The Difference
While exact definitions vary among providers, generally speaking managed hosting means your provider takes complete or near complete care of your server. This can include anything from basic system maintenance and patches to applications maintenance, security, monitoring, etc. Someone that needs dedicated hosting and wants to rely on their host for pretty much anything and everything regarding their server needs to strike a relationship with a managed service provider. Full blown managed services involve lots of skilled people hours. Not only that, since every managed customer is unique, it’s hard for a managed provider to be overly systematic. For this - expect to pay a great deal more than today’s budget server provider but if your needs demand it, and you choose a solid provider it should be money well spent.

Unmanaged dedicated hosting obviously refers to dedicated servers with less, little or none of the skilled people support you’d expect to find in managed. You signup, you pay, and in a few minutes to a few hours you get a welcome email with IP address, login, FAQ’s, etc. - Beyond that you are pretty much on your own. Relax - you are not really as own your own as it seems.

First off, most unmanaged providers do in fact offer technical support, and most that we’ve seen is very good. If you choose unmanaged dedicated service you do need to have someone on your team that knows the technical side a good bit, but they don’t necessarily have to be experts. While you may have to wait 12 - 24 hours or you may even have to pay extra for it, nearly all the unmanaged providers I know do have high level techs available to handle serious issues. In addition most providers give some sort of immediate reboot service. Unless you’ve been tinkering with some critical config files or have a hardware failure, a reboot can help with a range of issues. Lastly, unmanaged providers may not support you or whatever you put on your server after you move in, but they do stand by the hardware and software they sell you. If a hard drive crashes they are going to replace it for you (although you had better be doing your backups) and if your system crashes most will fix it for you.

Summary
The bottom line is if you’ve got mission critical needs and don’t have the in-house staff to efficiently keep your servers performing the way they should, then you are going to need managed services. Even still it’s a more cost effective route that hiring your own staff and most likely you will receive a higher, more consistent level of service. If your needs are more basic, and or you or your staff has the time and know-how to perform 75% - 80% of your server’s maintenance then an affordable unmanaged service should do you just fine.

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Operating System

Your choice of platform will depend to a large extent on the types of applications you are using and the skills and knowledge you already possess. The two most well known operating systems are Windows 2003 and Linux. Typically your purpose for the server will determine what platform you will need. If you are looking for a cost effective way to host a bunch of web sites, Linux is probably your best bet. If you have a site that uses ASP and needs Microsoft SQL server then you are going to need a Windows server. If you are using a dedicated server for something like an email server or a firewall then it can really boil down to what you are most comfortable with. There are great applications for these cases available for both Unix and Windows environments.

Data Transfer / Bandwidth

Data transfer options are getting more and more generous as the industry gets more and more competitive. Beware, just because a host says you can have unlimited transfer, does not necessarily guarantee that they can make it available. Most dedicated server plans are going to offer anywhere from 1000 - 5000 GB of transfer each month. Take note of who each host uses for their internet connectivity. A dedicated server provider should have at least 2 redundant internet connections from various providers but most have even more than that these days.

Managed Services

Look for our upcoming feature about managed vs unmanaged dedicated hosting services - so we won’t go into great details here but - be sure you know what managed services you will need from your provider and whether or not it is included with your plan. For example, some hosts may perform various monitoring, upgrade and backup services with your plan, while some provide nothing but the server. A crude analogy may be something like renting a parking space in a big city - some places may charge the battery once a month, wash it and make sure your radio does not get stolen, while others may simply be providing a place for you to park your car.

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Windows 2003 Dedicated Servers come pre equipped with IIS, Terminal Services, and basic Operating System installed. Apart from this a client can install any custom software/application he wishes to run on the server. Servers also come pre installed with ASP, ASP.NET, PHP. Database support includes MySQL, MS SQL 2005 and MS Access.

Linux Dedicated Hosting

Linux Dedicated servers usually come installed with the latest version of CentOS and all applicable upgrades and patches. Installation also includes Apache, PHP, MySQL, SendMail, PostgreSQL, BIND and any other software you need. Additionally a client can install any custom software/application he wishes to run on the server.

