Considering Dedicated Hosting
There are a number of different types of website hosting including free hosting, shared server hosting, and dedicated hosting. There are even more complicated arrangements offered by some web hosting companies such as virtual dedicated hosting (VDS) and reseller hosting. Here, however, we will concentrate on dedicated hosting and how this may or may not fit your hosting requirements.
Shared and dedicated hosting refers to how the websites are organized on the servers of the hosting company. Sites on dedicated hosting plans are hosted on their own server with no other websites. This means that all the resources available from the server are ‘dedicated’ to your website. This greatly optimizes your website’s performance and is recommended for those websites expected to attract high volumes of traffic. If your website demands the highest level of reliability and/or is mission critical, dedicated hosting is the recommended option.
You will find dedicated hosting offers substantially increased, if not unlimited storage and bandwidth. If increased uptime is your main concern, you may consider the usually quoted 99.9% on shared hosting plans to be adequate. If your site is expected to generate considerable traffic, the 0.01% does however become substantial in terms of lost visitors. The increased performance in terms of load time is also of importance in reaching your decision. Dedicated server plans also offer you full administrative access to your website and server resources allowing you full customization to further enhance performance, security and delivery.
When selecting dedicated hosting, you will normally have a choice between ‘Fully Managed’ plans and ‘unmanaged hosting’. Fully managed plans are fully monitored by your web hosting service provider. This would ordinarily give you access to their specialist expertise and allow a number of enhanced management options such as script and software installation and configuration, regular back-ups and the monitoring of your site’s security vital technical support.
A fully managed service is the optimal choice if you prefer a hands-off approach to web hosting in order to concentrate on your core business. If you prefer to have complete control over your website and its evolution, you will prefer unmanaged hosting as paying for a fully managed plan would be a false economy. Remember, however, that a high level of knowledge and expertise is required to successfully manage a website’s server side. The incorrect configuration of a new software could indeed render the complete site unusable and would cost a great deal more to fix than the higher cost of managed hosting.