Dedicated and Virtual
 

I don't program a lot. Just some PHP here and there, mainly these days.

The thing I've started to notice is that, back in the day, it was WELL worth it to get a dedicated or colocated server, especially for the adult world.

These days, however, I'm really wondering what the advantage is unless you're a content provider. Script usage of system resources isn't all that high, and you can get 1-4TB/mo on virtual hosts opposed to mainly 1TB on a dedicated server for about 15x the price (excluding plans with MBPS bandwidth as opposed to allotments). Am I way off or right in thinking that wow, if my server drain goes up that much, I'll just plop my own server up with power backup, redundant connections, and redundant geographic data locations STILL for less than the hundreds of dollars per month for a dedicated server through someone else.

Convince me I'm wrong, I wanna know why. :error

You can't install everything on virtual unless it's vps, so this is the main advantage of dedicated server, you could set it up as you need it and don't depend on some jerks who doesn't want this this and this to be installed.

Specifics differ from host to host but overall with virtual hosting you are sharing resources, so you are subject to other users and their bad scripts, bad habits, their potential to be exploited, or otherwise have the server compromised and possibly your 777 data files altered. Problems are more common just because there is more going on in the system.

Virtual hosting also runs on various control panels so often times moving everything to a dedicated server isnt a simple procedure because often times the paths used on the virtual host arent the greatest amongst other complications.

VPS eliminates several of these issues such as pooling resources and lessening your liability, but at the same time the costs are also higher and usually are in line with usage. So if you are pushing traffic that makes sense for a dedicated server you wont be saving much by going with a VPS. Then also you have hardware failure and depending on the backups its easier when your host is only recovering one client per server as opposed to several.

There are other factors involved, its all about finding the balance that works best for your budget and regardless of what you choose just do your own backups and you have a very nice buffer against a ton of different failures.

:thumbsup