Dedicated vs Managed Hosting?

Dedicated Hosting offers the customer their own private server thus offering  complete control over its use. Most web hosting packages are called shared hosting providers - not dedicated hosting providers. What this means is that the server or servers that host your website are simultaneously hosting numerous other websites also. This gives you a discounted rate on web hosting services in exchange for tolerating certain technical constraints, like bandwidth, disk space, upload and download speeds, security and privacy, traffic, and probably the most notable restriction -- total control.

If you want total control not only over the administration of your website but also over the very hardware and software used to run it, then a dedicated hosting provider may be the solution. This is particularly the case for larger businesses or those growing rapidly.
Your organisation alone uses this server and its resources, meaning it processes information much faster than shared server solutions. Dedicated Hosting makes your website more dependable and more efficient.

With dedicated hosting your provider takes care of the server hardware and network but you are responsible for managing the box. Your responsibilities include choosing the operating system and applications, installing security patches and updates, monitoring, firewalls and more.
Managed hosting is an upgraded version of dedicated hosting in terms of the services performed by the provider. The host provides all management, maintenance, and monitoring for your dedicated server.

When do you need a dedicated server?

A high traffic website will invariably require a dedicated server. The logical next step for many companies is to outsource that server with a managed hosting provider.  Websites that benefit the most from a dedicated or managed server are:

• Websites using MySQL databases or PHP to serve dynamic content
• Forums or similar sites that process a lot of data in a short space of time
• Ecommerce websites
• Corporate websites that simply can’t afford any downtime
• Any websites that require custom server configuration

The deciding factors?

For companies with these profiles the factors for consideration are:
Scalability - upgrading or adding a new server to a dedicated hosting solution is easier and more cost effective.

Security – in a shared environment, there is always the possibility that someone else with a website on the server will find a way to crack into your account, exposing your company and your client data. With sole use of a dedicated and managed server risks are vastly reduced if not eliminated

Price – a dedicated server is more expensive than shared hosting and managed hosting is obviously the more costly option. However you must remember you have the sole use of the server and managed hosting is usually more cost effective than employing a full time in-house team to perform the jobs.

Technical Knowledge – if you have extensive system administration expertise to maintain and manage servers in-house then dedicated servers are an option. However businesses that do not have the required system administration resources commonly choose managed hosting.

Customise-ability

A rapidly growing company will be changing many aspects of its web presence along with growth. Disk space and bandwidth will be under pressure. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one "package" or "plan" to another. These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs.  With dedicated servers and a dedicated hosting package, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, step back, heck, step sideways if you need to and when you need to.

In large part, it's the size and growth rate of your business that will dictate whether you need a shared or a dedicated hosting provider.