Last modified August 17, 2021
Businesses of all sizes have several options for hosting their website, web application or email server. The most common option is shared hosting, in which the resources of a single server are shared by a number of different websites.
Like the majority of new website owners, you probably chose shared hosting when you launched your website. After all, it’s the cheapest option, and budget is key. However, as the popularity of your website increases, it is essential to know when to upgrade to a more robust solution, which may require the services of a dedicated server.
What is a dedicated server?
Dedicated hosting means that your website has its own dedicated server. It offers enormous power and flexibility, but usually comes at a cost. Fortunately, by the time your website needs it to handle traffic, it’s worth the investment.
A dedicated hosting customer rents a server from a dedicated hosting provider and has full access to that server’s resources. The vendor works with the customer to provide the CPU, RAM, and disk space they need. The provider builds and maintains the server, saving businesses the hassle of purchasing their own server.
Why do you need a dedicated server?
You are probably wondering “Why rent a dedicated server?”. As stated earlier, dedicated hosting, as well as cloud hosting, is one of the most powerful server plans available. However, you may be wondering if you really need it. Let’s go over the reasons why you should have one!
1. Safety is of the utmost importance.
Security should be a top priority if you run a large online business. Security breaches and attacks are possible with web hosting services that use shared resources (VPS or shared hosting). A dedicated server, on the other hand, provides maximum security for your websites and all stored user information.
2. You anticipate high and consistent levels of traffic.
The amount of traffic that visits your website daily is an important factor in its performance. If you anticipate high traffic levels on a daily basis, a dedicated server will allow your site to handle even the most extreme traffic spikes.
3. Page load times should be lightning fast
If your page load times are slow, this will generally have a negative impact on your website’s performance. Visitors to your site typically only wait two or three seconds to load a page before leaving. If they have to wait more than three seconds, they will usually leave your website, causing you to lose leads and increase your bounce rate. By hosting your website on a dedicated server with plenty of resources, you can avoid losing customers and visitors.
4. Custom programming options are required
A dedicated server is the best option if you need custom programming. In general, shared hosting does not allow for custom programming, whereas a dedicated server is yours to configure as you see fit. You will have full control over your server and hosting environment.
5. You anticipate significant growth
If you have a site that will require significant resources in the near future, it may be best to start with the type of hosting you will need rather than attempting to migrate your site to a dedicated server. Other hosting options will allow you to scale, but the amount of resources you have access to will be limited.
Everything you need to think about, from understanding your performance requirements to selecting the right hosting provider, has been condensed into the six most important things to consider when choosing a dedicated server .
1. Establish performance requirements
Every business has different server performance requirements. How many users do you anticipate? What type of services do you intend to offer through your server? Defining these numbers will help you determine how many servers you will need and what type of hardware to use. Will your services require a lot of CPU, memory, or disk space? Knowing this will give you information about hardware needs. Choosing the right mix will have a significant impact on your server’s performance.
2. Consider potential downtime
What will happen to your business if your hosting environment goes down? One of the main advantages of a dedicated server is that your resources are not shared with anyone else. The downside is that a single server is always a single point of failure. If you don’t have the option to upgrade to multiple dedicated servers (which would eliminate potential downtime), you need to decide how much potential downtime you are willing to risk.
The fire of one of the French cloud computing services in March 2021, in Strasbourg, led to the interruption of millions of websites, including portals of government agencies, stores, news sites and banks , as well as a large part of the .FR web space.
Downtime may not happen all the time, but there is always potential downtime. Any provider that offers 100% uptime can offer other services like server colocation. So, in the event of a disruption or simple maintenance, your data is already backed up in another server location.
3. Plan bandwidth usage
Bandwidth requirements are inextricably linked to the predictability of data traffic. If you expect to consume a lot of bandwidth but have little predictability, you can choose a plan with your dedicated server that includes a lot of data traffic (or even unmetered billing). This is a simple way to determine how much you will spend on dedicated server hosting.
4. Evaluate network quality
Network quality is determined by the physical location of your dedicated servers as well as the quality of your host’s network. The physical location of your dedicated servers has a direct impact on your end users; for example, if your clients are in France, hosting in APAC (Asia Pacific) may not be a good choice because data delivery will be slower. It will therefore be more judicious to opt for a French web host.
5. Consider application scalability.
How scalable is your application? How easy is it to add new servers, and will it increase the number of end users you can serve? Some apps are difficult to scale to multiple devices. It is difficult to ensure that a database works on multiple servers because it must be synchronized across all database servers.
It may be simpler to move the database to a server with more processing power, larger RAM, and faster storage. Migrating to the cloud can also be a good option. This allows you to quickly clone a server to take some of the load and add it to the load balancer, thereby balancing the workload across multiple servers.
6. Flexibility
A dedicated server allows a customer to tailor the server to their specific needs in terms of CPU, RAM, disk space and software. With shared hosting, a client is limited to the applications, software, and operating environment that the server already has installed. They may offer software that the customer does not need or be deficient in certain areas.
A dedicated server allows organizations to create a server environment tailored to their specific needs. They can select the platform and software they need, giving them greater control over their dedicated server configuration.
7. Choose a Reliable Server Hosting Provider
Throughout your selection process, the right hosting provider acts as a competent partner. It uses its engineers and specialists to answer your questions and has a large customer base who, if you ask them, will be happy to provide you with references. The hosting provider should draw on their experience and expertise and demonstrate commitment and dedication by treating your business as if it were their own.
Passionate about the web and entrepreneurship, I founded Digitiz in 2016. My goal is to pass on my experience to you and to be able to save you time in choosing your tools.
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