Dedicated web hosting
As the name implies, dedicated web hosting solutions allow a client to lease the whole computer and have access to all its resources to host one or multiple websites. This is direct contrast to shared web hosting where hundreds of websites of various customers are hosted on one computer.
A dedicated hosting solution is especially attractive for large high-traffic websites, custom development projects creating complex web based applications, and web sites that require a high degree of uptime and total control of the hosting environment. However, this extra functionality and allocation of greater resources comes at a higher monetary cost. Dedicated hosting solutions are more expensive than the virtual options.
Dedicated servers can be based on one of many different types of web appliances, like Sun Microsystems' Cobalt line. These servers are usually low profile machines that are mounted on racks, and are optimized for web hosting . If choosing a web appliance based dedicated server, it is imperative to ensure that it will run all the software and scripts your site requires.
White box dedicated servers are regular PCs or server machines, running a Windows or Unix based operating system along with web hosting software.
Most dedicated hosting packages also come with some sort of a setup fee as it is more time consuming to setup a complete server than it is to create a hosting account in a shared environment. It is also essential that you or someone on your staff have the requisite computer knowledge to manage the server on a day to day basis.