Are you ready for the unadulterated truth about dedicated servers? Then read on as we bust the total cost of ownership myth.

The total cost of ownership. It’s a phrase that springs up again and again in debates over high-technology products.

When it comes to discussions about dedicated servers, it’s not ignorance of the compelling benefits these machines offer that keep website owners stuck in the realm of shared hosting. Most of them understand the additional security, flexibility, and upgradeability, among other benefits, that characterize dedicated servers. Rather, it’s the supposed high costs that cause them to shy away from a server they could call their own.

If a high total cost of ownership is the basis of your hesitation, then you should know this: Shared servers may be adequate for small, personal sites, but the reliability and power a dedicated server brings to the table could mean the difference between a 10-second “click and run?? visitor and one who spends a sizeable chunk of time – and, perhaps, money – on your site.

They key is to get the right dedicated server host – and the right specs.

The right RAM

As you shop for a dedicated server that fits your budget, consider your site’s horsepower needs. A 2 GHz machine with 256 MB of RAM is ample if you’re just getting your feet wet – and it can be had for a mere $30 per month.

Website owners that offer online shopping or employ more than a few server-side applications may want to upgrade to a 3 GHz server with 768 MB – or more – RAM. Even prices for these mid-range machines run as low as $100 per month.

Are you beginning to get the picture?  Let’s zoom in and take a closer look.

Walking the fine bandwidth line

Bandwidth needs can be tricky to estimate, but it’s best to err on the high side if you have to err at all. Purchase too little and you’ll lose visitors (and probably sales along with them). If your site’s been in operation for a while, examine your monthly transfer logs carefully.

To make sure your traffic needs are covered now and as you expand in the future, take the figure from the month with your highest bandwidth usage and add another 25 percent to 50 percent on top of that. That will keep you on the safe side of site outages.

If your Internet venture is brand new, a 200 GB per month transfer limit may be all you need to get up and running, and it will only set you back a dollar a day. At the other end of the scale, 10 times as much bandwidth – 2,000 GB – and a fast server to pump out all that data costs as little $200 each month, less than some firms spend on office supplies.

Settling on storage

Then there’s storage. Forty to 160 GB hard drives are capacious enough for most websites, but for the truly data-intensive enterprise – such as one with a mammoth catalog or many high-resolution images – terabyte and larger storage capacities are available for less than $200 per month.

Finally, remember that no matter how powerful the machine or immense the bandwidth, a dedicated server is only as good as the company that stands behind it. Choose a firm that houses its equipment securely, and expect a guarantee of 99% or better uptime from the best providers, as well as 24/7 customer support.

After all, you – and your business – deserve no less. And, as you can clearly see, dedicated servers don’t have to break the bank. In fact, they can save you money in extra bandwidth charges, and site outages that leave your customers frustrated and headed for the competition’s site.

ServerPronto offers affordable and secure dedicated servers and cloud hosting service packages.