Virtual vs. Dedicated: Which Type of Web Hosting Do I Need?
The choice between the type of web hosting, virtual or
dedicated, is governed by several factors that need to be taken
into consideration by the site owner. The key for a site owner
is to try and fulfill his requirements while staying within his
budget. An understanding of the pros and cons of both forms of
hosting is the first step in deciding which to choose.
Virtual hosting: This type of hosting is preferred by most small
websites. Several websites are hosted on a single server in this
form of hosting. Hosting providers offer packages with different
combinations of disk space, domain names allowed with each
hosting account, and bandwidth allotments. Small sites and blogs
that do not require too many resources to run can select a
smaller virtual hosting package.
With virtual hosting, the distribution of resources means that
the speed of web pages loading depends upon other web sites
sharing the web server. If quick download and upload are
essential to a site owner's plan, then virtual hosting which
offers sufficient bandwidth should be considered. A good host
will ensure that websites with similar resource requirements are
hosted together so that site owners pay only for the resources
and scripts that are used by them.
Virtual hosts may or may not allow access to non-public
directories, these are directories used for storing files that
are not meant to be accessed via the word wide web. Small sites
that hold sensitive data should check for this facility.
SSH/Telnet are important for site owners that wish to
communicate directly with the servers and run queries on the
databases.
In terms of security, websites can get compromised even when
there are no lapses on their part; carelessness on part of
neighboring websites on a virtual server can lead to the server
getting hacked into and every website may be at risk. However,
choosing a good host with solid security will mitigate this risk.
Dedicated hosting: With dedicated hosting, all the resources of
a server are made available to the site owner exclusively.
Dedicated hosting is best suited for sites that attract a lot of
visitors and have a high bandwidth requirement, ecommerce sites
that may need special software, or web sites that hold sensitive
information and therefore need greater security.
Dedicated servers allow unlimited domain names and greater
freedom in managing the website. Dedicated hosting is divided
into managed and unmanaged hosting. Managed hosting implies
greater support from a technical team that performs regular
technical updates and routine maintenance without the site owner
having to look into it. Unmanaged dedicated hosting is cheaper
than managed dedicated hosting but additional support can be an
added cost.
Dedicated servers are accessible only by the host and the site
owners; by using features such as secure FTP and encrypted
terminal sessions, site owners can be assured of greater
security. Webmasters who run multiple sites can also host all
their sites on a dedicated server; this enables better
management and may work out cheaper than hosting the sites
separately on different virtual servers.