Dedicated Hosting Purchasing Guide

As the hosting term suggests, with dedicated hosting, an entire server and its resources are dedicated to hosting your website. So in other words, it implies that you own an entire server minus the set-up investments associated with it. The dedicated type of web hosting can further be divided into managed and unmanaged dedicated type of web hosting.

The unmanaged hosting plans typically include hardware, operating system, web server and Internet connection. The managed hosting plans on the other hand include all the basic features of a hosting plan and all the other services associated with managing a server.

The company is therefore required to ascertain and analyze all their physical and financial resources at hand required to manage their servers. Most companies prefer the managed hosting plans as these prove to be more cost-effective. For organizations that have a good support department could go in for the unmanaged dedicated hosting option.

A dedicated hosting plan works best for website that need all the server resources at their disposal. This option also facilitates faster and better website performance and the web owner also wields the control to optimize the server as well as the database for the website. With server customization, you can also install and run programs that your website requires and this obviates the need to reprogram the website to fit the server requirements.

The growing websites would definitely benefit from complete access to storage that comes with dedicated hosting. Managed plan customers also have the flexibility to build the website the way they desire without having hardware, operating system, certain software, middleware, security, Internet connection, backup, power backup, staff, casualties & loss prevention even insurance responsibilities.

It is advisable to opt for the Intel processor for large websites when shopping for the dedicated hosting plans. This is primarily because it emits less heat. Celeron is an optimum choice for small websites and for the medium-sized websites, Pentium 4 has proven to appropriate. Dual Xeons are highly recommended for high traffic web sites to give you the processing power; more so if your web site uses a lot of server side scripting. On the average, processor speeds of 2 to 2.4 GHz are good choices.

Also ensure that the server features a memory of 512MB. For websites that heavily utilize server side programming languages (PHP, CGI, ASP), a memory of 1024MB is appropriate. The high-traffic websites can have 2048MB of memory.

With a dedicated hosting plan, it is not easy to migrate between different hosts. It is therefore advisable to opt for a host that delivers quality and reliable services. With a dedicated hosting plan, the support response system is required to be of better quality and reliability than with the shared hosting plans. So in this area you should be clear what to expect from the company's support system. Check for the company's network reliability and find out about their contingency plans in the event of a technical or network failure. Also find out about the money back guarantee and its terms and conditions.

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