What Is A Dedicated Server And Why Do You Need One?

While dedicated servers are popular, they represent a more expensive hosting option. Are they worth their price? Let’s take a look at what dedicated servers are and why businesses choose them.

Most websites on the Internet are hosted using a shared server or a VPS. While these are the most affordable options, they are rather limited when it comes to website performance. Other pages hosted on the same server can slow down your website. As your user base continues to expand you will need more server space. Dedicated hosting can be rather expensive, but if you need to scale up fast, it is your only reliable option. Let’s examine how dedicated server hosting works and whether it is time to upgrade your plan.

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The Nuts And Bolts Of A Dedicated Server

As its name suggests, a dedicated server is a server dedicated entirely to your website. You have all its resources, including CPU and RAM, storage space, and bandwidth at your disposal. You can host as many web projects as you want.

In other words, it’s a single-tenant architecture. Having a dedicated server is vital to your website’s security, performance, stability, and profitability. If you run a large online store or a media platform, you have no other option but to choose dedicated hosting. It’s also highly customizable, allowing you to fine-tune your web application to serve your customers better.

Important

Shared servers host multiple sites from different owners on a single machine. A dedicated server has only one tenant. Unlike a VPS, a dedicated server is a physical machine.

Advantages Of Dedicated Hosting

Extremely high performance.
Ability to customize everything according to your needs.
Reliable 24/7 uptime.
Unique IP address.
Faster website load times.
Reduced risk of hacking, malware, or virus attacks.
Reduced risk of DDoS attacks.
Better maintenance.
Can be used to host everything from news websites to game servers.

Let’s take a detailed look at the advantages dedicated servers offer to website owners.

Peak Performance

An average dedicated server has 8-64 GB of RAM. It offers SSD storage, known for its lightning-fast data access compared to regular HDDs. Depending on your performance needs, you can choose from 4 to 12 CPU cores and even more if you need to perform intensive calculations. Because you don’t need to share these resources, your website will operate seamlessly even when you experience traffic spikes.

Improved Security

Sharing server space with other sites is risky. If you are concerned about the privacy of your clients, you should opt for a VPS or a dedicated server. But even a VPS can be breached at the hypervisor level. Dedicated servers are the ultimate choice when it comes to creating a secure space for your website. You can customize them any way you want. Install your favorite anti-virus and anti-malware software, firewalls, use spam prevention measures, and more. In addition, most hosting providers have DDoS protection already in place.

Flexible Deployment

There are no limitations to what you can do with a dedicated server. Do you need to host a website? Go ahead. Do you plan to add a VPN solution, a file server, or a mail delivery system? You can do that without breaking a sweat. Compared to other hosting solutions, if you opt for a dedicated server, you are not restricted by the provider. You can use any applications or technologies necessary.

Ultimate Control

If you plan to use a dedicated server, hire a system administrator or a team of IT experts to manage it if you are not technically savvy. Dedicated hosting offers an incredible degree of control. Basically, you have root user access and can change the server’s configuration any way you like. You can customize it to run messaging boards, news blogs, e-commerce stores, game servers, and everything else.

SEO Benefits

It isn’t obvious a first, but a dedicated server is a huge boost to your SEO. Using extremely cheap shared hosting providers can tank your rankings. Other sites in the shared space may negatively impact your website if they use “black-hat SEO” tactics. It’s similar to building a house in a bad neighborhood. While you might put in a lot of time and effort, its value will be affected by the surrounding property.

Important

In addition, having a unique IP address improves your website’s load times. It reduces the bounce rate, placing your website higher in the search results.

Ability To Scale

Dedicated servers allow you to customize both software and hardware to fit your needs. If you are scaling up, you can add more disk space, RAM or even install extra CPU cores. Your server can grow at the pace of your business. It’s extremely important to entrepreneurs who run large, sophisticated e-commerce projects.

Conclusion

While opting for a dedicated server requires a bigger budget and a technical expert onboard, this hosting option provides a number of benefits for website owners. If you need a fast, secure, spacious, scalable server all to yourself, choose a dedicated hosting plan from a reputable service provider. You will be able to control all the resources of a dedicated server, have your website running 24/7, install additional software and receive professional support around the clock.