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How to Know When It is Time for Your Website to Move On to Dedicated Servers
Colocation Sites and Top Server Colocation ProvidersHigh-density colocation data centers. Be sure that you pick a colocation site that has fully redundant power. Find secure, reliable co-location services to house and manage your servers and web presence. Choose dedicated servers, or rent rackspace for your own servers. Highly-available colocation facilities with security and virtual 24x7 uptime. Sources for server colocation, disaster recovery facilities, and managed network solutions can be found here. You maintain control over your web servers. Secure data centers offer dedicated server solutions in which the service provider monitors your servers continuously. There are Unmetered Bandwidth and Metered Bandwidth Options. Co-location, collocation, and colo are other terms for these services. Using a colocation site for your critical servers saves some of the overhead involved in maintaining a company's own data center. Colocation service providers offer a wide range of data center management options. Whether dedicated server hosting is needed, or if your company-owned servers are housed at the colocation provider's site, the colocation facility may allow you to manage virtually all of the server functions by remote control, including remote re-boot. Or, you may choose options in which the co-location hosting company is responsible for maintenance, patching and backups.
Knowing when it is time to move onto a dedicated server includes many variables and requires you to answer a variety of questions. While dedicated servers are great because only you and your business will be using them, they are expensive and require someone to manage them, which costs more money. Evaluate if you have all of the elements required for a dedicated server before making plans to move onto one. Below are several things you should consider first. Question #1 - Can You Afford It? One huge question that will play a large role in whether or not you move onto a dedicated server is whether or not you can afford it. You need to do some math to not only figure out how much a dedicated server costs, but how much you will have to pay for an administrator or for a fully managed dedicated server. These can be expensive, especially if you do not have a large budget. Make sure your budget supports a dedicated server before you start looking into one. Question #2 - Managed or Unmanaged? Another consideration is will you want a managed or unmanaged dedicated server. An unmanaged dedicated server means you have to have the knowledge and skills set to manage it personally or else you need to hire someone to do it for you. Consider this as well because if you don't, you might find yourself in over your head or spending money you had not budgeted. Question #3 - Extra Space and Bandwidth, Do You Really Need It? Do you really need the space and bandwidth a personal server provides? If your web pages are loading rather quickly and you still have plenty of space on a shared server, you should consider why you need to invest in a dedicated server. If you need the space and bandwidth then you should do it, however if you don't there really is no reason to unless you have extremely sensitive information. Question #4 - Do You Have Sensitive Files? The number one driving reason why individuals want dedicated servers is because they only hold that persons information, rather than a variety of peoples and businesses. So, if you have ultra sensitive information you cannot risk being stolen, a dedicated server is definitely the way to go. Question #5 - Do You Need the Tools and Options? Having your own dedicated server means you have a variety of tools and options at your fingertips you did not have on a shared server. There are no rules with a dedicated server because it is all yours, so whatever you need to do you can do it. Just keep in mind the ever rising prices. Michael Turner reveals his foolproof way to increase website traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it free right now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/ Factors to consider: 1. Do you need a carrier-neutral colocation facility? This means, usually, that the site uses multiple bandwidth providers, and that your company may choose its preferred provider from among several options. Ask, though, if they accept any commissions from bandwidth providers. 2. Power protected colo facility: the extent of power protection may vary between co-location services. The number and capacity of UPS units and generators is key. Are there redundant generators? 3. A range, from secure metal cages to which your key employees have access 24x7, to locked cabinets containing your colocated servers, down to partial cabinets or just one or two rack units ( 1u or 2 u ) should be available. 4. Tape backup services and other hosting services are available from colo providers, pricing may vary significantly. 5. Does the colocation company host both telecommunications and ISP's? Learn whether they have a diversity of clients for their managed hosting services. 6. Ownership. You can usually choose between a dedicated server setup, in which the hosting company owns the hardware, or an arrangement where you own the servers. The advantages of colocation mean that bandwidth comes alot cheaper than what you may be able to negotiate on your own. The colo service basically supplies the bandwidth, the IP, and power to your server, and the data center in which it's housed. The contract that you sign with the colocation hosting service should allow for easy upgrades. Your business may expand to require more e-commerce servers. Server operating systems may become outdated. You may need to upgrade your Oracle or SQL Server database version. A "U" is a Rack Unit, a measurement of the vertical space that your server occupies within a rack. One 'U' generally equals 1.75 inches, or about 4.45cm. A full rack may have 40 to 42 U's. The minimum rack space you can rent for your colocated server is generally 1U. The amount of data transfer that you contract for is measuted in price per gigabytes of transfer per month. The colocation service may monitor your servers for any or all of the following, which may be priced separately, or included in your colocation plan: Ping Tests Disk Space Checks Check IIS, Mail, and other services, and restart automatically on failure.. CPU Usage Memory Usage HTTP Availability |
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