A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a
type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not
shared with anyone else. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as
organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating
system, hardware, etc. There is also another level of dedicated or managed
hosting commonly referred to as complex managed hosting. Complex Managed Hosting
applies to both physical dedicated servers, Hybrid server and virtual
servers, with many companies choosing a hybrid hosting solution. There are many
similarities between standard and complex managed hosting but the key
difference is the level of administrative and engineering support
that the customer pays for – owing to both the increased size and complexity
of the infrastructure deployment. The provider steps in to take over most of
the management, including security, memory, storage and IT support. The
service is primarily proactive in nature. Server administration can
usually be provided by the hosting company as an add-on service. In some
cases a dedicated server can offer less overhead and a larger return on
investment. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to
colocation facilities, providing redundant power sources and HVAC
systems. In contrast to colocation, the server hardware is owned by the provider
and in some cases they will provide support for operating systems or
applications. Using a dedicated hosting service offers
the benefits of high performance, security, email stability, and control.
Due to the relatively high price of dedicated hosting, it is mostly used by
websites that receive a large volume of traffic.
Operating system support Availability, price and employee
familiarity often determines which operating systems are offered on
dedicated servers. Variations of Linux and Unix are often included at no charge
to the customer. Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows
Server, provided through a special program called Microsoft SPLA. Red Hat
Enterprise is a commercial version of Linux offered to hosting providers on a
monthly fee basis. The monthly fee provides OS updates through the Red Hat
Network using an application called yum. Other operating systems are available
from the open source community at no charge. These include CentOS, Fedora
Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD systems FreeBSD,
NetBSD, OpenBSD. Support for any of these operating
systems typically depends on the level of management offered with a particular
dedicated server plan. Operating system support may include updates to the core
system in order to acquire the latest security fixes, patches, and system-wide
vulnerability resolutions. Updates to core operating systems include kernel
upgrades, service packs, application updates, and security patches that keep
server secure and safe. Operating system updates and support relieves the burden
of server management from the dedicated server owner.
Bandwidth and connectivity Bandwidth refers to the data transfer
rate or the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a
given time period and is often represented in bits per second. For
example, visitors to your server, web site, or applications utilize bandwidth
*Third – Total Transfer = 95th percentile method=
Line speed, billed on the 95th percentile, refers to the speed in which
data flows from the server or device, measured every 5 minutes for the month,
and dropping the top 5% of measurements that are highest, and basing the usage
for the month on the next-highest measurement. This is similar to a median
measurement, which can be thought of as a 50th percentile measurement, whereas
this sets the cutoff at 95th percentile, with 5% of measurements above the value,
and 95% of measurements below the value. This is also known as Burstable billing.
Line speed is measured in bits per second.
= Unmetered method= The second bandwidth measurement is
unmetered service where providers cap or control the “top line” speed for a
server. Top line speed in unmetered bandwidth is the total Mbit/s allocated
to the server and configured on the switch level. For example, if you
purchase 10 Mbit/s unmetered bandwidth, the top line speed would be 10 Mbit/s.
10 Mbit/s would result in the provider controlling the speed transfers take
place while providing the ability for the dedicated server owner to not be
charged with bandwidth overages. Unmetered bandwidth services usually
incur an additional charge. = Total transfer method=
Some providers will calculate the Total Transfer, which is the measurement of
actual data leaving and arriving, measured in bytes. Although it is
typically the sum of all traffic into and out of the server, some providers
measure only outbound traffic. = Bandwidth pooling=
This is a key mechanism for hosting buyers to determine which provider is
offering the right pricing mechanism of bandwidth pricing. Most Dedicated
Hosting providers bundle bandwidth pricing along with the monthly charge
for the dedicated server. Let us illustrate this with the help of an
example. An average $100 server from any of the common dedicated bandwidth
providers would carry 2 TB of bandwidth. Suppose you purchased 10 servers then
you would have the ability to consume 2 TB of bandwidth per server. However, let
us assume that given your application architecture only 2 of these 10 servers
are really web facing while the rest are used for storage, search, database or
other internal functions then the provider that allows bandwidth pooling
would let you consume overall 20 TB of bandwidth as incoming or outbound or
both depending on their policy. The provider that does not offer bandwidth
pooling would just let you use 4 TB of bandwidth, and the rest of the 16 TB of
bandwidth would be practically unusable. This fact is commonly known by all
hosting providers, and allows hosting providers to cut costs by offering an
amount of bandwidth that frequently will not be used. This is known as
overselling, and allows high bandwidth customers to use more than what a host
might otherwise offer, because they know that this will be balanced out by those
customers who use less than the maximum allowed.
