Semi-Dedicated Server Is Phased Out By VPS Web Hosting

In the past, there is a need for semi-dedicated servers. But with VPS coming into the picture, semi-dedicated servers are becoming extinct.

Why the need for dedicated servers?

VPS

First, let's explore why the market needs dedicated machines. Isn't shared hosting enough? Even though shared hosting is highly affordable, it does has its limitations. For example, you cannot install custom modules or reboot your server. In other words, you have little control over the server settings. What if your website NEEDS these settings? Without a dedicated environment, you are stuck.

Then there is the issue of server resources. On a shared server, all resources are shared. For this reason, web hosting companies are very particular about how a website uses the server. A static website will have no problems. But for forum sites and other resource intensive sites, such accounts may get suspended without warning. Moving to a dedicated environment will solve all these issues.

From shared to dedicated hosting.

There is a big jump from shared hosting to dedicated hosting. A shared hosting account cost about a month. A dedicated hosting plan costs several hundred dollars a month. It is therefore understandable why so many webmasters are unwilling to upgrade. The short term solution is to come up with semi-dedicated hosting servers. Unfortunately, this is not the ideal solution because there is no software supporting such plans. In other words, sharing resources on a semi-dedicated server is still not ideal. For this reason, many web hosting companies refrain from offering such plans. Cost for such plans also remain costly.

VPS plans taking over.

Then someone came up with the idea of having virtual private servers (VPS). Such servers behave almost like a dedicated servers, except that resources are shared. How are the CPU resources shared? Using special software, the server is "divided" into different compartments. Each compartment behave as if it's a separate computer.

When a customer signs up for a VPS plan, he or she is actually sharing the same machine with several other customers. But each cannot affect the other. For example, one customer's website is down for some reason. But the other virtual compartments remain unaffected. Also, the number of customers sharing the machine are also drastically reduced.

VPS customers also get to enjoy benefits that are previously exclusive to dedicated hosting customers only. A VPS customer is acts as the account's admin and has full admin access to the machine. That means he or she can install custom scripts, make changes to the server settings, etc.

Of course, VPS plans don't offer as much resources as dedicated plans. But for many websites, a virtual plan is more than enough. Only very large websites such as enterprise level sites need dedicated hosting.

As time goes on, VPS hosting becomes more and more popular. Semi-dedicated hosting, on the other hand, is being phased out.

Semi-Dedicated Server Is Phased Out By VPS Web Hosting