This article explores in detail the circumstances under which a dedicated server should be preferred over a shared server. This is followed by a description of the fundamental characteristics of a dedicated server. The aim is to educate the customer with what may be expected from such a service.

It is pretty common for a vast majority of Internet professionals to opt for a shared hosting service in order to host the project initially. On a shared web hosting account, your site may have been functioning fine for a short duration of time. What might have been particularly bothersome to you at times could have been the overall amount of downtime that your site had seen while it was residing on a shared hosting server. You may have witnessed quite a few other issues as well, e.g. your account may have gotten hacked with the result that you lost all of your essential data. However, given the amount of time that you have now spent on your site and the money that you have invested into it, you cannot afford to have such a scenario again. In addition, as your hosting requirements increase over time on account of either a surge in the number of visitors or a need for improved functionality, it becomes essential for you to consider other hosting options.

One alternative may be to consider upgrading to a VPS web hosting service. This may be fine for some time but as your site keeps growing in size reaching a couple hundred pages, you may expect to receive millions of hits in a month depending on how aggressive your web promotion approach is. This is probably the time when the expansion of your online business has reached such a point that you need to consider a better hosting option such as a dedicated hosting server. As a result, a dedicated hosting package begins to appear as an attractive and feasible option to you, in view of the fact that it can not only sustain your online growth but can also give that extra functionality and security needed by your project.

The purpose of this article is to outline in detail what you may expect from a dedicated hosting server and how it can meet the expanding possibilities of your online venture. What follows outlines the fundamental traits of dedicated server hosting.

1. Full Server 
   Dedicated web hosting implies that the web hosting company leases out a complete server to you, which can then be used as stated by your personal needs. One of the biggest benefits of a dedicated server is that the system resources are totally at your disposal.
    
2. Option to Install Custom Programs 
   Any programs that are installed on the server can solely be chosen by you as per your exact needs.
    
3. Option to Change Access Rights 
   In case you have given access to other users to the programs that are installed on the system, they can also use those applications concurrently with you.
    
4. No Upper Maximum on Data Transfer 
   A dedicated hosting server is particularly appropriate for any site that gets loads of visitors. This is because of the fact that there is typically no upper maximum on the overall amount of data transfer for a site that resides on a dedicated server.
    
5. Flexible Customization Options 
   One of the greatest reasons cited in favor of a dedicated hosting package is that it can be customized greatly. A great majority of companies providing dedicated server hosting give you the option to entirely customize the server in accordance with your requirements.
    
6. Flexible Options to Add Extra Features 
   Since a diverse range of features are available to the end-user to choose from, so you can select any specific features that are most important to you.
    
7. Installation of OS Consistent With Requirements 
   Since different programs demand different operating environments, one of your first concerns is the selection of the correct Operating System. Two of the most widely used operating systems offered by dedicated server hosting providers include Windows and Red Hat Linux.
    
8. A Broad Range of Control Panels to Choose from 
   As far as the selection of the control panel is concerned, the two most popular brands offered by many companies include CPanel and Plesk. Of these, CPanel appears to be more popular than Plesk, although the latter also has a huge customer base due to a variety of features offered by it in contrast with the former one.
    
9. Reliable Service 
   Reliability is another main factor behind the attractiveness of dedicated hosting in contrast with a shared hosting server. Because the server is not split into virtual partitions, there is no additional burden on the server resources, the result of which is that the installed programs execute very fast.
    
10. Maximum Speed Due to Unlimited Bandwidth 
    With a dedicated server, the total bandwidth that your site is receiving will remain unaffected since there is no other website requesting any data transfer from the server. This translates to lower access times for your site because of the fast data transfer between browsers of your active users and your server.
     
11. No Security Risks 
    Potential security threats to your site are also reduced considerably in case it is hosted on a dedicated server, in comparison with a shared hosting server. Since numerous user accounts reside on a shared hosting server, it becomes pretty easy for a user to upload a malicious virus-infected file or application, which if goes undetected by the installed antivirus, can infect your account as well. This cannot be exploited with a dedicated hosting server, in which you not only have an external hardware firewall to thwart intrusion attempts, but also have the ability to modify access rights so as to tighten the protection further. This frees you up from any worries regarding unauthorized access to the server, with the result that you can contemplate entirely on the business issues.
     
12. Unique IP Address  A unique IP address is another key attribute that differentiates dedicated server hosting from shared server hosting. The benefit is that the site URL can be identified almost immediately with no required translation. The availability of a unique IP address with companies offering shared hosting packages is fairly limited. Even those who do offer this feature generally cost more than those who do not. Given that a separate software has to be used on the shared hosting server in order to recognize the partition to which the requested URL belongs, so the access time is relatively higher than with a dedicated IP address. Under normal circumstances, the URL translation operation with a shared IP address takes only a bit more time in contrast with a dedicated IP address, though it can increase appreciably under peak loads. Conversely, there is no translation software needed in the case of a dedicated hosting server, which results in a much quicker access speed.
     
13. Additional Safety for Data Because of Redundancy  Another major advantage of a dedicated hosting server is that you have the option to install several hard drives on the server. Having an extra hard drive is very useful, since it can be used for performing regular backups, in addition to the primary hard drive which has the OS and applications installed on it. This redundancy can result in a considerable protection for your important data and can only come with a dedicated server package. One application of the secondary storage medium may be to safeguard any crucial data your web applications might be generating, such as your client credit card information. In addition, the dedicated hosting provider may also give you the option of having a backup FTP account, the benefit of which is that you can reproduce essential data on it in parallel with the usage of your regular FTP account.