Some companies find that they want to have more control over their hosting, and they choose to use dedicated servers. For some companies, this might be a better option than choosing the cloud hosting options that are popular with so many businesses today. However, when you are choosing one of these types of hosts and servers, you really do need to put in some research to know exactly what you are getting. You need to make sure that it is ideal for what your company needs right now, and that it has the potential to grow along with your company. This is not always easy though.
Top Things to Consider
First, you have to think about what your business needs. Your business is different from all of the other businesses out there, which means there is no “cookie cutter” solution that is right for everyone. You need to make sure the dedicated server is able to offer what your company needs.
One of the things that you need to consider is how many web visitors you have, or that you anticipate you will have. The server has to be robust enough to handle those visitors, as well as the occasional influx of more visitors. This is one reason that many companies are actually moving to cloud hosting; they tend to find it more flexible when it comes to handling more visitors.
You will also need to consider what type of backup and disaster recovery solutions the dedicated server offers. If you have a server on your own property, how will you make sure it is safe from disasters? What would happen if the server went down? You have to have good and viable backup options. This is true even if you choose offsite hosting. You must know their plan for keeping your site operational no matter what happens. Along the same lines, check the uptime for those hosts. They should have a minimum of 99% uptime. After all, if the site is down, your customers can’t visit, shop, and interact. This means a loss of business for you, so you never want to deal with anything less than the best when it comes to your dedicated servers.
Does the host of your dedicated server have any management services, and if so what are they? When you have someone else who can take care of the bulk of the IT work for the server and handle any issues that arise, it can make it far easier on your company. Those who have servers at their site will need to have space for their server, and they will need to have someone who can maintain that server. Again, these are reasons so many are starting to switch over to cloud hosting. It is simple.
However, the dedicated servers really do have quite a few benefits that businesses can enjoy. First, they tend to be quite reliable, and since you are not using shared hosting, it tends to increase the reliability factor even further. For example, if you are using shared hosting, which is still popular, there is a chance that someone else’s site on the server could actually use a lot more resources on some days, and that could affect your site’s performance. You do not have this worry with a dedicated server, since you are the only one using it. The dedicated server also tends to be safer, especially when you choose an outside host.