You may be wondering why we would be talking about “small business web hosting” on a dedicated server website. You may think to yourself, if you’re only a small business, why would you need such a big server, storage space, RAM, or bandwidth?

Well, our answer to you is that small businesses can be just as resource-intensive as fortune 100 corporations! It might surprise you to know that millions of small businesses are purchasing dedicated servers every day, because even if they appear to be a small business to some spheres, in their local or national markets, they play like the big boys.

Think, for example, about your local supermarket. Hundreds if not thousands of people shop there daily. Maybe the supermarket has a couple sister supermarkets placed around the county or nearby cities, or maybe it’s a chain supermarket but only for the Eastern, Western, or Midwestern United States. If they need a website, they are not going to be using shared web hosting – they are going to be sitting on a dedicated server, because those thousands of customers will be visiting their website to print directions, get contact information, request the newsletter, or search for deals and discounts.

Small businesses may be ‘small’ by nature, but they can eat up resources just like the big boys. Consider the following things as a small business owner:

* Do you have more than 100 employees?
* Do you require a custom Content Management System to be developed for your website management needs?
* Do you have more than 100 customers?
* Do you offer more than 50 products? Or if you offer services, do these services include web-based services like email, management, design, SEO, or logo creation?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider dedicated server hosting.

Blog Web Hosting is possibly the fastest growing type of web hosting these days. Because blogging helps with SEO (search engine optimization), builds resources and content, and draws customers and audiences to explore and offer their opinions, link back, and more, corporations are using blogs for their websites as content management systems, even as individuals continue to grow the blogging community with daily unique content about their hobbies and personal lives.

This puts b2evolution web hosting in the forefront of the industry, as b2evolution provides quality open source (free!) blogging software for your website!

b2evolution is actually an advanced blogging tool that is great for beginners and experienced webmasters alike. Similar to WordPress, b2evolution includes all kinds of traditional blogging tool, like posting categories, tags, comments, skins, and content management, but also combines that simplicity with a sophisticated yet easy-to-use interface with features like file and photo management, multiple blogs, and detailed user permissions and groups.

On your dedicated server, you just need to find a reliable dedicated web host and use a LAMP-based configuration (i.e. Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/PERL/Python).

DotNetNuke Web Hosting is a unique website development and management choice, popular with ASP.NET hosting enthusiasts. Like many other content management systems, DotNetNuke requires little knowledge of actual web development or programming skills and allows for novices as well as intermediates and experts to navigate its control panel to update websites. But unlike other CMS applications and software, DotNetNuke can actually be used to run intranet and extranet as well.

The only downside to DotNetNuke is that it is not completely versatile in that it does require the ASP.NET environment, although Windows Web Hosting is incredibly powerful and a great option for dedicated server hosting. The big upside is that DotNetNuke is easy to install, easy to work with, and easy to customize – plus, it’s open source software, which means you can get it completely free. There are also a wide variety of websites that support documentation and troubleshooting, so you’re always able to find a skin or solution for your DotNetNuke website.

WordPress Web Hosting is one of the most popular choices for new webmasters these days, but it is also a viable choice for large enterprise bloggers and popular websites for affiliate websites, ecommerce, and more. As most bloggers will eventually outgrow Shared WebHosting, customers often upgrade to a dedicated server to host their WordPress website.

Even though WordPress is a blogging platform, most users these days use it as a content management system, as it easily integrates pictures, text, videos, ecommerce, and more into your site. It’s also incredibly easy to learn. It’s biggest competitor, Joomla, is best-suited for larger websites, while WordPress is easier to learn and adapt to. Both Joomla web hosting and WordPress webhosting are valuable choices if you are new to the website hosting world, as content management systems are becoming more and more popular.

The good thing about WordPress Web Hosting is that you have literally millions of incredible templates to work with and there are endless WordPress Theme Design contests that showcase the entries and even offer Free WordPress Themes for download.

Joomla web hosting is becoming a very popular choice for novice and experienced users alike due to its incredible power for maintaining and editing websites. With Joomla, users have an easy way to create websites, because Joomla is a content management system (CMS), a tool that assists in managing your website. CMS web hosting puts you in control of your website’s features, content, etc.

Because Joomla is a CMS, you are able to login to one simple interface to manage all aspects of your website. You can add images, polls, chat scripts, content text, advertising banners, links, music, video, blogs, and more, all from the same easy-to-understand control panel.

Because Joomla is open source or free software, web hosting providers can provide it to you for free via the Fantastico Script Library. With one click, you can install Joomla into your website in any location you’d like – from yourdomain.com to joomla.yourdomain.com, etc. If you have a dedicated server, you can download Joomla from their website instantly and download it yourself in several very simple steps. Once installed, you can immediately start using it.

With Joomla web hosting, you can maintain your website with ease.

Database Servers are becoming more and more popular these days, as technology professionals not only need a server to run their website for web server hosting but they also require the functionality and performance of a reliable database server. And in setting a database server up, you not only need affordable dedicated web hosting but also a database management system.

So what is a database management system?

