As I was finishing an article on Dedicated Server hosting it dawned on me. Call it a revelation, only not the one that results in entire reforms, thesis break-down or fundemental caos. No, what I realized as I was tampering on my keyboards, formulating words, sentences, arguments and observations is this: The Web Hosting industry as is, has been built on a foundation of compromises. Not for the hosting provider of course but for the webmaster, the average little webmaster guy who simply wants his money’s worth.
Lacking any mentionable insights on other markets I cannot say that this is not a general term regarding the business world. However, whether or not the customer is aware of it or is affected by it, not being offered all the potentialtechnology holds is according to my values, wrong! Shared hosting is here a prime example. Although tailored for the customer who do not need a lot i.e small website owners, compromising is a vague business concept. Especially when diffuse marketing terms like “Unlimited” already have hosting clients think they are offered an uncompromising solution.
In final words, I guess I have to suggest dedicated server hosting; the least compromising hosting plan with most freedom and user-control. Now if you have a small website you want hosted, shared hosting isn’t all that bad. However, if you have any kind of hope, future plan or strategy to make it grow, in size and traffic, you might as well get yourself an entire server for yourself right away.
Good observations Brian. Though in most cases, if you move frome Shared to Dedicated hosting, you will have some price increase and should have some knowledge of servers (or have someone who works with you to help you.)
A dedicated server is the best choice for mission critical websites and ecommerce, and for long term website growth for sure. YOu won’t be competing with other websites for server resources/bandwidth for example.
If you spend more $ on designing and marketing your website than on its hosting, you might want to pause for a moment and consider Brian’s server observations above.