting. This is because there is just one user on the web server. With shared hosting, one customer’s problems require the operator to restart the server – bringing down the sites of everyone else hosted on that machine this isn’t a problem with a dedicated server.
Although shared hosting may be more inexpensive – there’s still lots of additional factors to think about when settling on web hosting – a dedicated server may indeed be perfect for your needs!