A database management system (or DBMS) is more or less a piece of software that helps you organize, store, manage, edit, and retrieve of data in a database or databases from your server. Like content management system (CMS), it is setup to do these things as easily as possible for you.

There are many database management systems around, but here is a quick list of some of the most popular choices for dedicated server hosting:

• Oracle
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Firebird
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• SQLite

The best place to host your YouTube-like projects and web sites would be a VPS or even better a dedicated hosting server.  Now some might ask, what separates these types of scripts (such as PHPmotion) from other scripts out there that don’t seem to be much different. 

The differences is the amount of work the server must do to process these videos from .avi, .wmv, .mov and more to .flv files.  The FLV format is the format used for most if not all Flash video players.  Often with shared hosting environments you are not given access to enough server resources (like CPU and RAM usage) to be able to convert these videos as quickly as you need to.

Here are a few more things that you would find much easier to get installed on a dedicated server:

• LAME MP3 Encoder
• Libogg + Libvorbis
• Mencoder
• Mplayer

If you plan on becoming popular (and who doesn’t these days) you will want to be able to support as many users as you can and with this type of script, shared hosting just does not cut the cake. 

So the next time you decide you want your web site or planned project needs a little more power behind it, a dedicated hosting plan might be the better way to go in the long run.

There are many ways to self-manage your dedicated server, and using a content management system is one of them. While a content management system (CMS) will not take care of the server-side development aspects of your dedicated server, using a CMS for web hosting management can assist you in keeping track of your website content and can simplify the editing and implementing process.

So what is a content management system and why is CMS web hosting important?

A content management system is very simply exactly what it states – a system that assists webmasters in maintaining and editing their content on a day-to-day basis. In the web hosting realm, using a CMS to manage your dedicated server is what many webmasters do to minimize effort and outsourcing technical support. Content management systems are designed to be as user-friendly and effortless as possible, as they are designed with the new and inexperienced webmaster in mind. So you can be sure that when you are using a content management system with dedicated web hosting that you will be able to fully maintain your website and implement new changes, add text and photos, blog and links with ease.

Some of the most popular content management systems for web hosting are Joomla, Mambo, WordPress, b2evolution, DotNetNuke, Drupal, Moveable Type, and Typo. Joomla web hosting has become extremely popular recently due to the many free Joomla extensions available, and WordPress Web Hosting is arguably the easiest CMS web hosting platform available for novice webmasters.

CPanel is arguably the most powerful control panel on the planet when it comes to dedicated server hosting. This is why it’s also the most popular choice for webmasters these days. If you’re unfamiliar with cPanel’s web hosting technology, you should definitely research this amazing control panel before you add it to your dedicated server. But cPanel works with a variety of really cool programs, not the least of which is the Fantastico Script Library.

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is a fantastic script library, which is a fancy of way of saying it automates the process of installing really cool software on your server, like blogs, CMS, photo galleries, and more.

Why Fantastico?

Fantastico simplifies the process of installing a blog or other popular software extensions onto your website. Instead of downloading the necessary scripts, then uploading and installing them to your site, then configuring them based on your system, Fantastico allows you to click on a button and the rest is done for you automatically.

What does Fantastico web hosting include?

The better questions is what doesn’t Fantastico web hosting include, because it literally comes with everything you’ll need to get your website up and running in no time. Here’s a brief rundown of what comes with Fantastico by default:

• Blogs – including WordPress!
• Content Management Systems – including Joomla, Mambo, and Post-Nuke!
• Ticketing Systems
• FAQ Systems
• Chatroom Software
• Forum Software – including SMF!
• Ecommerce Software – including osCommerce!
• Image Galleries
• …and more!!

As two of the most popular and powerful control panels for dedicated server hosting on the market, cPanel and Plesk can support a wide variety of scripts, programs, installations, and server requirements. It is almost essential for every new dedicated webmaster that you choose to install some kind of control panel on your dedicated server, because it will help automate the process of installing scripts and deploying them properly. If you choose to work with SSH/Shell access, you will have to memorize and use shell commands. For an advanced webmaster, this is perfectly fine, but if you’re new to the dedicated hosting realm, there are many advantages to using a control panel on your dedicated server.

Automated Configuration

This is the biggest advantage to using a control panel. Within cPanel or Plesk’s administrative interface, you can simply click on a button that says “create email account” and five seconds later, you’re done. If you’re working in the shell of the server, you’ll need to know the specific shell commands that will allow you to do this.

Automated Installation

Another awesome advantage is if you have the Plesk Power Pack or cPanel’s Fantastico Script Library on the server. If you have either of these additions to the control panel, you can install blogs like WordPress, content management systems (CMS) like Joomla, or many other convenient systems like forums, chatrooms, FAQs, and more with the click of a button. Again, this means you don’t have to go through the trouble of installing the systems yourself – simply find the appropriate button, click it, and you’re done.

Affordability

There are so many web hosting tutorials out there that can help you work with cPanel, Plesk, or the control panel of your choice. This makes the learning curve incredibly easy, because it may only take you a day or even a couple hours to learn how to build your site and install the necessary scripts. Compare this to hiring another webmaster or a programming tech who specializes in what you need to do. This can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the long run.