subject: The Advantage Of Having A Dedicated Server [print this page] If you have your own small website then the chances are you shall be on a shared server with your hosting company. This means that there are a number of other websites all sharing the same equipment as you with you being allocated a corner of the server. It can place a number of restrictions on what you can do with your website due to how it can affect the rest of the server so if you are experiencing a lot more traffic or your site is taking up more space you may be best to consider moving to a dedicated server.
When it comes to you choosing a dedicated server you do have two options available to you and the one you take can depend on how much you understand about the technical side of things. The two options you have are managed and unmanaged servers and it is now best to give a bit more information regarding the differences.
The first type is the managed server and you should be aware that this is the most expensive option but then if you are not too up to date on the technology involved then it is a price worth paying. Basically they deal with any issues you have on a technical side and handle security updates as well as helping to maintain the control panel.
The unmanaged server is where you yourself are responsible for everything including updates, handling crashed and making sure that the server is running. You can see how this would require some technical knowledge as it can be a very complicated thing to handle so if you are unsure about this kind of thing you are perhaps best with the managed server.
The good thing about having a dedicated server is that you do not have to worry about space or using up your bandwidth limit each month. It does also mean that you are not at any risk of having your website crash due to another one on the same server having problems meaning everyone is affected so they do tend to stay live more than shared servers.
There are enough companies around who can offer you this kind of service so it is always best to really shop around for not only a variety of prices but also to see the companies that are deemed by others to be the best to deal with. You want to be sure that if they are managing the server for you that they are nice and easy to deal with and that they handle any problems swiftly on your behalf.
It is easy enough to get references on the internet for various companies so when you see some names that you may want to use you are best to carry out another search just to see what people are saying. By reading comments of both previous and current clients you can quickly get an idea about whether you should go with them or not as your website is very important and you need to know the right people are looking after the hosting side of things.
So to summarize things you should consider how good or bad you are with the technical aspect before deciding if it is the managed or unmanaged server that you wish to get. Also make sure you shop around the various companies and see the deals that are available but just be sure that the company you use gets good references from people on the internet before you sign any contracts.