In order to avoid losing customers or revenue because of non-responsiveness, industry participants suggest that sites with e-commerce capabilities select dedicated servers for their hosting solution. Dedicated servers combine the advantages of a Web host's technical support with dedicated connectivity, sole use and precise control over your Web site's server.

Novice webmasters often start out with simple sites that feature relatively static content. For this reason, most initially select a shared hosting solution, in which many likeminded webmasters are hosted on a single server. But as a site becomes increasingly popular, a dedicated solution will be required. Shared hosting becomes increasingly inadequate as the popularity of a Web site grows. This is because shared hosting cannot provide the robust or scalable bandwidth and computing ability needed to power a premier site.

Typically, shared hosting equipment services a minimum of 250 Web sites each. Customers therefore compete for the scarce and limited memory resources that one piece of equipment can provide. When a fellow customer develops a site that consumes nearly 50 per cent of the server's resources, the rest of the Web hosting customers must share the balance remaining. This inevitably results in slow, sluggish and gradually deteriorated service for you and your clientele. Dedicated hosting, however, provides a solution that is individualized to the specific requirements of your site alone.

Most packages are customized to your needs to ensure that the services that you provide your customers are fast and efficient. Key components of most customized packages include increased bandwidth and storage capacity, increased IP address allotments, administrative access, operating system selection and increased performance and security.

Premium dedicated hosting that is suitable for a high-traffic site will cost you approximately $200 US per month. This is a huge increase over shared hosting service that typically costs you $25 US (or less) per month, but the benefits you receive for the increased price quickly become self-evident.

Dedicated hosting allows you to leverage cost-savings and return on investment by outsourcing your Internet requirements. Using the resources of hosting professionals, you can avoid spending a huge sum of money to host your site in-house while enjoying all the benefits of tier-one Internet services.

These benefits include broader bandwidth and data transfer opportunities. A dedicated server package will allow you to maximize the bandwidth potential of your site because you will no longer need to share Web server resources with others. This means that you will be able to take full advantage of the high-speed network provided by your Web host. Also most established hosting companies provide full redundancy through the aid of multiple network connections. As a result, your Web page download time will be faster and always available, increasing service to your customers and ultimately your income.

A dedicated solution also provides the benefit of a fully insured location and protection against fire, theft and data lost. Most providers financially insure their equipment and premises, and make sure that all equipment is bundled with data backup devices and uninterruptible power supplies in case of disaster. These benefits, along with a lot of data storage space, greatly enhance the safety of your Internet venture. The majority of dedicated plans offer at least four gigabytes of storage space as opposed to an average of 100 megabytes offered with shared plans. This translates into more space for graphic and other storage hungry content. Another great advantage about more storage space is that huge log files can be archived, rather than be deleted constantly to appease shared hosting disk space constraints.

Dedicated solutions are also beneficial for serious webmasters because they provide superior administration tools. With a dedicated host, your hosting company permits you to customize and configure your server as you see fit. Once you sign-up for a dedicated solution, it is considered yours. Most hosting companies use a 'leased server' model, in which they own the physical server, but grant you exclusive, full control over the equipment.

This means that you can select which operating system (Windows Server, Windows 2000 or Linux) you wish to use and custom configure it for your specifications. As administrator, you will be able to use programs such as PC Anywhere, FTP Daemon or Telnet, to develop your internal file infrastructure. These programs will also allow you to install any ancillary, interactive e-mail, streaming media or e-commerce application on your server. Most Web hosts will not allow you to install, or compile your applications on shared servers due of the interference it causes other customers, but as the sole administrator of your dedicated solution, you will be able to make such decisions at will.

You will also be able to add new sites with ease with the allocation of multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that are assigned to your solution. Most dedicated servers come with a minimum of 5 separate IPs. These unique addresses allow you to add new domain-based sites to your server. They also make analyzing Web traffic from multiple sites more efficient and effective.

Dedicated solutions are thus favored by webmasters of popular sites because of the high level of service they provide, which is a necessity in today's Internet economy. Dedicated solutions allow webmasters to concentrate on their core business, while the Web host focuses on ensuring maximum uptime and fast connectivity for your customized Web server. And because this segment of the industry is growing exponentially, it can be expected that high-end, premium dedicated hosting providers will enforce their service guarantees with high-quality levels of customer care. Such enhanced competition will ensure that webmasters gain access the to fastest performing dedicated solutions so that they can improve customer retention and revenue.