Choosing the right dedicated server for your business may be more important than you think. For instance, for businesses that have reached high traffic and storage level requirements, acquiring a dedicated server is critical for the optimum performance of their site.
There are other benefits that come from getting a dedicated server such as reliability. Since the owner of the dedicated server is the only one getting the server’s resources, it means that the server can be more reliable than a shared server that has to share resources with multiple websites or applications. Sharing resources can affect a site’s performance or may create security issues that can threaten a site.
Furthermore, owning a dedicated server helps you avoid sharing your IP address with any other entity. Sharing an IP address might bring some less common issues. For example, if another site sharing your same IP address gets blacklisted, your site can end up blacklisted as well.
There is not a “right answer†when it comes to choosing dedicated server, but there are dedicated servers that may fit certain cases better than others based on your business type and particular needs. You might be especially interested in security, or maybe your main concern is to find competitive prices, or get a server that includes creative bundle features.
Use these 5 key features below to help in your decision making process to find the right dedicated server for your business. Let’s get started!
What to Take into Account before Choosing a Dedicated Server
1. Know Your Bandwidth Limitations
In technical terms, bandwidth refers to the speed at which data is transferred. However, in the hosting world, bandwidth is usually referred to as data transfer. In other words, the amount of data itself.
You may find bandwidth as Terabytes or TB. The amount of bandwidth you need depends on the type of business you are running. If your business requires a lot of streaming, downloading videos or images, then you would want to get more bandwidth to support those activities.
Another thing to keep in mind is your website traffic. For instance, if you have a high amount of users streaming videos every day, your bandwidth would need to be higher than another business with less traffic. Let’s say you stream videos of 40 MB and have 25,000 visitors per month. In that case, you would need about 1,000,000 MB or 1TB of bandwidth per month. At Servepronto, our dedicated servers start at 10TB per month, and most of our clients fall within the 20TB range.
In the process of evaluating different bandwidths and dedicated server offerings, keep a close eye for companies that state they offer unlimited or unmetered bandwidth- there is no such thing. Read the fine print. It may state things like “unlimited within normal activityâ€. But, what is “normal activityâ€?
The truth is that although there is an average bandwidth use, there are still some websites that can fall outside that average. Therefore, it’s important that the hosting provider you choose is transparent with this information so you can plan accordingly.
Make sure to ask for the company’s policy regarding going over the limit in bandwidth. Some companies may shut down your server. At Serverpronto, we do not shut off servers. If a customer goes beyond their allotted bandwidth, we would charge them extra.
Takeaways:
Make sure the hosting company is clear about the bandwidth provided in their service.
Know the company’s policy regarding going over the bandwidth limit to make sure your server won’t be shut down if it goes over the limit.
2. Know the Security Measures Available:
There are two different things to keep in mind when it comes to security:
Is the hosting company’s environment safe? This will help you know if the dedicated server is protected from any environmental or human incidents.
How does the hosting company protect their dedicated servers from attacks?
Let’s start with environment safety regulations. Try to find out how the hosting company takes care of their dedicated servers. Do they own their own data center? Do they have a backup in case of an emergency, such as a hurricane?
If the hosting company doesn’t own a data center and if they don’t have any measures in case of environmental issues, then your dedicated server may be at risk in case of emergency, which in turn would hurt your site’s connection. For instance, At Serverpronto, we have equipment in place to supply enough electricity and ventilation in case there’s a natural emergency. Thus, we have never shut down because of a hurricane- that is huge! We also have the SSAE 16 Certification that certifies the setup and activities meet high standards.
As we mentioned above, another key when it comes to security is how the dedicated server is protected from potential attacks. When choosing the right dedicated server for your business, consider what servers offer protection such as a DDoS attack protection.
This allows bad or spam traffic to be filtered out and absorbed. Having DDos protection will help prevent your site from getting heavy spam traffic that can potentially slow down your site. Many of our clients in the gaming industry usually get our DDos protection.
If security is at the top of your goals, then your server must be able to keep your data safe under these particular circumstances.
3. Know The Storage You Need & The Upgrades Available
When it comes to storage, you have to know how much data your site requires so that you acquire sufficient space for it. The answer will vary from business to business, it all depends on your needs. Your IT team should be able to provide you a clear answer.
Other than knowing the right amount of storage necessary to run your website or application efficiently, consider choosing a dedicated server that offers multiple storage options. Some things to consider:
- How many hard drives are available?
- Does the dedicated server have a SSD option?
SSDs otherwise known as solid state drives is a new type of hard drive that offers faster performance and are less likely to fail. This option is recommended over SATA.
4. Know the Charges Related to Memory
Memory is critical because it ensures that your site will keep loading fast, no matter the amount of data and traffic it stores and receives every day. Don’t forget that users are very demanding when it comes to speed. A slow website can make you lose customers because the user will jump to another tab. Invest in memory. It will be worth it.
Memory will be displayed in terms of RAM. Some things to keep in mind when it comes to RAM are the following:
Can you upgrade it once the dedicated serve plan has been chosen?
What is the hardware replacement policy if the RAM is bad
You’ll want to choose a dedicated server that is flexible to scale as needed and does not have overly expensive charges.
5.Know if the Price is Competitive
While all of the previous features should be taken into account, price can be the definitive factor between two dedicated servers that seem alike. Fortunately, a dedicated server doesn’t have to be pricey. For reference, our most affordable dedicated server is only $59.95 per month with 8GB of RAM, 10TB, 500GB SATA (SSD Available).
Once you have done your research and figured the dedicated server or servers that will most likely work for your business, take a look at the customer reviews. This information can give you a better into what to expect.
Choosing the right dedicated server for your business and site is a task that takes time and research. While you compare the different options the market offers, make sure to take into account the various features I mentioned above, as well as, the services your business and site will specifically need without ever forgetting about the prices that each provider offers.
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