Should You Use A Dedicated Server?
Whether to use a dedicated server or shared hosting is one of the first decisions you will have make when you put your business online.
A dedicated server is a server that contains only your site information. Most sites on the net are housed on shared servers, commonly called virtual servers. Whether you use a
dedicated server or a virtual server to begin your web presence normally depends on the amount of traffic you will be generating initially. Due to the higher cost involved
with Dedicated Servers as compared to shared hosting or virtual hosting, it is generally more prudent to begin your venture on the net with a virtual hosting service, which
you can obtain for as little as free with the hosting company advertising on your site, to less than $5 monthly with no advertising from the virtual server owner.
When you use a dedicated server, you will be in full control of the server unless you order it as a managed server. Either way, you will be the sole site on the server. You
will be sharing with no one else.
One of the big drawbacks of using shared hosting is that you are at the mercy of the amount of bandwith used by other sites that are sharing the server with you. Although
you will see virtual hosting advertised with large amounts of bandwith usage to unlimited bandwith usage, the small print advises you that the total is actually dependent upon
a "balanced and fair usage" of the bandwith between all the sites on the server. That is one of the major reasons, if you are going to use alot of bandwidth, to consider spending
the extra money to rent or buy a dedicated server. The bandwidth advertised for the dedicated server, in most cases, is the bandwidth you will actually be able to use for
the price you pay. Most will not shut you down if you exceed the allocated amounts allowed. When you sign up, you will usually be informed of the additional fees imposed
if you exceed your allocated bandwidth.
If you are just going to have a single page to maybe a 25 page presence and will not be generating a lot of traffic in the beginning, there is really no reason to spend
the extra dollars necessary to have a dedicated server.
If you are building a site with hundreds of pages and a lot of bandwidth usage, consider a dedicated server. If you are not web savvy, many companies offering dedicated
servers will offer a plan in which they will manage many or most of your site functions for you.
The majority of small businesses that use Dedicated Servers began with shared hosting. They grew their online presence and let their traffic growth dictate when they needed
to move to a dedicated server. This is a very prudent way to begin for most small businesses.
If you are just starting and choose to begin with shared hosting, be sure to monitor your bandwidth usage closely. When it begins to get close to the limits allocated by your
hosting company, it will be time to consider a dedicated server. Do not wait too long when it gets to that stage. You do not want the loss of visitors, credibility and
revenue that will occur if your hosting company locks your site out when it goes over the allocated bandwidth during the month.
Just as with brick and mortar businesses, your growth may dictate a move to a bigger facility. That bigger facility on the net may be facilitated by the move to your first
dedicated server.
Good Luck!
