A dedicated server is a server that is rented by a business or individual that is used exclusively for one purpose or application. Dedicated servers are typically utilised for both high-traffic websites or high-traffic applications that are often resource heavy. A dedicated server has the advantage over more common shared hosting methods as it gives you full control over the server and access to all of its power, instead of it being split among multiple businesses or peoples’ uses. There are many situations in which a dedicated server will become preferable to shared hosting options, essentially whenever your business or service grows simply too large for shared hosting and requires its own private server(s). But in this article we will examine a couple of more specific scenarios that will help you determine whether a dedicated server is the right option for you and your business.
1. A High – Traffic Website
As your business grows and grows, so too will the traffic going to your website and as a result, your web server will be put under more and more strain on the server itself. This can result in a whole variety of technical issues, most notably opening your website up to crashing risks, preventing customers access to the site and essentially causing a loss of any sales for the duration of its downtime. As well as your site’s downtime, you will also be annoying customers through their inability to access whatever they wanted to use your site for.
With a dedicated server however, you will not be tied down by the limitations of a shared server. The power of the server in its entirety will be completely utilised by your site and your site alone, and when your needs outgrow whatever server you’re currently using you can simply upgrade to a more powerful one. Unfortunately, however, dedicated servers are more costly as is to be expected from a more powerful service. As well as that, the back end is much more intricate and difficult to manage, meaning you may need to take on staff that know how to operate dedicated servers.
2. A Software as A Service (SAAS) Solution Server
A dedicated server for a SAAS solution (think your email client; it needs to be accessible all the time and able to manage extremely high traffic and resource usage) is the perfect option. Dedicated servers here provide exactly what an SAAS solution needs: power. Like an email client, an SAAS solution will typically experience high traffic and will need to accommodate this traffic. While the initial cost of renting a dedicated server may seem high at first, really it is the only option for an SAAS solution and eventually, with the growth of your business, will pay for itself. Essentially, if you are offering a web-based service, there is no doubt that a dedicated server is the way to go for you. There would be too many risks with having a web-based service hosted on a shared server; it may go down through no fault of your own (ie. one of the other shared sites crashes the entire server) or alternatively, your sites traffic brings down the entire shared server.
Shoker Shkoda, marketing manager of INXY
