Dedicated Web Hosting

Using Dedicated Servers for your web hosting solution is typically more costly but can give you the ultimate flexibility in creating the environment required for your particular product or service. The client in this type of internet hosting environment leases a dedicated server and doesn’t share any resources with anyone else in the same server farm. The client can have full choice over the operating system and hardware used to deliver the system. Typically, the value in using one hosting provider over another in this type of solution is based on the attributes of the environment. A physical secure location is required and an organization manages the physical installation of the hardware and provides connectivity to the internet, power and security for a group of clients in one physical location. Each client could build their own data center but that is usually quite costly so at least going in with an organization who gets economies of scale from creating the physical place to house all the servers is of value.

The administration of the servers in a shared hosting arena with a dedicated server is usually provided for the client with access to the server provided to the client through a firewall so that they can configure and manage their own server to the degree they are interested. The facilities used to host these dedicated servers, possibly in the same environment hosting other shared server configurations as well, is called a data center housed sometimes in collocation facilities. As mentioned there are economies of scale provided with the availability of redundant power sources and HVAC systems that keep the facility cool enough to house all the hardware in one place. In traditional collocation facilities, the hardware is owned by the provider but in dedicated server environments the servers are usually owned or leased by the client.

The choice of operating system used on these dedicated servers is usually dependent on what the employees of a clients business are familiar with as they are actually administering the environment themselves in most cases. Other considerations are availability and prices. Sometimes the Linux operating system or its variants are included at the base level free of charge and others are offered for additional fees. There might be choices that include Microsoft operating systems and server products through their SPLA programs. Red Hat Linux may also be offered if service for a Linux distribution needs to be included for the client. These are typically provided on a monthly fee basis and updates to the operating system are included. There are other operating systems made available from the open source community at no charge but they must be supported by the clients staff.

Fees for these types of services usually include a fixed monthly fee for the hardware, operating system (if not provided for free) and applications provided by the hosting supplier or other vendor. Variable costs are based on monthly usage of certain measurable resources. They are usually based on bandwidth used during a month. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data sent and received over the internet as activity from users of your website can vary from month to month.