Dedicated Server gives high flexibility and more options for your website. Shared hosting plans do not supported many features. Thus, it becomes necessary for you to move to either virtual private servers or Dedicated Servers. Usually you have root SSH /admin RDP access to the server on VPS as well as Dedicated Servers. You can manage and modify various aspects of the server behavior – software running, configuration etc. Therefore, if your site needs more than what any shared hosting plan can offer or if you need to install any specific application then VPS and dedicated server are the options for you. In addition, if you have a VPS or dedicated server, you are free to host unlimited number of domains and can have unlimited email accounts, FTP accounts etc, irrespective of the server-side OS.
A question may come to your mind that if you get root SSH /admin RDP access on VPS as well then why to go for Dedicated Server? The answer is that if you consider Dedicated Server then the whole CPU and memory is on your disposal. Your site is the only one that uses the server resources. The resources are only leased to you, thus, unlike VPS; there is no one to share them. Memory and CPU allocations for a VPS are far lesser as compared to a physical dedicate server. In addition, you can install whatever programs and software you wish. Many applications need more resources than they are offered on VPS Hosting. In this case, it becomes necessary for us to consider Dedicated Server only.
Most companies rent dedicated servers for a monthly fee providing certain amount of bandwidth, disk space and one or more dedicated IP addresses. Unlike any other plans, we can even have additional RAM, disk space, bandwidth etc.
The greatest disadvantage of a dedicated server is its price. It costs much higher than a shared hosting plan. Next, if you are on Shared hosting plan, the web-hosting provider takes care of the server upgrades, security, hacker attacks, etc. However, if you are on a dedicated server, these tasks in most of the cases are your own responsibility. Thus, making it necessary for you to be familiar with system administration before going for a dedicated or at least hire a system admin to take care of your server.
Many companies offer the so-called “Managed dedicated” servers. These server are completely opposite of Unmanaged servers. The provider will take care of every thing you require on your server, from installation to configuration. They will also monitor the server for you, maintain it regularly, carry out the System Administration tasks and will also login into the server in case the services gets crashed. Most probably, providers of Fully Managed Servers do not provide direct root access or Administrator access to their client to keep the servers safe or to make sure that the client does break them all the time.
Jack Palmer is a webmaster at BODhost dedicated to provide useful articles about Dedicated Server Hosting and Windows VPS Hosting