When it comes to picking your web hosting solution of choice, you have options. For the company who is just starting off or for the blogger who uses limited resources, a shared hosting environment might be the best choice. For the company who uses a decent amount of resources and receives a decent amount of traffic to their website, a virtual private server, i.e. Cloud Hosting, might be your best choice. Lastly, the for company who is now considered an enterprise, who uses heavy compute resources and who receives millions of visitors per month, dedicated server solutions are your best choice.
In this article although shared hosting accounts are widely utilized for a good purpose, we are going focus on the difference between dedicated servers vs. Cloud hosting solutions.
Dedicated Servers vs. Cloud Hosting
The differences between dedicated server solutions and Cloud hosting services are numerous however none are more prominent than scalability, division of resources, security and price.
Scalability is Defined Two Ways
The first thing you need to know about the differences between the aforementioned web hosting solutions is how scalability is defined in both.
In terms of Cloud Hosting, scalability means the user has the ability to scale their compute resources up or down depending on their need. With Cloud Servers scalability means only paying for the resources you need.
On the other hand, scalability in dedicated server solutions means the user can scale their needs up or down within the dedicated server environment they have purchased. With dedicated server hosting, the client pays for a dedicated amount of compute resources of which, they can scale their use.
Division of Resources
Cloud hosting services operate within a singular server. Somewhat like shared hosting environments, Cloud hosting solutions (VPS) are packed into a server to maximize the amount of clients a provider can have on that server. Unlike shared hosting accounts, Cloud hosting solutions all utilize their own compute resources, independent of other VPS on a single server.
On the other hand, dedicated server providers supplies consumers with a singular dedicated server which holds all of own resources, independent of any other server. The servers’ resources are set from provisioning and clients can utilize those resources any way they wish.
Security
In terms of security, dedicated servers are known for being more secure than Cloud hosting services for the sole reason that dedicated servers are servers set alone. As stated, with a dedicated server web hosting solution, the client rents the entire stand-alone server. This means, being that dedicated servers operate independently, users can install their own security measures to insure server protection.
On the other hand, as Cloud hosting servers operate within a single server, the chance for security intrusions are higher than their dedicated server brethren. This isn’t to say that Cloud hosting solutions aren’t secure; depending on the provider, Cloud hosting is plenty secure. However it has to be mentioned, due to Cloud hosting server infrastructures, they are a bit more vulnerable to intrusion and security breaches.
Price
Naturally, if you are in the market for Cloud hosting vs. dedicated server solutions, price is going to be a major consideration. Although we won’t go into price breakdown by providers, we will say, in general, Cloud hosting solutions tend to be cheaper and more affordable than dedicated server packages. The logic behind the price difference is simple: Cloud hosting is more scalable than dedicated servers. While you pay for less up front with Cloud hosting solutions, scaling has the potential to bring in more money for the provider.
On the other hand, the upfront investment with dedicated server solutions is markedly higher than Cloud hosting due to the full utilization of resources.
So there you have it. Some basic, yet important, differences between Cloud hosting and Dedicated Server solutions.