When is the right time to upgrade to a dedicated server?

[Joshua]

When is the right time to upgrade to a dedicated server?

Depending on what you use your web hosting service for, there is going to come a time when you will either need to or will want to upgrade to a dedicated server, and for most users this is a big step in many ways which needs to be considered properly to be as effective as it should be. Although you may decide that you want to upgrade to a dedicated server because circumstances mean that you have a greater budget for your web hosting services, in most situations an upgrade to a dedicated server is normally a must and is determined by the fact that your existing web hosting package isn't able to cope with the demands that your website puts on your web hosting package. If you are considering upgrading to a dedicated server, you should consider the advantages that dedicated server hosting has to offer, such as:

• Increased uptime - most shared web hosting services don't come with uptime guarantees because of the fact that there are many factors which can influence the reliability of a shared hosting server, and so web hosting providers don't offer any uptime guarantees with their shared hosting packages in most cases - a dedicated server on the other hand can offer you your own dedicated hosting environment on your own physical server which means that the number of factors which could affect your server's reliability are far less
• Increased security - a dedicated server will be able to offer you a more secure web hosting environment than a shared web hosting package, simply because you are provided with your own dedicated hosting environment on a physical server which you won't have to share with anyone else - with a shared web hosting package you are stuck with sharing both the server and all its resources with the other websites and web hosting accounts that are hosted on the same server as your web hosting account
• Greater flexibility - a dedicated server will be able to offer greater flexibility with what you are able to do with your web hosting service, and this means that for most dedicated server hosting can offer better value for money than other forms of web hosting - with a dedicated server you are able to install any applications of your choice for whatever reason, and this means that you can customize your dedicated server to run effectively how you want it to - you will also be provided with full root/administrator access to your dedicated server so that you can make any necessary configuration changes.
  

By considering the advantages of upgrading to a dedicated server you should be able to come to a decision much more easily as you can apply those factors to your existing web hosting package, and if you require all three but your existing web hosting service isn't able to offer them to you then you may find that it's time to upgrade to a dedicated server. However, it is also important to consider the disadvantages of using a dedicated server since you may find that a dedicated server isn't for you after all:

• Pricing - if you are currently using a shared web hosting package you are going to be shocked by the price of a dedicated server and in most cases upgrading to a dedicated server is going to mean a rise in your web hosting bill - however, the higher cost can be justified by the fact that with a dedicated server you are paying for a physical server rather than virtual resources, as is the case with most other forms of web hosting that are available
• Maintenance - regardless of the type of dedicated server you may be considering, it is important for you to be aware of the fact that a dedicated server needs to be maintained properly if it is going to be of full use to you - if you have managed servers in the past then you may wish to take it upon yourself to maintain your dedicated server, but if this is going to be too hard for you then you may wish to consider a managed dedicated server hosting package for your requirements.
  

By reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of using a dedicated server, you will either be prepared to upgrade to a dedicated server or will be put off from doing so. It is important for you to be sure that your existing web hosting package and any other web hosting packages in between yours and a dedicated server aren't able to meet your requirements as if they are then you may be able to save some money. Although there are bound to be certain circumstances that are going to force you to upgrade to a dedicated server in some cases, you should only upgrade to a dedicated server when you are ready to do so.

[Dan]

Excellent theory Joshua, thanks for posting.

[Harry]

Great tips... this will surely help webmasters who are looking for upgrading their hosting package !!!
Dedicated servers are far more superior then normal shared/vps hosting packages and are more powerful to handle huge web traffic.

[IanSmithISA]

Good morning,

I think that in most cases where there is a need for a dedicated server, there is in in fact a need for at least two dedicated servers.

Currently I have a HyperV VPS hosted here, but if my site takes of as expected then I will need to move to dedicated severs, plural.

One to run SQL Server, one to run web page requests and at least one spare server to run as a live database backup, possibly with a copy of the web pages.

If you have a largish database, by which I mean multi million row tables then you will be able to use all the resources that you can buy, even today. It's a lot easier to examine server performance if you aren't worrying about the requirements of serving up ASP.Net pages.

If a site has no database then I can see how a single server could provide all the computing power to serve up static pages, but you would probably still want a backup server as lost visitors often don't come back.

Remember that your server will break down on the day that a really important visitor decides to look at your site!


Bye

Ian

[Dan]

Hi Ian,

WebhostingUK provide load-balancing support if you have one or two dedicated machines meaning that the load can be distributed between two separate machines.

If you ever decide to purchase two or more dedicated machines, definitely take advantage of this.

[Administrator]

Remember that your server will break down on the day that a really important visitor decides to look at your site!
Ian

oouch! Harsh, but what you have said is truth. I have gone through it couple of times in last 8 years.

[IanSmithISA]

Hi Ian,

WebhostingUK provide load-balancing support if you have one or two dedicated machines meaning that the load can be distributed between two separate machines.

If you ever decide to purchase two or more dedicated machines, definitely take advantage of this.

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I won't post a link to my site here as it might be deemed as advertising, but there is a link in my profile and it might help explain some of my comments.

I am about to go live tomorrow and I have no customers so this is all dreaming.

In practical terms my site is not really a web site, it is web front end on a business application, most of it is text with minimal graphics and minimal operators just staring at a screen for long time, they will; sign in, do something and sign out and I fully expect a single server to be able to serve up the web pages with resource to spare.

If things go well and without getting boring and going into too much detail I am expecting one key table to grow at about 1Million rows per month and other to grow at about 5Million rows per month, this might give you and idea. If things went very well this would increase to 5 Million and 25 Million rows per month. This will occupy the database server pretty much full time. The current plan is to ship the transaction log from the live database server to the backup server, so it will have some spare capacity but it may not be worth the effort of trying to use it share web page serving, especially as the dedidcated servers here are so cheap.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Bye

ian

[-arjun-]

Management!

I Think dedicated server management is little difficult task. handling dedicated server. I think for newbies best solution is cloud hosting , Pay only what we use . vps is also good option.

[Harry]

Yeahl, if you go with webhost who provides you Managed Dedicated Server Hosting Services then there's no need to worry about your server management, your webhost will take care of your server and will update all required security patches and should install required applications for you. Under Managed Hosting environment you are free from hassle of server management and can concentrate more on your business !

You can also consider Cloud Hosting Solutions which are getting more popularity and are widely used as they are much affordable with better hosting environment.

[jonathanc]

Cloud is quite attractive because of the perceived flexibility. But unless you are going to use the particular advantages of the cloud, you can usually get a cheaper deal for a matching spec from a dedicated server host and many offer contracts with no minimum term so it doesn't have to be a long locking.

[sbglobal]

You can upgrade server on weekend or in Night..

[Pongers]

You can upgrade server on weekend or in Night..

Fantastic
If you want to avoid any unknown downtime which may occur due while server upgrade process then try to schedule your hosting account / server upgrade on weekends or in night when there's low traffic on your website. !!!

[Rachael]

When your business increases and you require more resources at your disposal, that is the best time to upgrade the dedicated server. With Web Hosting UK, you will have to follow a simple procedure for upgrading the dedicated server.

[Juliane]

I think slowing down of a website is a good indicator of upgrading the hosting plan. If your website is overloaded with high traffic and online transactions, it is the time to upgrade to dedicated hosting as you need more bandwidth and web space.

[Alicia]

Upgrading to a dedicated server also depends the number of websites you are hosting. If you are managing more than one website, a shared hosting service may not accommodate so much of traffic therefore it is essential to upgrade to a dedicated server if you have more than 5 websites. Dedicated servers will provide you with all the necessary resources to maintain multiple high performance websites.