DNS Services

DNS is required to point a domain name to the server IP address in order to allow the web site to resolve from that particular server and be visible from anywhere in the world. Many Dedicated Server providers provide Managed DNS Services along with Dedicated Servers for no additional cost. Installing a DNS server on your servers will bring in extra load and a performance degrades for your existing web site for no additional benefit. For just a couple of DNS records it does not make sense to install an entire DNS server on your machine which is basically optimized to serve web data rather than be a DNS server.

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* The direct benefits of a dedicated server hosting plan surround the ability to totally administer a web server. The advantage to be able to effectively maintain a dedicated server lies in one’s ability to control the variables associated with reliability and stability. In a dedicated environment, server overload, malicious scripts from other users, and too many installed applications are variables which can be controlled, as compared to this loss of management in shared server hosting.

* Furthermore, a dedicated server allows one to only install applications or software that applies to the major hosting goal at hand. Conversely, shared web hosting has installed software that may or may not be related to the web hosting goals.

* Reliance on the web host repair services and time delays of platform repairs can be minimized, as one may intervene and provide solutions to existing problems with dedicated hosting. Having the option to add patches, upgrade software, or tweak performance is invaluable and allows the dedicated server administrator to work with 24 hour access to perform adjustments, corrections, or updates.

* Lastly, speed of downloads can be determined through the amount of bandwidth that is dedicated to just your website. Statistically, visitors will quickly leave a site if the load time was long. Dedicated servers allow quick delivery of web pages, which increases the probability of keeping web site visitors on a site that may convert them to paying customers. Furthermore, quick loading pages enhance the company’s image and may encourage existing customers to refer your web-based services to others.

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There are major benefits of dedicated hosting, as discussed below. However, the major disadvantage, cost, is quickly being overcome. Because of continual growth in the dedicated server hosting industry, the rates for dedicated server plans are rapidly declining. A competitive environment drives up the level of service and decreases cost. This reduction is powered by an increase in small and medium-sized businesses gaining an online presence and the rapid proliferation of web hosting providers.

Advantages

* Dedicated hosting is favorable because of 2 major assets: control and reliability.
* Since a dedicated web administrator has more control over a dedicated server, it tends to be more secure, compared to a shared web server. By knowing what exactly is installed on a dedicated server through full root access, a system administrator is able to confidently make decisions on the software and application updates necessary to maintain the dedicated web server and keep it running in its most optimal configuration.
* Increased reliability is another major asset of dedicated hosting, as a server administrator has the self-sufficiency to optimize page loads by tweaking variables such as page load speed and general server resource allocation. This server reliability translates to customer satisfaction and an increase in the bottom line goals of a web site’s presence.

Disadvantages

* While the benefits of dedicated hosting is apparent, the bottom line consideration, especially for business purposes is cost. Dedicated hosting is significantly more expensive compared to shared or virtual web hosting, and until recently, could most commonly be quoted at several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars per month. Although cost may still be exorbitant, most businesses are able to justify the use of dedicated servers through a true web analysis to weigh the resources necessary to run applications and code.
* Another drawback is the need to be able to monitor, install, upgrade and configure programs, add sites, deal with potential hacks, and troubleshoot systems. Therefore, the necessary system administration skills, if one does not possess them, may definitely inhibit the successful implementation of a web site hosted on a dedicated web server

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Key Features of Load Balancing/Clustered hosting Solutions:

* Ability to optimize applications
* Ability to add additional web servers as rapid growth requires it
* 100% uptime
* Complete scalable hardware
* Advanced monitoring for the highest level of reliability
* High availability to ensure application accessibility
* Distributed traffic across multiple web/application servers
* Complete redundancy
* High-end E-Business capabilities

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By employing a proven, managed solution, our experts will monitor your sites availability 24 hours a day making sure that no matter how many hits it’s taking, that your content is being delivered on time and every time.

Load Balancing and Clustering Solutions
Do you need back-end application servers capable of handing millions of database queries or E-Business transactions? Do you need scalable hardware and software? — If so clustering solutions are perfect for you.

