As we discussed in “what are web hosting types” post, dedicated hosting service is one of the types of web hosting which has more user control involved as well as a very high cost. This type is also known as dedicated server and managed hosting service. When a company owns a dedicated server, they usually have the control over the operating system, software and hardware. In most cases, the hosting company does carryout the server administration and maintenance as an add-on service. In most of the cases, dedicated web hosting offers a high return on investment (ROI) in long run. Let’s have a look at the operating environments and software used for dedicated web hosting.

When choosing an operating system for a dedicated server, there are a number of factors coming in to play. Price of the operating system, employee familiarity and support (bug fixes, patches) are some of these parameters. Linux variants have become more popular among dedicated hosting services as you get it free and you have the full freedom of customizing it. Unlike Microsoft Windows Server versions, Linux does not require any additional license and subscriptions for support. Someone can argue about the poor support Linux distribution makers offer you when it comes to commercial hosting! Yes, this has been a burning issue for Linux variants and few of these companies now offer extended support for little money or no money at all. As an example, Redhat Linux offers the operating system and support following the same model as Microsoft but for a fraction of the price that you would end up paying for Microsoft. When it comes to Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. offers an extended support for their server versions totally free.

When it comes to software, again Linux based software dominates the industry. The simple fact is that this software is free as the operating system itself. You don’t have to add or buy this additional software since these are bundled in to the operating system. Most of the web services now run on LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) technology and the expertise is everywhere unlike the dark days of Linux. On the other side, Microsoft offers variety of software for server hosting which is again expensive. Therefore, most of the dedicated web hosting is not done on Windows platform mainly due to the cost involved and lack of control over the operating system.

Tags: dedicated hosting, dedicated server, hosting company, hosting service, microsoft windows server, web hosting, webhosting software