Top

Having a Dedicated Server, When Does This Make Sense?

July 29, 2008

Having 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 will suddenly shut your site down, which means your visitors will see only a page telling them you’ve exceeded your allotment. Others will allow your page to keep running, and will charge you for the extra bandwidth. If your site gets popular quickly, you could find yourself facing hundreds or thousands of dollars of extra charges for that usage.

It is for this reason that it is critical to keep a careful watch on your daily bandwidth usage and site traffic statistics. If you think you may exceed the allotment you were assigned for your bandwidth, now is the time to look at whether getting a dedicated server may be right for you.It might be tempting to use one of the shared hosting servers that claims to offer “unlimited” bandwidth. Be aware that the fine print probably contains limits.

Shared hosts also have a lot more down time than a dedicated server. By upgrading, you’ll be increasing the amount of time your site is available to its visitors, and eventually attract even more. Upgrading to a server of your own will improve reliability and performance, as well as giving 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.

A dedicated server can possibly cost up to $200 a month and there is a setup fee involved. Just give it a bit of thought and you will quickly see how saving a small amount every month is not worth it when it comes down to the poor reliability you may receive and the potential for occasional large charges for bandwidth overage.

Put an end to the nightmare of shared hosting look into your options for a dedicated server. 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 you’re happy with your existing provider, ask about their options for dedicated servers. If you’ve had to deal with bad customer service and other problems, however, you might be better off shopping around.

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.

In the end, a dedicated server may cost a bit more, but it’s well worth it. Control, reliability, and all the bandwidth you need to serve your site’s visitors make a dedicated server cheap for the price.

Related Articles

Comments

Got something to say?





Bottom