Advantages and Disadvantages of Dedicated Server Hosting

Dedicated Servers are seen as the best type of web hosting for people who are running large resource intensive websites that receive many visitors, as well as for people and businesses who need to be guaranteed a stable service that is more reliable than other types of web hosting, such as shared website hosting and VPS Hosting; this is because a dedicated server is yours only, meaning that you are not sharing it with anyone else, thus meaning that all the resources on the server are for your use only and can’t be used by anyone else, allowing you to ensure that you are able to provide a reliable and stable service. However, dedicated server hosting is out of most people’s price range for the main reason that dedicated servers are relatively expensive to get hold of, since they are physical machines, unlike VPS hosting for example where the servers are actually virtualized on a physical hosting node that is shared; this means that dedicated servers are only mainly used by businesses who have a large budget and want to ensure that their servers are stable, or by people who are running large websites that provide them with enough revenue to be able to justify and cover the cost of a dedicated hosting server.

The Dedicated Server hosting market has seen a boom in recent years, meaning that the overall costs of dedicated servers has been reduced, allowing people who couldn’t previously afford one to purchase one to cover their needs; this means that the overall number of dedicated servers being taken out with web hosts has increased, thus increasing the amount that web hosts have been earning, but also increasing the number of web hosts there are to choose from since many people have seen the advantages of starting a web host and have decided to do so. In order to use a dedicated server, you will need to ensure that you have the necessary knowledge to be able to administrate one with ease, this means that you should choose an operating system for your dedicated server that you are comfortable with during the order process, since getting used to the dedicated hosting environment will be much easier if you are using a familiar interface or system; it is important that you know what you are doing with a dedicated server since in most cases it is up to you to keep the server up to date and secure, to ensure that hackers and other malicious attackers aren’t able to gain access to it and exploit it.

You should also be familiar with the relevant dedicated server terms before purchasing one, so that you know if you are running out of a certain resource or so that you know what a problem is if something happens to go wrong with your server; this is because in some cases the support team of the web host from which you have purchased your dedicated server might only provide you with limited support, meaning that you should know the ins and outs of your server as to avoid any problems with it. You should ensure that what you want to use your dedicated server for is in line with your web host’s AUP (acceptable usage policy), since if any activities or actions that you carry on your dedicated server aren’t in line with it or are affecting the performance of other servers on the same network as yours, then your web host might suspend your dedicated server in order to sort out the issues; in most cases you aren’t allowed to use dedicated servers for free web hosting because of the high risk of system abuse that is involved, and you aren’t allowed to host warez or IRC servers either since warez are deemed as illegal, and in most cases IRC chats are used to discuss illegal activities which is why web hosts don’t allow them in most cases.

Dedicated Servers have many advantages over other types of web hosting, meaning that if you need the utmost reliability then you should consider a dedicated server for your needs, since it is something that should fit the needs of most people; the main advantage is that you aren’t sharing the server or resources with anyone else which is most people’s main reason for choosing dedicated server hosting.

Advantages of Dedicated Server Hosting

Dedicated server hosting has to be the best type of web hosting for anyone, since you are not sharing your server with anyone else meaning that you have complete use of all the server resources; this means that you can allow for your large traffic website to flourish in a dedicated hosting environment. If you run your own small hosting business, then you are also able to ensure your clients a high level of reliability and uptime, meaning that their websites will also be up and available; with other types of hosting you aren’t able to guarantee either of these factors since other websites and accounts could easily affect you.

Dedicated Resources

The main advantage of having a dedicated server is the fact that the server is all yours, meaning that you have complete use and control of the server’s resources since there is no one else on the same server to use them as well; this means that if you run a resource intensive website, or an application or service that requires high specification hardware, you are able to without disrupting anyone else and without anyone else disrupting you meaning that you are able to ensure that your website or server is reliable and always available.

Although with the lower end equivalent of dedicated server hosting, VPS hosting, you are given guaranteed resources that will always be available for your use, but the CPU of the main host node isn’t split between the VPS on the server equally in some cases, meaning that it is a resource which isn’t always guaranteed for your use; however, with a dedicated server you have your own CPU meaning that it is always available for use by you - you also have a choice of CPUs in most cases, meaning that you could have up to 8 CPU cores available for your own use at any time. Like VPS Hosting, you have your own dedicated amounts of RAM and bandwidth which you are able to utilize on your dedicated server; however, with a dedicated server, the amount of RAM that you have is actually physical meaning that you can easily have it upgraded - bandwidth is the same as a VPS server though, meaning that you can only transfer as much bandwidth you have each month - once you have used all your bandwidth up you will have to upgrade your dedicated server by purchasing more bandwidth.

Since your dedicated server is yours, no one else is sharing it with you meaning that the performance and reliability of it isn’t able to be affected by anyone else; the only way that your dedicated server can be affected by other people is if someone attacks the network which your dedicated server is connected to - for example, another server that is connected to the same network as yours might get DDOS’d, which can slow down the entire network, this will affect your dedicated server directly since any external connections to it will be very slow. In most cases, you aren’t provided with any sort of control panel to allow you to remotely manage your dedicated server, meaning that if it crashes you will have to get your web host’s support team to bring it back up again; it is for this reason that it is suggested that you use some sort of external monitoring system so that you are alerted when your server goes down, or when too much of a certain resource has been used.

Root/Administrator Access

Unlike other types of Web Hosting, except VPS hosting, with dedicated server hosting you are able to have root/administrator access to your dedicated server meaning that you are able to install and do anything you want within your dedicated server, allowing you to customize it to the way that you want it to be; this means that if you want to host a website or application on your server that requires you to have a certain component installed or for the server to be configured in a certain way which isn’t possible on other types of hosting, you are able to do so and at the same time are enabling your website to be more reliable by hosting it on a dedicated server.

