The Pros Of Dedicated Server Hosting
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Having websites set up with dedicated server hosting packages gives an internet company a great deal more flexibility with their site, rather than having shared hosting. A dedicated server account gives the client a lot more control over the many variables of the server. Some options that can be chosen with dedicated plans, that are not possible on the shared hosting accounts, are things like the operating system running on the server, specialized scripts and the hardware being used.
A dedicated hosting service, which is often referred to as a dedicated server or managed dedicated server hosting, is one specific type of internet website hosting that a company can choose, in order to get the site files uploaded and have their website displayed online. When a client chooses any type of dedicated hosting, they lease the entire server and it is not shared with other clients of the hosting company.
Many times companies will hesitate about switching over to a dedicated server hosting account. Often the hesitation is because there is the impression that a dedicated server needs to be run, managed and supported in-house. But, the majority of web companies are able to leave all of the many maintenance requirements to the provider of the managed dedicated hosting package.
Managed dedicated server hosting is a beneficial choice because the hosting client has the security of knowing that they are the only one using the server and that it is 100% exclusively used for their website needs only. This eliminates issues of potential downtime that might be caused by problems on another website that is on the same server and with security issues as well. Many companies have a great deal of proprietary information and customer databases that need to be protected, and managed dedicated servers help to add an additional layer of data safety.
While shared web hosting plan options are less expensive, they are also less secure. In addition to the security issues, there are also accessibility issues that should be considered. If another site on a shared server has a large promotion and experiences a sudden surge in traffic, then that could cause all websites on that server to load slowly or even be inaccessible for periods of time. With a dedicated hosting service, the only traffic flow that needs to be considered and planned for is under the control and plans of the company using the dedicated hosting.
Dedicated hosting services is the best choice when a website project is considered to be “mission-critical” and when the site owner wants to concentrate on the content development and design elements of the site and leave all the technical issues to the experts. The web server hosting providers that offer dedicated server management are responsible for having a technical support staff available around the clock to immediately take care of problems, and assure that the server is up and running at all times.
Shared hosting is usually a good choice for most small business websites that do not have a great deal of traffic or and don’t have any unusual requirements. But as a company grows and their web presence becomes more important and complex, it is a good idea to start considering the move to dedicated server hosting.