Back in the 1960′s and 50′s, mainframes were being used- they are what we now know as dedicated servers. Mainframes were originally used for data processing. Only as far back as the 1990′s these systems were still in use! Dedicated servers became a known phrase with the advent of the web. And with that, dedicated hosting has became what we have today we as we speak.
A dedicated servers workload isn’t that different to what it was in the beginning. Back in the 90′s server hosting was only really employed for email and backups. A huge trend shift in demand meant that from then on there was need for website hosting, databases, DNS and mail. Don’t be surprised if the demand for dedicated server hosting changes again. Think of how Google has changed in terms of marketing, and the demand for services round that.
Operating systems used on a dedicated server have also changed and adapted with the times. The demand for different ‘flavours’ of operating systems is hugely diverse. Windows is favoured less than Linux as Linux is considered right or wrongly to be more secure. The majority of Linux operating systems are free, although some premium versions are paid.
Like desktop hardware server hardware has also been developed at the same rate and some desktop features originated in servers first. If you needed multiple CPU’s you would need a mother board that supported multiple CPUs and have the money to fill them. These days many servers will still support multiple physical CPUs. However most do not need this with the introduction of dual and quad core CPUs. Soon we wil see the 6 core and 8 core CPU’s.
Over time the demand for RAM has grown. There was a time when you could count the amount of megabytes of RAM your server had on one hand. These days you would run out of fingers to count the number of gigabytes. You will also find all sorts of different types of RAM for different server hosting requirements.
What is in an average server now is what will normal hardware of the desktop computer] in around two to three years’ time or quicker, with the average processing capacity doubling in 18 to 24 months.
So where now for the dedicated hosting server? You can be absolute sure the hardware will be more powerful. What happens to server hosting, depends on the next big thing on the internet. Look at how Facebook changed the way the internet worked. So server hosting depends on what big website comes next.








