Business Operations: Shared VS Dedicated Hosting Explanation for the Non IT Savvy

Sure all IT savvy people easily understand the difference between shared and dedicated hosting. The challenge comes when you’re asked to explain it to someone that thinks hosting means throwing a party!

Therefore let’s use the party analogy so your friends and business associates can easily comprehend the differences between shared vs. dedicated server hosting.

The Party Analogy

Imagine you had two friends called Joe and Anna, and they live in very different environments.

Shared Server Hosting

Joe’s living arrangement is very much like your website on a shared hosting plan. Joe lives in a small student house. Although Joe has his own room, he shares his kitchen and bathroom with other people on the same floor.

Joe’s neighbors constantly have parties (especially on weeknights), and he hears everything through the thin walls. He is involved in all their problems, and his neighbors often have questionable guests making Joe feel his security is at risk.

Dedicated Server Hosting

Anna’s living conditions are similar to your website on a dedicated server insofar as she lives in a luxurious house in a safe, quiet neighborhood. The only common area she comes close to sharing with her neighbors is the entrance to her street. Even when they have parties, she isn’t bothered by her neighbors because she can’t hear them through her thick secure walls. She is isolated from all their problems and feels safe in her home.

Shared and dedicated servers are not the same. The operating system and resources are shared on a shared server, slowing down the server performance or, worse, requiring it to be shut down while the problem gets fixed.

On a dedicated server, all the server resources are only yours. It used to be that a dedicated physical server would cost around $450/month, adding up to a whopping $5,400 annual costs.

However, with virtualization and dedicated Virtual Private Servers (VPS), you can use the features and functionality of a physical dedicated without the cost of building and maintaining one (as low as $470/year!).

You truly have complete control of your virtual environment for a fraction of the cost.

Dedicated Virtual Private Server hosting allows you to do whatever you want with your space, so your neighbors’ problems are not your concern.

Hope this helped (and entertained) you somewhat. In the meantime, we’re off to visit our friend Anna.

Hosting doesn’t stop here either – not all dedicated servers are equal. Your business may require more power and unmetered bandwidth to deliver fast site loads to high volumes of visitor traffic. The budget for a dedicated server on 12-month plans should be around $2000.

Now you understand the basics of shared vs. dedicated server hosting, consider which is the right solution for your business.