Server Mirroring Solutions
Do you need 100% uptime guranteed? Does your site require quick deployment and scalable hardware to meet your sites millions of hits? Try server mirroring solutions to give your site that extra relablility it deserves.

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When we talk about website hosting, we like to think of it as a location for your website to live or operate from. Most people do not choose the least or most expensive place to live.

We believe that your you should look for the same things for your website as you would for your home or place of business:

Accessibility
Reliability
Affordability
Value

Sadly, many people do not give it much thought and end up hosting with the least expensive or the most expensive (thinking that for that price it must be the best). Some people choose to host with Bob’s neighbor’s brother’s company.

Review hosting packages and see if you do not agree that they offer the best value for your website hosting dollar.

Our UNIX Web Hosting Packages include the following features:.

World Class Data Center

Our 99.96% uptime guarantee is made possible by our state of the art data center featuring dual UPS, dedicated backup generator and multiple redundant internet gateways.

High Performance Web Servers

Our rackmounted web servers are powerful industrial-strength equipment providing optimized performance.

Load Balanced Web Servers

Multiple redundant load balanced web servers means increased reliability and performance at no extra cost.

Advanced Control Panel

Managing your web site and email accounts does not require advanced technical skills. Our online control panel is simple enough for a novice but powerful enough for experienced users.

Enhanced Email New - Email Virus Scanning

Every account includes unlimited POP3 and iMAP accounts, email forwarding, list server, catch-all alias, auto-responders, vacation messages, web based email, and spam filters.

Apache Web Server

The most popular web server software in use today. Provides the best combination of security, reliability and performance in a shared hosting environment.

Full Developer Environment

Support for all major tools and languages including Secure Shell (SSH), Server Side Includes (SSI), CGI-BIN, FastCGI, Perl, PHP, Python, and MySQL.

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When you are connecting two servers together you are performing what is called Server Mirroring. A mirrored servers architecture has two servers that are identical in data and configuration. First server is the master server and other is slave server. Typically in a mirrored servers architecture, if one server goes down the other takes its place which ensure that there is 100 % uptime for sites hosted as they start to resolve from the slave server in the same manner as they used to on the master server.

RAID 1 :-

RAID 1 is just mirrored drives which means identical data on two drives of the same server so that data is not lost so long as one disk survives. Total capacity of the array is just the capacity of a single disk. The failure of one drive, in the event of a hardware or software malfunction, does not increase the chance of a failure or decrease the reliability of the remaining drives

Server Mirroring is more expensive as compared to RAID 1 as it involves two physical servers to be mirrored while RAID 1 involves two or more disks on the same server.

RAID provides Hard disk redundancy while server mirroring provides system redundancy.

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RAID 0 writes and reads different information to/from two drives, so that you can “double” your input and ouput (it’s not exactly doubled, but it’s a vast improvement over a single drive) Basically you can look at it this way - you may be able to suck soda through a straw really fast, but if you have two straws - you can suck twice as much soda in the same amount of time. Although it doesn’t exactly double as there is some overhead, it’s a similar idea for Raid0.

RAID 1 writes and reads the same information to/from two drives, so if one of the two drives fails there is no downtime and the other drive will continue to function. This will not increase read/write speed but it will increase reliability. Basically one hard drive is mirrored to another on the fly, and should one fail the changeover to a single drive is transparent.

What are advantages of RAID?
Reundancy, Speed, or Redundancy+Speed

What are disadvantages of RAID?
If it’s software raid (no hardware controller) the raid overhead can create a CPU load and if it’s being accessed a lot can cause some issues. Generally Hardware raid solutions are not affected by this issue as they have their own processing power built in ot handle the Raid Array, but if it’s “free raid” chances are it’s not hardware.

Faster Server or Slower because of RAID?
If it’s set up with RAID 0 or RAID 5 it could be faster, if it’s software it would be faster most likely but would load the server a bit more during I/O. If it’s hardware and RAID 0 or RAID 5 it would definitely be faster.

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