Dedicated Hosting is a type of hosting whereby websites are hosted on their own individual server. It is the opposite of shared hosting, where many websites are hosted on the same server. There are many advantages to this.

With a dedicated server website owners have complete control, something that is lacking with shared hosting. This is because with shared hosting the hosting company has to keep all their customers on the server happy, meaning a lack of flexibility. Dedicated hosting customers usually run their server themselves which means much more flexibility.

Unlike shared hosting those opting for dedicated hosting are not sharing hardware and software with other sites situated on the server, because there are no other sites on the server. They are not sharing resources and there is therefore more reliability as there are not as many variables that can affect things. It is possible to install software and make updates whenever necessary. This means that load times won’t be slowed down by higher traffic to sites that are nothing to do with them.

With a whole server for one website it means that there is more disk space and bandwidth available for that one website. Due to this sudden traffic or a large number of downloads is less likely to cause a problem. Overall the performance of the hosting is much better.

Security is yet another advantage of dedicated hosting. When a website is sharing a server with others it makes it easier for other people to gain access. If a business site deals with online payments this could be essential in preventing credit card fraud. In fact, any site that has databases dealing with sensitive information can benefit from this extra security. There is also more control of backups.

Dedicated hosting does require relevant knowledge, but for those without this there is another option –Managed Dedicated Hosting. Here the hosting company takes care of the management while still providing many of the benefits of dedicated hosting. It is really dedicated hosting with technical support. There are different levels of managed dedicated hosting so customers can choose based on how much control they want and what they want done for them by the managed hosting company. It is the solution for those with no technical knowledge but who have the requirements for a dedicated server. There is of course a price for this but many consider it a price worth paying due to the extra service that is provided.

There are many types of websites that can benefit from dedicated hosting. Those who regularly make changes to their site or hosting have the advantage of increased flexibility. Those with a large amount of traffic may not find shared hosting adequate. Large corporate websites usually find that a dedicated server is essential.

Dedicated hosting has many advantages. Dedicated hosting is more expensive than shared hosting, but there is a reason for that, and if the positives of it are important to a sites success then it is cost affective.

Andrew Marshall (c)