An IP address is a unique number which separates a website or a hosting server on the world-wide web, so if you have a dedicated IP, it'll be employed solely by your Internet sites and won't be shared with other people as it happens with shared web hosting accounts. Provided you have your own hosting server, you will have a dedicated IP, but you may need additional ones for many different uses. If you have an Internet store, for instance, you will need an SSL certificate for it, so as to ensure that the payment information that your clients submit shall be encrypted and protected. The same is valid in case you have a login form of some sort and you want the usernames and the passwords which visitors type in to be protected. The SSL certificate requires a dedicated IP, which ought to be different from the one which you already have on the hosting server. You may also need an individual IP for an application such as a VoIP server, or if you would like a slightly better overall performance for a particular site, which may affect its position in search engine results.