Saturday, June 4, 2011

Choose the Dedicated Server Hosting For Your Needs

Dedicated hosting can be defined as a type of internet hosting in which an organizational entity purchases or leases a separate server machine for a single purpose or running a set of related organizational systems. It should be noted that not all servers are dedicated. In some networks a single machine can act as a server for a specific purpose and perform other functions as well.

The machine 'performing' multiple functions at a time is termed 'shared server', where a single server machine is used by many different organizational entities. Though both have their own merits and demerits the dedicated server option is considered to be more flexible as it provides full control over the server machine.

Dedicated server can be used as an option in presence of following factors:

All those websites who receive high traffic
Just need to be alone on the server (not shared with anyone) due to any reasons mainly catering to each organization's requirements

Availability

Dedicated servers options are available very commonly these days. There are hundreds of companies on the internet which advertise their hosting services in multiple ways. However, collectively speaking most of these offerings highlight following features:

Platform
Processor specifications
Bandwidth specifications
Disk space
Memory
Managed Backups
Security Specifications
Price

While most of the solution-providers offer off-the-rack solutions focusing mainly on economic viability of the package, there are sites specifically designed for the customer to configure his / her own solutions to the last detail. However, there are cost considerations with each additional or higher option that the customer selects. These solutions are mostly charged on a monthly basis but quite a few solution providers offer monthly rates as well while a few offer the flexibility of selecting the payment mode on a preferred basis like hourly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

Management

The role of the dedicated server providers in the management of the same is still not standardized as such. This statement implies that each dedicated server provider will use the industry terms as per its own interpretation with an underlying string of common practices. Server management can include several areas like:

OS, Application and other software updates,
Monitoring of hardware resources and application performance,
Provision of security services like firewalls, antivirus, security audits, DDos protection and mitigation and intrusion detection
Backup Management
Disaster Recovery
Performance related services like load balancing and database tuning and administration
User Management

The provision of all these services can be categorized in four different ways:

Fully Managed

In this option every aspect of server management is performed by the service provider and customer is completely hands-off. The services include server monitoring, software updates, reboots, software patches and OS upgrades.

Managed

In this option customer may perform some particular tasks and the duties of the service provider are limited to the medium level of management, monitoring, updates, and a limited amount of support

Self Managed

This option emphasizes that customer performs most of the operations and tasks on dedicated server while the job of the service provider is limited to regular monitoring and some maintenance.

Unmanaged

There is virtually no involvement from service provider. Customer has the responsibility to provide all maintenance, upgrades, patches, and security.

Security

Security is an extremely significant consideration in provision of dedicated server management. Service providers have to employ stringent security measures that the application and data stored on their network of servers remain safe from the attack of any intrusions, spamming techniques and other harmful problems like Trojans, worms and crashers. Every OS uses different software for security implementations.

if you are looking for the best dedicated server hosting on the net right now. For more information on these hosts visit dedicated servers

No comments: