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Dedicated Web Hosting : Key Benefits of Dedicated Web Hosting

by Ray Lam

Dedicated web hosting is one of three primary web hosting methods. Other types of hosting include virtual hosting, sometimes called shared hosting, which is the most common web hosting method; and clustered web hosting which uses a group of servers that are integrated in order to increase performance and redundancy for a web hosting customer who has unique needs. There are definite advantages and disadvantages to the various web hosting methods. Dedicated web hosting is a hosting method that many internet-based businesses find to be extremely advantageous.

Dedicated hosting provides the client with a customized, first-class web server. Dedicated hosting is usually for websites that require more system resources as well as bigger bandwidth. With this need for resources, an entire server dedicated to the needs of the website is more practical.

Dedicated web hosting is a step up from virtual web hosting because, even if the server is provided by a web hosting company, with dedicated web hosting you are the only customer that uses the server and you generally have complete control of the server for administrative purposes. Because you administer and control the web server yourself with dedicated web hosting, you have greater flexibility. The hosting company that provides dedicated web hosting services generally owns the server and leases it to you as a dedicated web hosting client so they are responsible for hardware management. Depending upon the dedicated web hosting services provided, you may be able to handle your own upgrades and install your own software, or you can outsource such tasks to the dedicated web hosting provider.

Aside from flexibility and control, there are other advantages of having dedicated web hosting. Because you are the only customer using the server, you don’t share resources such as hard drive space, processing speed, bandwidth and applications, so dedicated web hosting can be a lot more efficient and can provide a lot more space and speed of processing for your website, database and email applications. The disadvantage of dedicated web hosting as compared to virtual web hosting is that the cost of dedicated web hosting is higher than that of shared hosting.

Domain name servers (DNS) provide the link between your domain name (mysite.com) and its Internet Protocol (IP) address. The IP address is a series of numbers like this: 123.456.78.9. and every web server has its own IP address. For a dedicated server hosting a single domain, the IP address is equivalent to the domain name. A site hosted on a dedicated server can be found on the Web as either 123.456.78.9 or as mysite.com.

Upgrading from virtual web hosting to dedicated web hosting is recommended if your business has multiple websites, uses custom applications, needs specialized support or increased web hosting space and speed. If your website or websites provide download capabilities for customers, then dedicated web hosting is a good web hosting option for you because there will be fewer bandwidth restrictions than there are with virtual or shared web hosting.

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