Dedicated servers – should you invest in one?

There will always be a question of whether to have or not to have a dedicated server for your business. There are undoubtedly some very strong benefits that one could get with a dedicated server. However there is also the matter of cost. It goes without saying that if you don’t know what dedicated servers are for then you shouldn’t invest in one just because you heard that it could boost your business. When it comes to such a large investment you really need an expert to tell you if you really need one or not.

But what is a dedicated server really?

By simple definition, a dedicated server hosts just one client on the server.  Compare this to a shared server where there can be hundreds of websites on a single server and you can immediately start to see the benefits of having a dedicated server. While a dedicated server has only one client, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can have only one website. In fact, for large companies where there are multiple divisions, it is often more cost effective to host several domains on a dedicated server than it is to host each one on a separate shared server.

When Would You Choose a Dedicated Server?

Typically, dedicated servers are used by larger companies with a large web presence. They may have exceeded their capacity on a shared server and have more technical requirements for their website that cannot be accommodated on a shared server. If you are looking at the options of dedicated servers then it is probably because you have a large capacity website. You may also want to customize certain aspects of the hosting on the server. Most shared servers don’t allow for customization so if this is important for your business, dedicated server hosting may be your only other alternative. What prevents most companies from having dedicated servers is that they are generally much more expensive. This is why usually only larger businesses make use of them. While you may have started out hosting your website on a shared server, you may get to the point where your business has grown sufficiently and a dedicated server starts to make more sense.

What Are the Benefits of a Dedicated Server?

There are many benefits to having a dedicated server. Often, when you weigh them up compared to the higher cost, they still make a convincing argument. A great advantage of a dedicated server is the higher level of security on the server. Because your business is the only client on the server, if you are vigilant about your security systems and anti-virus software, this greatly reduces the risk of infection. Compare this to a shared server. You can be diligent about protecting your website but someone else on the same server might not be.  This means that they could fall prey to a virus or spyware which could then inadvertently affect your website as well just because it is on the same server. With a dedicated server, you completely eliminate the risk of this happening. In general, you have a much more secure hosting platform.
There are many other great benefits that you could get from a dedicated server. One such great benefit is that unmatched level of customization that you get with dedicated servers. You can literally change everything about your dedicated server, whether it is hardware or software related (provided that the company managing your server allows such modifications). With such a high purchase you can expect technical service to be top notch as well so that every problem that you have with your server will be immediately dealt with.