Having a Dedicated Server, When Does This Make Sense?
December 27th, 2008Having a popular webstie is encouraging, especially if it is related to your business. However, you’ve probably never thought popularity could cost you money. Shared web services allow only a specific amount of web traffic each month. Each and every host has their own way of handling cases where the total amount of traffic exceeds the threshold.
Some servers will suddenly shut your site down, which means your visitors will see only a page telling them you have exceeded your allotment. Others will allow your page to keep running, and will charge you for the extra bandwidth. Extra usage charges could end up costing you hundreds or even thousands of dollars if your site gets popular rapidly.
This is why it’s vital to keep an eye on your bandwidth usage and the traffic that goes through your site every day. If it begins to look like you’ll exceed your bandwidth allotment, it might be time to look into getting a dedicated server. It might be tempting to use one of the shared hosting servers that claims to offer “unlimited” bandwidth. However, in the end, you’ll probably find that there are limits written into the fine print.
In addition, shared web services have less availability time than a dedicated server. By upgrading, not only will you be increasing the length of time your website is available to the viewers, but you will even attract more. The benefits of upgrading to a server of your own are that it will improve reliability and performance as well as give you total control over your website.
A dedicated server will afford a greater degree of control over the applications that you want to run and will not leave you wondering why the host is down. You can also run more sites on one server – as much as a few hundred. However, it’s important to budget for extra fees. The initial cost will be high but having a dedicated server is worth the expense.
There’s a setup fee, and a dedicated server can cost as much as $200/month. However, if you stop and think about it, you’ll realize that that amount per month in exchange for reliability is a good deal, versus poor reliability and occasionally being charged several hundred dollars for bandwidth overage.
Find out what you can do with a dedicated server and your shared hosting troubles may be over. You won’t have to deal with problems from scripts other users are running, downtime, or extra charges just because you’ve become popular. If your current provider is one that you are satisfied with, inquire about their options for dedicated servers. On the other hand, if you’ve had poor customer service experiences and other problems, you might have better luck elsewhere.
If your site gets more and more visitors every day, you need to make sure your guests aren’t using too much bandwidth. Inattentiveness to your website traffic could prove costly. Switching to a dedicated server will prevent unexpected overage bills, and will reduce extra downtime; this is a move that will eliminate your worries about whether you will exceed monthly allotments.
Overall, a dedicated server will be well worth the investment, despite the increased cost. A reliable server for a low price can obtained by having control, reliability and all the bandwidth you need to take care of your website’s visitors.
