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Dedicated Server Best Practices

How much does a server cost for a small business

If you are considering buying a server for your small business, you are probably at the point where you need additional resources and control that your regular hosting provider can’t offer. Although the idea of owning something may seem more attractive than leasing it (paying monthly to a hosting company), it does not mean it is the right choice for every business.

Owning a dedicated server is not only more expensive to get upfront, but is also more time consuming and expensive to maintain. To be able to run a dedicated server successfully on your own, you’ll have to make sure you have the following things in place:

An IT person or team that can help you set up and maintain the server.
A team member that can help you fix the server in case it gets damaged or broken.
The right environment to keep the server functioning effectively such as proper ventilation and dryness.
Protection and or backup in case of environmental issues such as hurricanes or flooding.

Each of the items in the list above will have a price tag. Let’s go over some of the costs associated with buying a server next.

Cost of Hardware

This figure may vary according to your bandwidth, storage, security, and speed needs. For instance, the more storage needed, the more expensive the hardware will be. The average price ranges around $3,000 to $5,000. This number can be higher or lower depending on your specific needs, but it gives you an idea of what you should be expecting when you walk inside the store (or when you make the purchase online, as you probably will). On the other hand, to lease a server, it may cost you as little as $59/month.

Some other things to keep in mind are upgrades. For instance, you may want to get a SSD instead of a SATA for higher performance. This is an upgrade that would cost you just an additional $10 per month when you lease a service, but it may range from a couple of hundred dollars to thousands if you buy it own your own. Let’s say it cost you around $500, then your bill may be almost $6k for just the hardware alone at this point.

Cost of Installation

Now that you have your server, is time to install it. You need an experienced IT person that knows about setting up servers to tackle this task. I’d not suggest it to attempt to watch a YouTube video and do this on your own.

The average cost for an IT professional is around $100 per hour. Considering that installing a server may take around 4-5 hours, we are talking about $400-$500. Again, this is all an estimate, not a hard total. Now we are at about $6,500 for hardware and installation alone.

When you lease a dedicated server, the physical set up is included, so it would take a bit less time for your IT person to set up a server.

Cost of Maintenance

As with anything in life, your server will need maintenance to run smoothly. This is true whether you buy or lease a dedicated server. For instance, at Serverpronto we lease dedicated server but the maintenance is not included. However, clients can always pay a fee for higher support needs.

The monthly maintenance fees will vary depending on the server you choose your website or application needs. You may need 1 hour per month of maintenance or 10 hours. This is one of the toughest costs to estimate without knowing your exact hardware and needs. If we go back to the $100 per hour cost for an IT person, the cost can be from $100 to thousands of dollar per month.

Cost of Repairing or Fixing Hardware

If you lease a dedicated server, the repairs are included in your hosting plan. However, if you buy your own server, you will absorb this cost. The final expense will depend on the cost of the hardware that got broken. Keep in mind that in case of natural disasters, you’ll have to make sure your hardware is safe against flooding or power issues. This is not a risk you would take when leasing a server.

In conclusion, getting your first server should be the product of research. Study your business, study your site, and determine what its basic requirements and characteristics are. Review your options and make decisions based on what you need to achieve your goals.

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Dedicated Server Best Practices

VPS vs. Dedicated Server

After finally realizing that shared hosting does not make the cut anymore –which is excellent news, because it means that your site receives a high amount of traffic, you are making more sales, and that your business is growing– you need to make a key decision regarding technology: Which hosting service should you upgrade to? You have heard of Virtual Private Servers and Dedicated Servers, maybe you have looked into it, but now is the time to seriously analyze which option is the best fit for your growing business and site.

To make sure you make best decision, start by asking yourself what are your business needs? What are you seeking to accomplish? To figure this out, take the following into consideration:

  • The daily number of users visiting your site
  • The amount of data you’d want to store
  • The level of security you want and need.

Keeping these answers in mind, let’s go over the difference between a VPS and a dedicated server so you can make an informed decision.

What is a Virtual Private Server or VPS?

As the name indicates, the hosting services provided by a VPS are entirely virtual. How does it work? A server is divided among different virtual servers. Imagine a piece of hardware divided into separate virtual spaces. You do not own the hardware, which means you are sharing it with other sites. However, your virtual space is entirely yours, and you do not share the server’s resources with other “guests,” only the server.

If your main concerned is user experience, there’s nothing to worry. Your CPU, RAM, and bandwidth are yours. No matter the number of sites sharing the server, they will not consume the resources that are reserved to you.

Let’s say you are not concerned with any of the things above and your only concern is security. Even then a VPS may still be the right choice for you. Your account is isolated from other accounts, so even if one of your neighbors gets hacked, your account will be okay.

As you probably imagine considering the benefits, the cost for a VPS higher than the cost for a shared server. There is more privacy because you do not share your resources. It may not be as good as a dedicated server because you have more limited resources, but it is better than having shared hosting.

What is a Dedicated Server?

Purchasing a Dedicated Server is like buying a house. You do not share your space with anybody, whether it is virtual or physical. The server’s resources are yours and only yours. Owning a dedicated server means having a more considerable responsibility: setting the server up and assuming the entire costs. Dedicated Server Hosting is the right option for companies seeking high-security, more resources than a VPS, and the freedom to implement anything they like.

Now that we have a better understanding of the differences between a VPS and Dedicated Server, let’s go over when it would be best to choose one or the other.

When to choose a VPS

Let’s say you have been using shared hosting and until recently, you were satisfied with the results. However, you have been noticing a lack of speed in your site that is affecting user experience, or even affecting your team internally any time they try to add more content.

Moreover, you are getting 503-server errors. In other words, you are experiencing a lack of resources. Remember, you are sharing them with all of your neighbors; this was going to happen one day. Then, it’s time to make the switch to a VPS.

