What is Dedicated Server Hosting? (And When do you need it?)

Dedicated Server Hosting is an Internet hosting option where a remote physical server (or servers) is leased to one individual, website, application or business. Unlike a shared server, multiple websites or users don’t rely on computing resources from the same web server. You rent the entire server along with all its components. The customer has complete control over the machine, so they can customise and optimise it for their unique requirements, including performance and security.

When you purchase a dedicated server, you’re renting a reliable remote server that is maintained and managed. Hosting.co.uk supplies the physical server and environment, the associated services, like software customisations, and technical support and maintenance.

When do you need Dedicated Server Hosting?

web-hosting-servers
What is Dedicated Server Hosting? (And When do you need it?) 4

Are you trying to figure out when is the right time to invest in Dedicated Server Hosting? Well, you should consider investing in Dedicated Server Hosting when you start to have needs for:

1. Control over server configuration

As the organisation would be the single tenant of a dedicated environment, its IT staff has complete autonomy over the server, its apps and operating systems. You don’t have to worry about having any restrictions where your server is concerned. With a dedicated server, you have full range to install any specialised software and configurations you wish, as the need arises. This grants you full flexibility in the management of your dedicated server.

2. Ultimate privacy

When you have the complete server to yourself, it ensures that your website and business are secure and have maximum speed as they are isolated. For example, if your company collects customers’ private data, the added security and privacy a dedicated server gives would be very attractive.

3. Complete isolation

As highlighted earlier, with a dedicated server, only your site is on an entire server. So, not only are you in total control of that server, but your site is also totally isolated from the impact of other users. For example, if one website gets a lot of traffic, other websites on the server suffer due to the excessive and highly unfair allocation of server resources.

4. Performance optimisation

An organisation can optimise a dedicated server to support their most demanding applications and performance requirements.

5. Better security

Businesses can customise the server to help meet their security and compliance needs as they see fit. With a dedicated server, there are no other users on the server which means it is fully secure giving you complete access to the entire server and its built-in security features.

6. Stability and high-performance hosting

If your website sees high levels of traffic, you will want to use a dedicated server to ensure high-performance. In addition to isolating your services onto one server, a dedicated server has a notably higher performance level than VPS and shared hosting. For example, when it comes to features needed to handle traffic like RAM, VPS hosting can start at 1 or 2GB of RAM. On the other hand, dedicated servers can start at 16GB of RAM.

If you need more information, you can read more about the necessity of dedicated server hosting here.

How does Dedicated Server Hosting compare to Cloud Server Hosting?

switch host

Dedicated Server Hosting has been around much longer than Cloud Server Hosting. Dedicated servers are generally used for hosting many websites or a single high-traffic website or e-Commerce store.

It gives users the control and flexibility to customise their server or to choose the software and adjust the system as they desire.

Cloud Server Hosting is a relatively new, virtual, public server hosting platform. It’s made up of many physical servers that are housed in a secure data center, which hosts several virtual servers. Cloud hosting relies on cloud computing technologies to operate. These technologies allow an infinite number of machines to successfully act as a single system.

All businesses have different needs and demands, so deciding if either DSH or CSH is right for you, depends on a number of factors. Ask yourself what the objective of your business is and then see which platform best helps you to meet them. You will also have to look at the cost, resilience, scalability and of course, the security that each offers.

The right choice all comes down to you and your business’ needs and purpose.

You can read more about the Dedicated Server Hosting versus Cloud Server Hosting matchups here.

8 Misconceptions about Dedicated Server Hosting

There are many misconceptions about Dedicated Server Hosting. Many people believe that dedicated servers are complex and less flexible when compared to other hosting options. This can’t be true as a dedicated server is at the foundation of every type of web hosting solution. From shared hosting to huge cloud hosting platforms there is a physical server in a data centre somewhere. Every single one starts with a dedicated server even if it goes unnoticed by layers or virtualisation.

Other DSH myths include:

  • Dedicated Server Hosting clients having no control
  • Dedicated Servers not scaling
  • It’s not reliable
  • Dedicated Server Hosting providing low bandwidth
  • It’s only for well-established businesses
  • Shared Server Hosting is just as good
  • Dedicated Server Hosting is too costly
  • The data centre being irrelevant

Of course these Dedicated Server Myths are untrue but you can read more about how untrue they are in our blog post here.

In the End

Deciding if you need Dedicated Server Hosting solely rests on the purpose you’ll be using the server for, the amount of traffic daily, your budget, the specific server modifications you need and the performance level you need in a server. Again, because there are no other users on the server, you have complete control over how it is set up. You have the complete freedom to choose which operating system you wish to install, how you want to use the server i.e. for data storage, gaming, hosting plans, a website, etc. There are no limitations on a dedicated server.

At Hosting.co.uk, we have the most efficient, high-performing dedicated server hosting in the UK. Our server packages provide high-quality performance and support with a range of dedicated server plans to suit different needs.

When you’re ready to get a dedicated server of your own, check out our available plans here. Still undecided? Talk to our trusted dedicated server experts to help you decide on which service is right for you.