Choosing a Dedicated Server over a Shared Server

If you are running an online business, or your business has a website or other online presence, you will need to take a moment to consider your current web host solution. You may be using a shared server that may be restricting your bandwidth and alienating customers. A dedicated server may have a lot more to offer your business and could vastly improve your website and your customers opinion of your brand.

The differences between a dedicated server and a shared server are mostly logical, but there will also be a few advantages you hadn´t fully considered.

A shared server is just that, it is a server that stores your website and files, and could potentially host hundreds if not thousands of other websites. Although this is typically a cheaper solution, the implications of sharing this hardware with other websites are why more and more businesses are deciding they need a dedicated server.

Sharing the computing power and resources with hundreds of other websites can mean that the processing speeds necessary for visitors to your website are being used on other websites, and your customers experience is diminishing as a result. Bandwidth is finite, so if other websites being hosted on the same server are being visited a lot they will be using all of this space and speed.

This can cause to slow loading times for your visitors and they may sometimes not be able to access your website at all. In the online world a brand´s website can be an extension of its image, and the frustration of slow loading web pages could be turning potential customers away.

Furthermore, if your website is being hosted on the same server as a website performing illegal activity, or anything else that Google doesn´t like, Google has the ability to block all websites hosted on that IP address. If this is the case, customers may not be able to find your website in the first place and this may be costing you thousands.

A dedicated server on the other hand is exactly that, it is dedicated. It is a server that hosts your website and your website only. This means that one hundred percent of its computing power and bandwidth is focused on providing your website to your visitors.

The use of a dedicated server is most often used by business with a large website or websites that are visited regularly by customers, and are therefore putting a larger stain on a server´s resources. As a result the increased costs are justified by improved customer satisfaction.

As the server is being used solely by your company you are also able to take over the core administrative functions which can help you analyse and monitor your traffic and better control security.

If you do not have an IT department or specialist to control this administration, managed hosting solutions are available to provide these functions to keep your website running effectively.

If you are in the early phases of starting a website, it is probably the best, economical solution to use a shared server. Monthly packages are available and you always have the ability of upgrading to a dedicated solution at a later date if you experience problems. For many small businesses and sole traders this is the recommended form of web hosting.

However, if your business is very serious about its online presence and perhaps cannot afford for its website to go down or load slowly, then a dedicated server is the best solution. Your customers will benefit and will have a better experience on your website, and therefore better image of your brand. If you are still unsure consider this; you wouldn´t share a telephone line with the business next to you, so why would you share a server with hundreds?