One of the reasons for choosing to outsource dedicated servers is the
availability of high powered networks from multiple providers. As dedicated
server providers utilize massive amounts of bandwidth, they are able to secure
lower volume based pricing to include a multi-provider blend of bandwidth. To
achieve the same type of network without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth, a
large investment in core routers, long term contracts, and expensive monthly
bills would need to be in place. The expenses needed to develop a network
without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth does not make sense
economically for hosting providers. Many dedicated server providers include
a service level agreement based on network up-time. Some dedicated server
hosting providers offer a 100% up-time guarantee on their network. By securing
multiple vendors for connectivity and using redundant hardware, providers are
able to guarantee higher up-times; usually between 99-100% up-time if they
are a higher quality provider. One aspect of higher quality providers is
they are most likely to be multi-homed across multiple quality up-link
providers, which in turn, provides significant redundancy in the event one
goes down in addition to potentially improved routes to destinations.
Bandwidth consumption over the last several years has shifted from a per
megabit usage model to a per gigabyte usage model. Bandwidth was traditionally
measured in line speed access that included the ability to purchase needed
megabits at a given monthly cost. As the shared hosting model developed, the
trend towards gigabyte or total bytes transferred, replaced the megabit line
speed model so dedicated server providers started offering per gigabyte.
Prominent players in the dedicated server market offer large amounts of
bandwidth ranging from 500 gigabytes to 3000 gigabytes using the “overselling”
model. It is not uncommon for major players to provide dedicated servers
with 1Terabyte of bandwidth or higher. Usage models based on the byte level
measurement usually include a given amount of bandwidth with each server and
a price per gigabyte after a certain threshold has been reached. Expect to
pay additional fees for bandwidth overage usage. For example, if a
dedicated server has been given 3000 gigabytes of bandwidth per month and the
customer uses 5000 gigabytes of bandwidth within the billing period, the
additional 2000 gigabytes of bandwidth will be invoiced as bandwidth overage.
Each provider has a different model for billing. No industry standards have been
set yet. Management
Dedicated hosting services primarily differ from managed hosting services in
that managed hosting services usually offer more support and other services.
As such, managed hosting is targeted towards clients with less technical
knowledge, whereas dedicated hosting services, or unmanaged hosting services,
are suitable for web development and system administrator professionals.
To date, no industry standards have been set to clearly define the management
role of dedicated server providers. What this means is that each provider will
use industry standard terms, but each provider will define them differently.
For some dedicated server providers, fully managed is defined as having a web
based control panel while other providers define it as having dedicated
system engineers readily available to handle all server and network related
functions of the dedicated server provider.
Server management can include some or all of the following:
Dedicated hosting server providers define their level of management based
on the services they provide. In comparison, fully managed could equal
self managed from provider to provider. Administrative maintenance of the
operating system, often including upgrades, security patches, and
sometimes even daemon updates are included. Differing levels of management
may include adding users, domains, daemon configuration, or even custom
programming. Dedicated server hosting providers may
provide the following types of server managed support:
Fully managed – Includes monitoring, software updates, reboots, security
patches and operating system upgrades. Customers are completely hands-off.
Managed – Includes medium level of management, monitoring, updates, and a
limited amount of support. Customers may perform specific tasks.
Self-managed – Includes regular monitoring and some maintenance.
Customers provide most operations and tasks on dedicated server.
Unmanaged – Little to no involvement from service provider. Customers provide
all maintenance, upgrades, patches, and security.
Security Dedicated hosting server providers
utilize extreme security measures to ensure the safety of data stored on
their network of servers. Providers will often deploy various software programs
for scanning systems and networks for obtrusive invaders, spammers, hackers,
and other harmful problems such as Trojans, worms, and crashers. Linux and
Windows use different software for security protection.
Software Providers often bill for dedicated
servers on a fixed monthly price to include specific software packages. Over
the years, software vendors realized the significant market opportunity to bundle
their software with dedicated servers. They have since started introducing
pricing models that allow dedicated hosting providers the ability to
purchase and resell software based on reduced monthly fees.
Microsoft offers software licenses through a program called the Service
Provider License Agreement. The SPLA model provides use of Microsoft products
through a monthly user or processor based fee. SPLA software includes the
Windows Operating System, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server,
Microsoft SharePoint and shoutcast hosting, and many other server based
products. Dedicated server providers usually offer
the ability to select the software you want installed on a dedicated server.
Depending on the overall usage of the server, this will include your choice of
operating system, database, and specific applications. Servers can be customized
and tailored specific to the customer’s needs and requirements.
Other software applications available are specialized web hosting specific
programs called control panels. Control panel software is an all inclusive set
of software applications, server applications, and automation tools that
can be installed on a dedicated server. Control panels include integration into
web servers, database applications, programming languages, application
deployment, server administration tasks, and include the ability to automate
tasks via a web based front end. Most dedicated servers are packaged with
a control panel. Control panels are often confused with management tools,
but these control panels are actually web based automation tools created to
help automate the process of web site creation and server management. Control
panels should not be confused with a full server management solution by a
dedicated hosting providers. Limitations
Many providers do not allow IRC. This is due to rogue IRC users triggering DDoS
attacks against the provider, which may overwhelm their networks, lowering
service quality for all customers. Adult content is disallowed by many
providers as it may either be of questionable legality or consume large
amounts of bandwidth. Copyright violations – Hosting
copyrighted material of which an individual does not own the copyright to
is against the terms of service of most hosting companies.
See also Data center
Hosting environment References