Hosting a website, web app, or mail server may be daunting for businesses of all sizes. Several separate websites share a single server’s resources in a shared hosting environment.
A firm may want a dedicated hosting service if it requires additional power. Customers who utilise dedicated hosting have complete control over the resources of the dedicated server they rent from a dedicated hosting business. The supplier collaborates with the customer to ensure that they have access to all necessary resources. For a business to acquire and maintain a server, there are no upfront fees. Then, a brief introduction to dedicated servers should be provided before moving on to the main topic.
What is a Dedicated Server?
Hosting on a solely dedicated server is what we mean when we say “dedicated server hosting.”
Sharing a server with various other websites is the most common form of hosting on the internet. Shared hosting, on the other hand, has a few obvious drawbacks:
- You have a slow website (especially when your traffic increases).
- Risks to the system’s security. If a DDoS attack or a hack happens, all websites hosted on the same server will be unavailable.
- Having complete control over your website/servers is not an option.
In contrast, using a dedicated server hosting service eliminates all of these problems while providing access to many other obvious advantages. Are dedicated servers better or worse than other options? Find out for yourself by reading on.
Are Dedicated Servers Better than Other Options?
In contrast to cloud computing, dedicated servers have their physical servers. They are used solely for the needs of a single client. While organizations can host dedicated servers on-premises, this article will focus on third-party data services providers’ remote dedicated server hosting services.
Some of the most probable candidates for vendor-provided dedicated server solutions include enterprises, organisations in highly regulated sectors, and businesses with a high requirement for workload availability and capacity. With the assistance of a service provider, organisations may outsource server installation, optimization, and continuous maintenance, including regular security patching. If they so like, organisations may visit the local data centre where their dedicated servers are located.
Dedicated servers aren’t the only way to go; there are other cloud servers and public cloud resources that several companies can share. Suppose you’re looking to save money on data storage by using shared resources. In that case, you may have to compromise on data security and control. Now, let’s turn our focus to the main subject at hand.
There are several advantages to using a dedicated hosting provider:
Server resources aren’t shared
When you pick a dedicated hosting company, you have access to all the server’s resources. You need not be concerned about competing websites using excessive server resources. With a reliable, dedicated server, you won’t have to worry about other websites’ malicious scripts or bandwidth use spikes affecting your site’s performance.
Enhanced security and performance
Choosing a dedicated hosting provider ensures that your website will always be online. Shared hosting is often the best option for websites with low to medium traffic. Dedicated servers are more reliable and stable for high-traffic websites than shared hosting.
Another benefit of having your own dedicated web server is that you won’t have to worry about sharing resources with a spammer or harmful website. Companies that process critical transactions via FTP or SSL benefit from dedicated hosting, which provides an additional layer of security.
Online retailers and websites governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or the Payment Card Industry (PCI) must take website security very seriously. A dedicated server best serves such website proprietors.
A website hosted on the same server as a shared server may function as an infection vector. Your website may be temporarily inaccessible due to DDoS assaults on adjacent websites. A dedicated server, on the other hand, overcomes all of the security vulnerabilities of a shared server. You should be aware of the many security benefits of dedicated servers.
Two other significant advantages of having a dedicated server are the following:
- It gives you complete control over the security settings on your server. So that you can set up new firewalls, limit admin access, install an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), use your preferred malware protection program, and create a disaster recovery plan for the enhanced security of your precious data and website.
- Unauthorized access to an on-premises dedicated server can be prevented physically. The dedicated server provider takes care of physical security when you rent a server or use colocation hosting. Biometric locks, surveillance cameras, and armed guards are common in data centers.
Flexibility
Customers can tailor a dedicated server to their own CPU, RAM, storage space, and software requirements. With shared hosting, a customer can only use and access the apps, software, and OSs previously installed on the server. They may either supply software that the client doesn’t require, or they may not have the features they need.
Companies can create a server environment tailored for their specific needs by using a dedicated server. They have much more freedom to customize their dedicated server by choosing the hardware and software best suit their needs.
Unique IP address
IP addresses are unique to each server in the network. Sharing an IP address with numerous other websites is a common feature of shared hosting plans. Your website’s search engine rankings could be generally affected if one of your neighbors is a spam or adult site.
You get your own IP address and a dedicated server with dedicated hosting. This is critical if you’re running a major e-commerce site that requires SSL for credit card processing.
In contrast to a shared server, which assigns the same IP address to all users, a dedicated server gives your website its own dedicated IP address. Sharing your IP address with other users can result in you being penalized for the behavior of other users.
Your IP address might be banned or penalized by Google and other search engines when someone else uses the same IP address for spam or black hat SEO. You don’t have to be concerned about the wrongdoing of your server neighbors when you choose dedicated hosting because you get a dedicated IP address for your firm.
These servers may come with many IP addresses so you can use them for various purposes.
Purchasing and maintaining equipment is not an expense to consider
Dedicated hosting is an affordable alternative when a firm requires a dedicated server but has the manpower or money to run and maintain one. Since a dedicated hosting provider handles the costs of creating and maintaining server equipment, businesses that purchase server space have lower overhead and thus better returns on investment.
However, these benefits come at a price. Compared to dedicated hosting, shared hosting is the most cost-effective option for a business to run its website. While some websites may discover that a dedicated hosting company is an ideal solution for those with high traffic or strict requirements for customization and security, many others may not.
Great degree of scalability
For a company to flourish, it is essential to extend its resources. A shared server, on the other hand, will prevent you from doing so. However, a dedicated server has a lot of scalabilities built in.
You can request more bandwidth, storage space, or computing power from your service provider when you need more bandwidth. Talk to your provider in advance if you want a specific server configuration built for you. You may be able to link your server to the cloud infrastructure of some service providers for additional scalability choices.
Managed services are easily accessible
Managed services are available from both colocation facilities and dedicated hosting providers. Managed hosting includes server setup, regular maintenance and monitoring, timely software upgrades, backup maintenance, and data recovery.
In the absence of a proper dedicated IT team, these server administration services are suitable for website owners with no or minimal technical expertise. You don’t have to worry even a bit about managing your server if you hire a dedicated server or use a colocation facility.
Another explanation is that you are hesitant to give your service provider complete control over your server. Consider semi-managed hosting services as well. Here, you may transfer server administration tasks to your service provider while retaining control over the remaining responsibilities.
If you have no need to use these services, then you don’t have to. However, suppose you or your IT team is capable of administering the server at a high level on your own. In that case, I’d suggest skipping managed services altogether.
Bottom Line
Dedicated hosting isn’t for everyone, but it has a lot of advantages for high-traffic websites, eCommerce companies, and reseller hosts. Cloud hosting can’t compete with its speed and reliability.
Dedicated servers are a great option if you’re frequently running low on resources on your server. With the strength of a dedicated server, your website’s performance is guaranteed to improve.