The majority of people will wonder what a dedicated server is. A dedicated server isn’t that complicated a service. A dedicated server in very simple words, is a computer, in a server case, hosted in a data center on a high powered internet connection. 99% of hosts that provide server hosting should tick all these boxes. Having the correct setup and location is essential for dedicated hosting server. Now lets look at what a dedicated server really is. And now, the various descriptions that make a dedicated server.
Dedicated servers are just like home computers
The main difference is the computer sits in a normal case, which sits snugly on a desk. A server on the other hand, will be hosted in a special case, that can be anywhere from 1U or 4U. ‘U’ is a measurement of space, and 1U is about 3″. These servers are specially made in cases that fit in racks. Apart from allowing efficient air flow and cooling, racks allow for efficient cable management. Dell are probably the best known server provider. Who as you will know also provide laptops and home PC’s. So perhaps the main difference is the case a server or home computer uses. Granted dedicated servers are usually a lot more high powered and resilient.
Data centres host dedicated servers
The average dedicated web server hosting will be in a 1U case. A pizza box would be about the same height! Although, you won’t find pizza in a server case. A good example is the R200 server by Dell. Generally, these consume between 0.4 and 0.6 amps. In a 16 amp you could house around 26 servers. Using rackmount rails, these servers are stacked on top of each other, with air flow in between each server. At the back of each dedicated server, you’ll find a network and power port. Each rack will have power supply units and at least one switch for the server to connect to. There will be aisels of racks in a data centre. Some racks host specialist network equipment, switches and routers connected to the internet backbone. For this kind of environment, a provider such as Melbourne who specialise in windows dedicated server hosting would be ideal.
Dedicated servers require a fast internet connection
Your home connection (at the time of writing) will probably be around 10mbps if you are lucky, in some cases higher. This isn’t enough for a dedicated server. Most dedicated servers are sold with a 100mbit connection. Services such as streaming require this speed. So in conclusion, the right hardware, a good data center and a fast connection are needed for server hosting.
