What are the advantages of Dedicated Hosting?

[cnymike]

could we begin a discussion of what the advantages over shared hosting are? does having a dedicated hosting plan require specialized knowledge to get up and running? Is it best for people who want to host a lot of websites under their umbrella?

[SnakEyez]

Here is the breakdown. With dedicated hosting you should have a bit more understanding of running a server or have least considering hiring someone who does. I am not sure if HR offers managed dedicated solutions or if they are unmanaged. If you don't have a staff member to take care of this or if you don't have the expertise yourself you should consider a managed solution over an unmanaged one.

The advantages are that you would be allowed to run whatever you want on the server. For example, some people like using WebDAV features which tie into Apple's programs or other scripts and this is not available on the shared accounts, but you can put it on a dedicated server. Also you can be as resource intensive as you want be because you are not sharing the machine with anyone else.

Most of the advantages you will hear will be about freedom and more options. I would go into more but they all follow the same theme. If you need elaboration on something you are thinking about in particular I am sure if you post it someone will be able to comment on it.

[connervt]

AFAIK, the difference is three things:

-- Cost
-- Security
-- Availability

Shared cost less, as the cost of the server is shared across a number of users. But you are also prone to problems associated with those other users. If someone exploits a security hole opened by one user, the possibility exists that they can then access your data/site.

A dedicated server has only two parties involved -- you and the host provider.

[cnymike]

I'm at a point where I've got quite a few clients that I'm hosting on various webhosts... 1&1, pair.com, hostrocket, etc. My thought is that if I put all my eggs in one basket, by having a dedicated server, and if I screw something up, then all my clients sites will be down whereas if I continue the way I am, I'm spreading the risk. But I do understand the risks of shared hosts. I was just trying to see if a dedicated host is something I should consider even though I'm not very knowledgeable about managing such a situation.

[SnakEyez]

Take a look at the reseller accounts here at HostRocket. It might be better to take this one step at a time. Then if you start to expand and outgrow the reseller account, move your way up to a dedicated server then.

The reason I say this is that it seems you are using it more to host other people's websits as opposed to running unique, or server-intensive scripts for a particular site. So you would be better off moving up the chain slowly.

[cnymike]

Correct. I host quite a few sites, most of which use a CMS of one flavor or another. But I'm not really doing anything spectacularly processor intensive, not serving video (or not much anyway). Maybe just being a reseller would be a better move. Not knocking HR, but I really am a long-time pair.com customer and most of my sites are hosted there. I have what's called a Webmaster account that runs $29.95/month and gives me, 200GB/month transfer, 3000MB disk space, 20 MySQL databases, 2000 mailboxes, 20 additional FTP logins, Access by Telnet, SSH, FTP and more. I realize that the HR freedom plan offers more bandwidth and storage, but much of that is overkill for me. And I simply don't know how the unlimited nature of the Freedom plan is going to effect performance of the server once more people come on board. It's a real dilemma right now.

[KLH]

Right now HostRockets price is $50 for a year of hosting.
I don't think you can get anywhere near that with pair.com

[SnakEyez]

I don't know how acurate this site is, and unfortunately they don't show your pair host, but if this is any indication, HR is hosting over 18,000 sites right now so I think they have been able to handle expansion well.

http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/reports/total_domains/HOSTROCKET.COM

Also that account I see you have now with pair does not seem to be a reseller account where you can control the domains (ie: shut them down if they do something you don't want them to do). Keep in mind when we are talking about HR we are talking about the Orbit plans and not the Freedom plan (click link above forums for reseller hosting for more info). These are the types of plans you should look for at a host. This way you have access to WHM (or web host manager) so that you can control the domains.

[DracoFelis]

If I'm not mistaking, one advantage of dedicated hosting (that hasn't yet been mentioned) is flexibility to run the software of your choice.

When you are on shared hosting, you are likely limited to the hosting tools that are provided on that shared server. And while those tools are likely more than sufficient for normal/routine web sites, they might not be sufficient if/when you want to do something unusual/special.

And for those times when the tools on the shared server won't do the job, paying for "dedicated hosting" may allow you to run the mix of software of your choice. For example, a group (I know about) running a free VoIP service, started off by paying a hosting company for dedicated hosting, and then ran their own custom modified VoIP software on that dedicated server they were renting. In this way, the group was able to start offering their VoIP service without (initially) having to build a sever themselves, and also without having to get fast internet for their server (as the dedicated server they were renting was already located at a hosting company with loads of bandwidth).

[kieranmullen]

The second poster mentioned the software freedom.

I know what you mean about the VOIP offering. Viatalk (hostrockets voip offering) is running out of ev1.net datacenter (now theplanet.com)