Another reason why you should consider an upgrade to VPS is if you need to run a particular software for your business. Sometimes, Shared Hosting will not make the cut, and the need to upgrade will be imperative.

When to choose a Dedicated Server

Congratulations! Your business keeps growing. This is great news, but that also means that probably some changes will need to be made soon. Upgrading from a VPS to a Dedicated Server is product of the same needs that made you upgrade from Shared Hosting to a VPS in the first place.

Traffic keeps increasing, more and more data is being stored every day. What happens? User experience has been downgrading slowly. Don’t wait until getting 503-server errors before making the switch.

Server congestion ceases to be an issue with a dedicated server. With shared hosting, the risk of congestion due to the traffic, usage of resources (CPU, bandwidth) is significant and can be detrimental for your business. Dedicated hosting ensures that this issue is practically nonexistent. Also, if your site is resource heavy, then dedicated hosting is the way to ensure that other websites are not affected by yours.

Furthermore, if you need top security, then there is no other option than a Dedicated Server. Having your piece of software is the best way to be protected from hackers.

If you’re not technical savvy, it’s ok. Some companies offer 24/7 customer support, and the setup is included in the initial price.

The best decision you can make entirely depends on the specific needs of your business and site, their size, level of growth, the software that you need to run on your computers, the level of security you need, and other facts that nobody but you entirely understands. Get to know your business on a deep level. Both options are good and reliable depending on your requirements! What do you want, an apartment or the entire building? It basically goes down to that!

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Dedicated Server

How to Choose the Best Dedicated Server for Your Business

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

RJ45 cable overloaded with information download.

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 activity”. But, what is “normal activity”?

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

Low Angle Shot In Fully Working Data Center IT Engineer Installs Hard Drive into Server Rack. Detailed and Technically Accurate Footage.

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

System Security Specialist Working at System Control Center. Room is Full of Screens Displaying Various Information.

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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Server Security

How to Protect A Database Against SQL Injections: Top 3 Solutions

SQL injections are one of the most popular hacking techniques. It involves injecting a SQL code for a malicious intent, such as to destroy a database or to get private information. For instance, a hacker can inject SQL code into a website form to retrieve a list of usernames and passwords from the database. This attack can threaten your users’ sensitive personal information- imagine all the data the hackers can get! That is one of the simplest forms of SQL injection: user input.

Fortunately, SQL injections are not difficult to prevent. This hacking technique is not sophisticated and it can be rather easily avoided implementing different code solutions. It’s just one more security measure that can be easily forgotten.

Even the popular game Fortnite had a vulnerability that could have caused a SQL injection attack that would have allowed hackers to take over game accounts. Tim Mackey, technical evangelist at Synopsys, stated the following: “SQL Injection and XSS are perennial items on the OWASP Top 10”.

Is your code SQL injection-proof? Did you suffer from a SQL injection security attack? Keep on reading to find the solution!

Top 3 Ways to Protect Your Database Against MySQL Injections

1. Escape characters using MySQLi

This method allows the database to see the SQL injection as text, not code. This will avoid any malicious action intended by the hacker’s code. The idea is to make the database escape the text and convert it into characters. The following example is for a simple website form. This solution was provided by Multimedia Tutorials YouTube channel:

Start by setting variables equal to the actual data. See example below for the first name field:

 $first = $_POST['first'];

Then, insert the following PHP function:

mysqli_real_escape_string ()

Inside that parenthesis you’ll add two different parameters: the database connection to the database and the data the user passes on in the form. The code will look similar to this:

$first = mysqli_real_escape_string ($conn, $_POST['first']);

Where $conn is your database connection to the database. Then, follow the same steps with the rest of the fields. You can easily copy and paste mysqli_real_escape_string ($conn), to accelerate the process.

2- Use a Web Application Firewall

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) works as an added layer of security by detecting suspicious activity coming from your website traffic. The illegitimate traffic is filtered out based on a specific set of rules. Technically, it examines the HTTPS requests coming in to your website.

Since it sits at the DNS level, if it detects any malicious activity, it won’t let it go through to the database.

In the event the Web Application Firewall detects suspicious behavior, you can choose how to proceed. For instance, you can ask the user to submit a CAPCHA, or automatically block a suspicious IP address. Implementing a Web Application Firewall will also help you prevent Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and Cross-Site Forgery (CSRF). It may sound like the perfect solution, but keep in mind that is not a 100% fail-proof method. There are still ways someone can bypass the WAF. Even then, I’d strongly recommend it.

3. Using Prepared Statements to Protect Database Against MySQL Injections

This method uses placeholders instead of actual variables, which are sent to the database, get parsed, and eventually get replaced inside the SQL statements. Note that the database will also not see the code as code, but as characters.

This process involves 3 steps: Create a template, create a prepared statement, and prepare a prepared statement. See details for all these steps below:

Create a template

Start by selecting data from the database. To do this, use a select statement where the user ID is equal to a placeholder name.

Create a prepared statement

Insert the prepared statement including the connection to the database within the parenthesis.

Prepare a prepared statement

Insert a MySQLi function for the prepared statement and check if the statement would work by testing it against the template. You can do this by inserting an IF statement, with the first condition being the prepared statement with $stmt as a parameter, and the second parameter being the SQL template. Remember to check for failure instead of success. You can do this by inserting an exclamation mark before the statement and an echo that the statement has failed.

Then, insert the ELSE statement by adding the  bind parameters to the placeholder(s). Inside the parenthesis add three parameters: the prepared statement followed by a comma, the indicador for the placeholder in the template, and the actual data you want to insert instead of a placeholder. You can see the full solution in Multimedia Tutorials.

Hope you found these solutions useful. Let us know your experience with SQL injections in the comments.

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