Why Dedicated Servers?
If you want total control not only over the administration of your website but also over the very hardware and software used to run it, then you should be evaluating not shared hosting providers, but dedicated hosting providers. If your business is large enough or growing fast enough that it requires its own internet connection and server, you may need a dedicated hosting provider or dedicated servers.
What's the downside to going with dedicated hosting providers? In a word: responsibility. In most areas of life, with total control comes total responsibility, and it's no different with dedicated hosting providers. With dedicated servers, the onus is on you to buy, install, and maintain the actual equipment - the dedicated servers - mounted in the dedicated hosting provider's data center.
Fortunately, you still get the benefit of the dedicated hosting provider's presumably top-notch, around-the-clock security over the dedicated servers physical premises, but you remain fully responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Likewise, dedicated hosting providers will ensure that the dedicated servers in the building are all provided with redundant uninterruptible and backup power and environmental controls, but it's you who must keep your machines and cables maintained and functioning in this idyll environment.
How do you identify whether it's time to switch from a shared hosting provider to a dedicated hosting provider? There are three main indicators:
Speed
If the traffic streaming through your shared server is slowing down your customers' pace as they browse your site (or your employees, if an in-house site), it may simply be time to look for more unencumbered shared hosting. But if you've tried several shared hosting providers with the same results, then it may be time to remind yourself how impatient the average web surfer is and consider dedicated severs or a dedicated hosting provider. While you're jumping from shared host to shared host trying to save a buck, your customers are jumping ship. Your ability to respond promptly and effectively to customer transactions and inquiries cannot be overemphasized either.
Reliability
The limits to your control are nowhere more apparent than in the areas of reliability and security. It's not simply that problems can arise: problems do arise. It's the nature of the biz. And if you don't have unlimited access to your own operating system as with dedicated hosting, dedicated servers, software and database apps, etc., there's not much you can do when one arises.
Customizability
If your company is growing fast, you're going to be changing many aspects of your web presence along with it. You may regularly need to tweak your disk space and bandwidth and experiment with using different applications to better serve your changing needs. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one "package" or "plan" to another.
These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs. They may be riddled with programs you don't yet need, for example, yet lack in the one singular program you do. Or the next leap up from your current plan has way more disk space and bandwidth than you need at the moment.
With dedicated servers and a dedicated hosting package, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, step back, heck, step sideways if you need to and when you need to.
In large part, it's the size and growth rate of your business that will dictate whether you need a shared or a dedicated hosting provider. Affordability and personal time commitment are nice secondary considerations, but if your business is booming, you would do it a great injustice to try and save on a few bucks and few extra hours per week of your time in exchange for slower and poorer quality of service for your customers.
By the same token, however, if your business is small enough to function quite smoothly on any of the shared hosting providers out there, don't squander your precious capital on a dedicated hosting package just so you can have total control. Sometimes total control isn't all it's cracked up to be.
:: THOUGHTS ASIDE ::
How to tackle promoting a website, if you are a newcomer to the subject? The most challenging part would be finding a good service provider; someone with expertise, backed up with years of experience on the market. There are thousands of such services on the web, but we recommend Software Submit.NET search engine submission services for website owners. While being an expert in software promotion, they also have a great range of services for website owners, you do not have to sell software applications to be able to benefit from their services.
|
