Upgrading RAM

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient.
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Non-trivial. Parts need to be ordered and installed.
VPS: No. Upgrading cannot be performed if there is not tight resource control in the first place.

Dedicated Performance

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. VMware Infrastructure 3's precise resource control guarantees your performance cannot be impacted by other customers
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Yes.
VPS: No. Resources are shared and customers can affect each other's performance.

Best: VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting

Next Best: Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting

Least Good: VPS (Virtual Private Servers)

Food for thought rather than F.U.D...

* VPS providers offer differing service levels

This table allows you to easily and quickly compare your requirements against the pros and cons of virtualised and physical dedicated hosting infrastructure.

Dedicated hosting has been around since web hosting pulled itself out of the primordial sludge in the 90s, maturing through the start of the millennium and finally commoditising in the last few years.

Upgrading HDD

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient.
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Non-trivial. Parts need to be ordered and installed.
VPS: Yes

Before people leap off their chair and start wailing and gnashing their teeth, let me explain and enlighten.

Managed Infrastructure

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. The hardware underlying the virtualised infrastructure is monitored and managed by skilled engineers 24x7x365
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Optional and costly
VPS: Yes

Dedicated Hosting: A Comparison Between Physical, VPS and Virtualised/VMware Based Hosting

Cloning

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient.
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Yes, but requires third part tools.
VPS: Yes.

Fast and Painless Migration from existing hosting environment

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient. P2V (Physical to Virtualised) tools can be used to smooth the migration path

Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Possible using cloning, not P2V, tools.
VPS: Possible with the same P2V tools, but not widely included in the services offered.

The essential point to note here is that, in order of effectiveness and features, the following order is the case.

Independence from underlying OS

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. Only the true virtualisation of VMware Infrastructure 3 allows complete independence from an underlying OS
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: No.

VPS: No. There is always a relationship between the underlying OS and the virtual machine.

Dedicated Hosting - A Comparison Between Physical, VPS and Virtualised VMware Based Hosting

The biggest change to dedicated hosting has come in only the last year with the introduction of virtualised hosting, but most importantly, the introduction of VMware based virtualised dedicated hosting.

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Dedicated Resources (CPU, RAM)

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. VMware Infrastructure 3 allows precise and accurate control over resource allocation, ensuring you receive what you pay for as a minimum.
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Yes.
VPS: No.

Upgrading Processor Speed

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Fast & Efficient.
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Non-trivial. Parts need to be ordered and installed.
VPS: No. Upgrading cannot be performed if there is not tight resource control in the first place.

High Availability

VMware Based Virtualised Dedicated Hosting: Yes. High platform availability with automatic hardware failover is built into the VMware-based virtualised environment
Old-style Physical Dedicated Hosting: Only available in clustered farms