- April 20, 2013
- Posted by: Vishal Shah
- Category: Optiinfo
It is a common practice for many businesses to host their website on a shared hosting plan. Shared hosting plans often host hundreds of web sites on the same server which can result in slow performance. Large businesses have traditional used dedicated hosting. Smaller businesses are beginning to use dedicated hosting more often as costs have come down.
A dedicated hosting plan uses on web server that is dedicated to only one customer. This allows the website to have access to all the server’s resources which improves website performance dramatically. With shared hosting plans, each customer has to compete for the server’s processor and memory. One high traffic website can cause the other websites on the same server to load slowly or to not load at all.
There are many advantages to using dedicated hosting. Because only one customer is using a particular server, the web host usually allows the customer much greater access to the server to customize it to their specifications. The customer may even be able to specify the hardware and operating system configuration. It also provides increased security and reliability.
The only disadvantage to dedicated hosting is the increased cost. Most customers consider the increased cost to be worth it because it offers them greater flexibility and performance. Dedicated hosting prices have fallen the past few years, making dedicated hosting more appealing.
There are two types of dedicated hosting: physical and virtual. The first uses a dedicated physical server which offers the most flexibility and performance, along with the highest cost. A dedicated physical server offers the option of upgrading the hardware as the need may arise to do increased website traffic or other factors. The higher cost may not be an issue for companies that anticipate increased website traffic in the future.
The second option uses a virtual private server (VPS). Utilizing a VPS is the most cost effective way for a business to host their website on a dedicated hosting plan. VPS hosting offers most of the benefits of a dedicated physical server at a reduced price.
A single physical server can host multiple virtual servers. A single customer can even host multiple virtual servers on the same physical server. This gives the customer the ability to have a test environment where they can test changes to their web site before implementing those changes on their live site.
Dedicated hosting is an excellent solution for businesses that receive large amounts of web traffic. It is also an ideal solution for a web-based business that expects to have increased traffic in the future. Being ready for increased traffic by switching to dedicated hosting before it is needed ensures there is no down time when traffic does increase. Most businesses are amazed at how much better their site performs after making the switch and wish they had done it sooner.
Dedicated hosting is also a great option for businesses that need their web site to be online at all times with no down time. If customers find that a particular business web site is down, they will usually seek out another company to do business with. Dedicated hosting is much more reliable which may increase revenue and lead to more business opportunities.
Shared hosting plans are a good option for personal web sites and small business web sites that receive little traffic. Dedicated hosting is becoming not only an attractive alternative to shared hosting, it is now a necessity for any business that needs reliable web hosting that offers good performance for their web site. Now is the time to switch to a dedicated hosting plan.
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Brenda is a tech blogger from Australia interested in graphic design, web hosting and gadgets. In her free time she also loves to write about Internet business and Social Media.