What Is Dedicated Server?

A Dedicated Server is the one one which a single client uses the full machine and exercises total control over it. The client has the right to choose the operating system, applications and firewall systems to be installed. Total control right from the root level enables the client to carry out customizations on the machine as required. A dedicated server comes with limitless bandwidth and disk storage space.

Dedicated server hosting is considered to be the highest order of server among conventional hosting services. The most basic level is the shared hosting server in which there are many clients using the same server resources and this does not allow customizations to configuration. It comes with limited bandwidth and disk space. The other, intermediary level server is virtual private server, or VPS, which allows a few tenants to share the server resources. It allows much higher level of bandwidth and storage space and also allows customizations to a great extent without changing the foundation level configurations. The third and the highest order is that of the dedicated server.

Dedicated servers could be installed on premises or these can be colocated with the third parties. If installed on premises, there is a need for having all equipment and systems essential to its safety and operability on the premises. Clients may have dedicated servers but these might still be managed by the providers. This way these are called managed dedicated servers. Clients just have to tell what all installations or updates are required and these are executed by the server providers. This prevents incurring all maintenance costs including that of the information technology professionals.

Dedicated servers are costly than shared or VPS servers but these allow tremendous flexibility of usage and scalability. These are ideal for websites receiving high traffic and consuming high bandwidth.