Dedicated Hosting

An Intro To Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is provided by most web hosting companies but often goes under a number of names:

• server hosting
• dedicated server hosting
• business hosting

...etc. and various other combinations. The reason it has so many reasonably popular names is that dedicated hosting isn't that uncommon...but it's not that widespread, so there's been little need for standardization of terms.  

Well, unfortunately, it's easier to first discuss what dedicated hosting isn't, as a means of explaining what it is.

With shared hosting, which is what most of us have, the web hosting company allocates the average website a certain amount of bandwith every month, a small part of a hard drive (a server). However, that server is also shared by many other websites, perhaps even thousands.

Now, that's good for the average website's budget...but not much else, because in all those websites sharing that same server, a number of things can go wrong:

A   I'm told that hackers can have lots more fun with shared hosting as there are many more sites to enter a server by and apparently, much more fun to be had, once they do. 

B   Data corruption is more likely (not a problem if you have your own website builder and can just upload again but a disaster if you build using a web-based site builder) & most importantly

C   If you have seasonal spikes in your website traffic and/or you publicise your site with press releases or product launches that cause a buzz, you run the risk of being taken offline if your site exceeds its allocated bandwith...which could cost you a lot of money!

With dedicated hosting, you can overcome those problems because you're allocated your own server, which brings a number of benefits:

1   It's very unlikely that you'll ever exceed your bandwith and if you do, you've got a welcome problem, you should be making a fortune. 

2   Your site will probably load faster as it doesn't have to share the server with other sites, some of which may be having traffic surges and draining the server's juice. 

3   If you have a commercial site, you can receive a private SSL certificate, which enables you to make secure transactions.

The SSL certificate also often provides the extra benefit of increased search engine traffic because the SSL verification process is noted and your site has become more "trustworthy"*.  

Unfortunately, a dedicated server is far more expensive than shared hosting, with monthly costs anywhere from $100m to $500m, depending upon the amount of work that your web host is performing. It's not for the budget conscious but if your website is critical to your business then dedicated hosting is highly recommended.

Because of affordability issues, a recent development has been virtual dedicated hosting, in which you share the one server with only a few others. It's a pretty good solution if your only problem is exceeding bandwith because of high traffic or new media applications.

With virtual dedicated servers, you lease a part of a server and have exclusive rights and customization over:

• bandwith
• memory
• storage space
• software installed etc.

...without the need for an actual physical dedicated server...and if the other sites sharing the server bring their part of the dedicated server down, it won't affect your site.

Clocking in at only around $30 per month, virtual dedicated web hosting is a pretty good intermediary solution for a growing web business.

* While search engines are becoming increasingly sophisticated, "reading" web pages via artificial intelligence, they still value really human verification of a site. See: Directory Submitter