All About Dedicated Hosting Providers

Unless openly specified otherwise, most web hosting packages you’ll come across in your search are what are termed shared hosting providers. This signifies that the server or servers serving your website are also hosting a large number of other websites. This provides you with a cheaper rate on web hosting services in exchange for suffering some technological restrictions, such as bandwidth, disk space, upload and download speeds, security and privacy, traffic, and maybe most notably, complete control.

If you want complete control over your website’s administration as well as the hardware and software needed to run it, you should evaluate dedicated hosting companies rather than shared hosting providers. If your company is so large or expanding so rapidly that it requires its own Internet connection and server, you may need a dedicated web host.

What are the disadvantages of using dedicated hosting providers? In a single word: accountability In most aspects of life, with complete control comes complete accountability, and hosting companies are no exception. With a dedicated server, you are responsible for purchasing, installing, and maintaining the server itself, which is mounted in the data center of the dedicated hosting provider.

You continue to receive the advantage of their purportedly superior, round-the-clock physical protection, but you are solely responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Likewise, dedicated hosting companies will ensure that the systems in the building are all outfitted with redundant uninterruptible and backup power and environmental controls, but it’s you who must keep your computers and cables maintained and running in this ideal environment.

How do you determine if it is time to transfer from a shared to a dedicated host? There are three primary warning signs to watch for:

Speed

If the traffic flooding through your shared server is slowing down your customers’ pace as they surf your site (or your staff, if an in-house site), it may simply be time to look for more unencumbered shared hosting. However, if you’ve tried multiple shared hosting services without success, it may be time to remember how impatient the ordinary web user is. While you attempt to save money by switching shared hosts, your clients are abandoning ship. The importance of your capacity to respond quickly and efficiently to consumer transactions and enquiries cannot be overstated.

Reliability

Your lack of control is never more obvious than in the areas of dependability and security. It’s not only that problems can occur; they do occur. It is inherent to the business. And if you do not have unrestricted access to your own operating system, software, and database applications, etc., there is nothing you can do when a problem occurs.

Customizability

If your business is expanding rapidly, you will be modifying many areas of your web presence. You may need to often adjust your storage space and bandwidth, as well as experiment with other apps, in order to meet your ever-changing needs. On a shared host, such an upgrade typically requires switching from one “package” or “plan” to another. Typically, these bundles are predetermined and may or may not meet your urgent demands. They may be rife with programs you do not yet require, while lacking the solitary program you do. Or the next step up from your existing plan provides significantly more disk space and bandwidth than you now use. With a dedicated server, you may make changes gradually, step forward, step back, or even sideways if necessary.

The size and growth pace of your organization will largely determine whether you require a shared or dedicated server. Affordability and personal time commitment are good secondary considerations, but if your firm is growing, you would be doing it a big disservice if you tried to save a few dollars and a few more hours per week in return for slower and inferior customer service.

Similarly, if your firm is small enough to run successfully on any of the available shared hosting providers, do not waste your valuable resources on a dedicated server only to have complete control. Because sometimes total control is less than desirable.