5 Things to Watch Out for While Purchasing a Dedicated Server
If you have a website that gets thousands of views every day, or if you want to host an MMORPG privately, or if you’re looking to build a tech platform from the ground up, you’re probably going to want a Dedicated Server.
Dedicated Servers are used for most tasks that require an isolated setup, complete control, advanced customizations and a lot of resources. This article takes a look at Dedicated Servers in detail. What they are, why you might need one, and how to buy a Dedicated Server online.
What is a Dedicated Server?
Any bare-metal server used for a single user is called a Dedicated Server. A server used to power a single website, a server used exclusively to game online, and a server used to handle emails exclusively are popular examples of how Dedicated Servers are used.
The reason for using a Dedicated Server is the combination of performance and freedom. Whenever a server’s resources are shared, there’s a dip in the performance, of course. However, there’s also a degree of loss in terms of freedom.
When multiple people use a server, hosting companies need to lay down a few hard-and-fast rules so that everyone using the server has a smooth experience.
With Dedicated Servers, you don’t have to worry about either of these problems. You get the power of an entire server, and you can optimize and use it as per your specific needs with complete root access to the server.
Thus, if you are looking for a robust, customizable, powerful, secure, isolated hosting platform that offers complete root access and use of the entire server’s resources, you should invest in a Dedicated Server.
How to Buy a Dedicated Server Online: Factors to Consider
- The hosting company
This is perhaps the most important thing to factor in when you’re buying a Dedicated Server. The fundamental thing to understand with any web hosting is that the company you partner with owns the servers and is responsible for maintaining those servers.
Good hosting companies will spend more on the security of their servers, given that they have a reputation at stake. They’ll hire server experts with years of experience so that their servers are optimized to offer the best possible speed. They’ll spend good money buying better hardware so that their servers are reliable.
For instance, ResellerClub offers SSD or Solid State Drive-based high-performance Dedicated Servers with SuperMicro Blade servers with Intel Xeon Processors and RAID1 disks. These features ensure advanced data protection, high reliability, better performance and higher power efficiency, ensuring the much-needed boost to your website and other applications.
These are important factors. The performance, reliability, and security of a server are key to your hosting experience.
So, when you’re looking to buy a Dedicated Server, make sure that you’re buying it from a company that can deliver a good hosting experience. Independent review websites, the experience of previous and existing customers, problems they’ve faced — these are all things that can help you choose a great hosting company.
- Consider your requirements
All Dedicated Servers aren’t the same. Most companies offer a multitude of Dedicated Hosting plans. Usually, there are variations in the type of CPU used, the number of cores on offer, RAM figures, etc.
The ideal Dedicated Server for you is the one that meets all your requirements. Therefore, you must have a clear idea about what you want the Dedicated Server to do. For example, if you’re using a Dedicated Server to send and receive emails, you need lots of raw storage. On the other hand, gaming servers are RAM intensive.
The best way to choose the ideal plan is by clearly understanding what you want and then matching it with a plan offered by the hosting company of your choice.
- Bandwidth
Hosting companies usually offer three types of bandwidth — metered, unmetered, and unlimited bandwidth. Picking the right one is important.
Bandwidth measures the speed of data transfer in a given period. It’s measured in Kbps, Mbps, etc. Obviously, higher is better.
Metered bandwidth is an option where the amount of data that can be transferred and the speed at which it can be transferred are capped. If you need a Dedicated Server, metered bandwidth is of no use to you.
Unmetered bandwidth is where there’s no cap on the amount of data that can be transferred. Only the speed is capped. This is the ideal option.
Unlimited bandwidth is a bit of a scam. Companies say that they offer unlimited bandwidth, but somewhere in the fine print of the contract that you agree to, there’s a limit mentioned. Once you reach that limit, you’ll be charged heavily. So, staying away from unlimited bandwidth plans is a good idea.
- Quality of network
When a server is closer to the end-users, the performance improves. So, a server located in the USA will not do as well as a server located in India if the majority of the end-users are in India.
Data takes time to travel, and if you can reduce the distance as much as possible, you’ll increase the performance significantly.
So, when buying a Dedicated Hosting plan, ask the hosting company about the location of their servers. There are hosting companies with servers in different locations across the globe, meaning that you can choose the one closest to your users.
- The uptime that the hosting company can guarantee
Servers, like most hardware, fail from time to time. No company can offer a 100% uptime guarantee with dedicated hosting. The simple problem is that all your data resides on a single server. Also, the same server acts as the powerhouse, providing you with all the resources you need.
All this means that there’s a single point of failure, meaning that your server will go down at some point. The idea is to reduce the duration and the frequency of failures.
Uptime is crucial. If you’re running a website, search engines will lower your rankings if your website is down. If you’re running a game off the server, you’ll see that you cannot play when the server is down. If you’re using the server as an email server, you cannot send or receive emails when your server isn’t working.
So, make sure that your hosting company can assure at least a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Additionally, look around on independent websites and verify if the existing customers can vouch for the company’s claim. A few minutes of research now can save you a lot of headaches in the future.
