Why it pays to invest in a dedicated server for your business
For businesses of all sizes, developing a presence on the web is no longer an optional luxury, it plays a crucial role in our long-term success.
As more and more customers take to the web to research -and ultimately pay for- the products and services they need, failing to place ourselves at the forefront of their browsing experience could eventually spell the downfall of the business we’ve worked so hard to establish.
So we put our best foot forward to create an awesome looking website that we’re sure our customers will love, only to neglect paying the same care and attention to picking an appropriate hosting solution.
For many, investing in a cheap shared web hosting option seems more than sufficient to run a powerful, dynamic website that serves the need of their customers. Though to go to this route without first exploring how a dedicated server could help your business means missing out on a number of key benefits that can really make a difference.
The benefits of dedicated server hosting
In a nutshell, hosting your website or online applications on your own dedicated server means enjoying exclusive use of your web server. By comparison, shared hosting involves cohabiting on a server along with several -sometimes many- other businesses, all using up the same resources at the same time.
For those opting for the latter, the main benefit is simply that we can enjoy cheaper annual rates on our hosting. Yet in this case, the cheapest option isn’t always best for business. Rather, you may well find that it pays to invest a little more so that you can enjoy all the benefits that a dedicated server can provide for your business:
Greater reliability
To make the most of the opportunities afforded to us by the Internet, it’s vital that our websites are always online when our visitors need them.
Even the briefest period of downtime can cause potential customers to leave in their droves, often into the waiting arms of our competitors, and often never to return.
With a dedicated host, this isn’t something you’ll have to worry about.
Since you’re not depending on the same bandwidth and storage allocation as other businesses -as you would with a shared option- you have complete, unlimited access to all the resources you require to deal with large volumes of traffic and media-rich sites.
Increased security
Sharing your web server with others means a greater possibility that others could gain access to your data, or that potential online threats could creep in and create major problems.
In this case, not only does the damage done cost you money, but so too does finding a way to fix the problem and get back online.
Not so with a dedicated server. Since you retain complete control over who can and can not access your server, you significantly reduce the security risks to your business.
A more flexible solution
A dedicated server grants you full control over the way you manage your hosting. Set it up in a way that works for you, and either task your own team with taking care of it, or outsource your server management to the hosting company. Either way, you get a hosting solution that really works for you.
Go with shared hosting, and you’re inhibited by limited control and access to certain features. Again, this might well be fine in cases where you only have a basic site that requires only the the minimum of regular maintenance, for a more hands on approach, dedicated servers are more likely to suit what you need.
Better performance
With increased processing power, greater memory and storage resources and control over your server, you can be sure of faster loading speeds for even the most highly visited, media intensive websites.