What is a Dedicated Server? A Guide For New Business Owners

Establishing a new business can feel like a balancing act at times. You do not want to hinder yourself by not putting enough into your company to guarantee it is a success.  However, you can find yourself in a predicament where there is too much overhead.

Moreover, the value you are receiving after you invest so much money into your new venture is on the line and can suffer. That can take place at any level of your enterprise. Whether it is that you have too large of staff vs. too small or too large of a rented space, it is vital that you critique what you are paying for in the end.   

That goes for your website, as well. There are numerous strategies when referring to hosting solutions and each one’s price varies.   

More significant, Better, and Faster

It starts with shared hosting for a few dollars per month to the big dog, a dedicated server that comes with maximum performance for maximum dollars each month.  Of course, every website owner wants the greatest, latest, fastest, and the best.

That is the main reason mobile lovers upgrade their smartphones yearly is to have the newest product available. However, referring to running your website, having the best comes with a price.  Moreover, if you are operating a static, informative site, having a dedicated server is going to be significant overkill for your needs.

However, if you are running a large e-commerce business, then operating with a dedicated server may be your better option.  

What is a Dedicated Server?

If you register with shared hosting, you are on an actual physical server shared with numerous other websites. Moreover, you will share the same pool of resources.  Many, many sites on one machine. A Virtual Private Server, or VPS, is the web hosting service most business owners and developers tend to select due to it being a safe middle option.

With the VPS option, you still are on one physical server with a ton of other sites. However, every website has their own resources.  That makes minimal impact to your performance thanks to your neighbors.

Let’s define what is a dedicated server. What that means is you get a complete physical machine all to yourself and your site.  As you can guess, having unparallel and unrivaled service is powering to your website. You have all the servers resources to do all you need for your business.

However, what business needs all that?   

It is All About Traffic

The short answer to this question is any business that expects incredibly high traffic on a consistent basis. Incredibly high means six figures all the way to millions of visitors. One reason for a slow site is one with high traffic volumes and not having the right infrastructure to handle it all.  

That can be very detrimental to your business. Time and time again it is proven that there are direct correlations between conversions and page speed. With knowing this, can you imagine a company the size of Walmart having to learn this the hard way?  

By finding the load time increased from one to four seconds, their conversion sunk to a sharp decline. However, when the load times increased, the conversion rate jumped with each second. If you are operating a large e-commerce, you cannot afford that bottleneck in traffic.   

Unless you are an e-commerce mogul with your own cloud server, you will benefit significantly with a dedicated server. E-commerce is the most typical sites for most businesses considering going with a dedicated server.

Other specialized type of websites that benefit from having a dedicated server include high-trafficked content delivery websites such as Buzzfeed and social networks such as Facebook.  Therefore, you might think of choosing your own server if you are establishing a social empire or the next eBay.

Here are 5 of the leading reasons you should consider selecting a dedicated server:

Overall Better Performance

Having a dedicated server offers an exclusive, devoted platform that comes with no competition for resources.  It is yours and yours alone for operating your website. That means your dedicated server resources will provide faster applications and better quality performance than a cloud server.   

Shared servers or a cloud, shares resources between all users on the one server. Instead of delivering efficient resources, Cloud servers are designed to provide more vital resources and storage.  If you are establishing a business that requires a high-performing hosting solution, the better choice is a dedicated server.      

Cost Effective

The best value for your money as well being the most cost-effective, is the dedicated server for long-term.  A dedicated server may not appear as cheap as a cloud server, but, you will have much more in resources. You can also serve a more significant number of clients at one time.

A dedicated server provider takes care of everything including maintenance of the network and supplying and maintenance of the server hardware.  They are responsible for resolving any problems if something were to go wrong due to your renting the server from a provider.

Ability To Customize Hardware To Business Requirements

When you select a dedicated server, you have to power to customize your hardware to fit your needs. Whether that is:

• Even faster CPU
• Extra Ram
• Extra Hard Disk Space
• Upgrade when necessary

Flexible Usage

You can use a dedicated server for various application beings they are very flexible. Operating a web hosting environment is the most common reason for a dedicated server.  Other applications are data applications, including database access and storage, email servers, VPN’s, and custom virtualization.

Better Security

As the name suggests, your dedicated server is yours and all yours. It is a shared server when you select a cloud hosting provider which mean all clients on that physical server, share the resources. Moreover, other users have access to log in the server which increases the infiltration and interception as well. There is also the high risk of losing data.  In other words, a dedicated server is much safer.

There should no mistaking that a dedicated server puts much power into your hands. Your website will perform as an industry leader, and you can rest easy knowing your visitors will not suffer from extended downtime or slow loading of your website.

Before selecting a dedicated server be sure to analyze your business to ensure you do not merely need the performance of a VPS. If you do not know this answer, be sure to seek the solutions before you agree to any package from a web hosting provider.