The Pros and Cons of Dedicated Server Web Hosting
by Jimmy Martin
Advantages of Dedicated Server Web Hosting
Configurability - You can run any operating system and programs on your server that you want. You also get to choose the technical specifications of the server: memory, processor, and the type, number and size of hard disks. You may either rent a server (which is the most common way of doing things) or buy your own and pay for somebody to keep it in their data centre and sell you some of their bandwidth.
Control - There is nobody else using the server, so you are in total control. Nobody else's website can overload the server and crash it (although obviously you can do this to yourself if you're not careful!)
Consolidation - If you run several websites, you can put them all on your dedicated server in either a shared or VPS hosting setup. You can also use your server for other functions such as email, database or gaming, not just hosting websites.
Power - Even a low-end web server has a great deal of resources and can serve a very large number of page requests, or run very resource-intensive applications such as online shops.
Disadvantages of Dedicated Server Web Hosting
Price - You pay a monthly or yearly cost which includes rental for the server, internet bandwidth and electricity use. It will also include limited technical support. The more support you need, the more it costs. It costs extra for a fully managed server, with all security updates installed for you, backups taken for you and all hardware problems fixed swiftly. However, the money is well worth it if you are not an experienced server administrator.
Complexity - If you hire an unmanaged server, it is cheap but you will be entirely responsible for the setup and security of the server. This is a skilled job that is best left to professionals or experienced amateurs, as one false step can leave the server vulnerable to hackers. This complexity can be removed if you pay for a managed server, which costs more but is a wise choice for most business websites.
Reliability - This is a strong point if you rent an expensive server with features such as redundant disk arrays and hot-swappable components, but cheap, low-end servers are more vulnerable to hardware failure. Business-critical websites should be run on mid- to high-end servers with excellent reliability features, not just the cheapest server available. A dirt-cheap, low-end server may actually be a worse choice than a high-end shared or VPS hosting plan in this respect.
Next we will provide a summary of web hosting.