Root/administrator access is needed on a dedicated server since it allows you to installed the programs that you need to ensure that your dedicated server is secure, and so that you are able to run what you want and use your dedicated server for what you want; you can also carry out custom configurations of certain programs with root/administrator access, meaning that you can easily change the configuration of a certain program if needs be. With root/administrator access, you are also able to easily manage and view the server resources, allowing you to monitor them so that you can take the necessary action if a resource was to get overloaded which could cause the server to crash, which is not something you want since you might not have the ability to restart it yourself; you could also deploy an internal monitoring system so that you easily view and manage your server’s resources without having to be constantly logged into it - this would also mean that you have the ability to view and manage your server’s resources over the internet from any location in the world.

In the case of a Linux dedicated server, you will be given ‘root’ access to it meaning that you will be able to manage it using the ‘root’ account, normally via the means of SSH meaning that you should be aware of the main Linux commands prior to purchase a Linux dedicated server; Linux server administration via the means of SSH is carried out through the use of unique commands, meaning that in most cases a GUI isn’t provided for administration access - however, in some cases a GUI via the means of VNC might be available for your use.

In the case of Windows dedicated server hosting, you will be given ‘administrator‘ access to your dedicated server meaning that you will be able to manage it via the means of remote desktop, for which a client comes pre-installed with the most recent Microsoft Windows versions; this means that if you have the Microsoft Windows operating system installed on your desktop computer, you will be able to interact with your Windows dedicated server via the means of remote desktop, meaning that you can easily manage your dedicated server using the Windows GUI.

Priority Support

As dedicated server customers are the highest paying for most web hosts, you will find that you receive priority support for your dedicated server, just as long as your web host provides a certain level of support for dedicated server customers, since some don’t provide any support at all for dedicated server customers since they take it for granted that they have the necessary knowledge to be able to administrate their dedicated hosting server effectively; this means that if you choose a web host that provides support for dedicated server customers, you will be able to get support for almost anything quicker than you would be able to with other types of web hosting.

If you are already on a lower end web hosting package, such as a shared hosting package or VPS server, then you should notice that your support requests will be replied to quicker than they were on lower end hosting packages; this means that priority support is one reason that many people choose to move over to dedicated server hosting, since most aren’t happy with the level of support that they are receiving on the lower end package that they are currently on.

Most web hosts also give priority support to dedicated server customers since most dedicated hosting customers are using their servers to host important websites, meaning that it is important for the server to always be up and stable so that the hosted websites can always be accessed; if a dedicated server was to crash, then it could cause a considerable loss to the business that has taken it out, meaning that most individuals and businesses alike try to go with a web hosts that provides priority support where possible, since at the end of the day maximum uptime is what is wanted by the dedicated server clients.

If you choose to go with a web host that doesn’t provide any support for dedicated server customers, then you will need to ensure that you have the necessary knowledge to allow you to administrate your dedicated server effectively.

Disadvantages of Dedicated Server Hosting

There aren’t really any disadvantages that you can directly apply to dedicated server hosting, which is one of the reasons why it is so popular with both businesses and individuals alike. The only factor nearest to a disadvantage that you could apply to dedicated server hosting is the cost of it; this is because dedicated servers cost quite a lot, compared to lower range hosting packages such as shared hosting packages an VPS hosting packages; the cost is only high because the server physically exists, and the original cost of the server for your provider was probably hundreds of pounds, and they need to make that money back in the short term, especially if they are providing many dedicated servers, otherwise they won’t be making any profit on each server. The arrangement that your web host has with their data centre can also affect the price of dedicated servers; this is because data centres charge a certain amount of each individual server that is hosted with them, to cover the cost of electricity, bandwidth and the rack space that has been filled - your web host has to deduct this amount from the cost of your dedicated server since they still want to maintain a profit from your server, but at the same time it needs to be located within a data centre so that it is connected to the internet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if your website receives a large amount of visitors or is mission critical then Dedicated Server hosting is for you, for the main reason of the added stability which isn’t provided with lower range hosting packages such as shared website hosting and VPS hosting; this means that you are able to ensure that your important website is always available for your visitors, when with lower range packages it might not always be. The fact that your website will be more reliable is because you have your own server with its own resources that are not shared with anyone else, thus meaning that there isn’t anyone else or any other server that will be able to affect the performance of yours in any way; as mentioned previously, you have your own CPU unlike VPS hosting which doesn’t, meaning that your programs and services will always be able to process what they need to without the threat of not being able to because there isn’t enough CPU space available.

Although VPS Hosting does provide you with your own guaranteed RAM and bandwidth, the physical CPU isn’t evenly shared between all the VPS that are hosted on the server concerned, meaning that it only takes one greedy VPS to take the whole hosting node down by using up all the available CPU space; in the case of dedicated server hosting, the CPU is all yours meaning that it can’t be used by anyone else or by any other server - you also have the option to choose from dual or quad core CPUs meaning that you have the ability to give your dedicated server extra reliability.

As mentioned previously, the only way that another server is able to affect the performance of your dedicated server is if another server on the same network as yours was to be DDOS’d, meaning that you have that extra level or reliability and security when compared to other types of hosting; a DDOS would slow the entire network down meaning that all servers would be affected and no-one externally would be able to connect to the servers.

With a dedicated server, you are also given root/administrator access, allowing you to install any programs or services that you want, just as long as they are in line with your web hosts acceptable usage policy - you are also able to carry out custom configurations with root/administrator access, since your dedicated server is your own dedicated environment; with a Linux dedicated server you will be given root access via the means of SSH, and with a Windows dedicated server you will be given administrator access via the means of remote desktop - although the use of remote desktop requires that you have the Windows operating system in order to use the remote desktop client.