9 min read

Online presence is not only beneficial for growing a small business but it is essential for any company. When they properly maintain their business website, it means they are accessible to a wide range of audiences from all over the world and able to market the products or services effortlessly. Many business owners try to reduce their hosting expenses by sharing the benefits of a server with hundreds or even thousands of other websites. But actually, they are making their decisions based on short-term business planning. 

Those who want to take their business to the next level should build a solid online presence with server dedication. If you are facing the limitations of shared hosting and want to get rid of then migrate your website to a managed dedicated server. 

If you want to understand the cost of having your server with full dedication then consider the following factors:

• Computational Power
• Amount of Bandwidth 
• Secure Storage Space and Backups 

Generally, the dedicated server is more expensive than shared hosting because there are no neighbors that can consume the resources. So, dedicated server benefits are worthy, that’s why you can compete with the growing world of eCommerce or other online businesses. 

Benefits of a Server That is Dedicated To Your Business 

Flexibility

Having your server according to your business needs can provide you more control over adding new services and applications or modifications to the existing ones. You can easily shape your business as per the demands of an unexpected market. If you need more storage, processing power, and backup then a dedicated server is your first choice. 

Nowadays, consumers don’t wait for a website that takes more time to load and want the convenience of quick access to the products. So, it is the main reason why your server has been mandatory to provide a better user experience with faster page loading. 

Administrative Power

There is no need to customize every element of the infrastructure because you have full control (root access) of software, scripts, upgrades, operating systems, and applications. These administrative controls are not available in any type of web hosting because all the resources are belonging to you. You can exclusively use all the server resources including CPU, Bandwidth, and RAM without the worries of lower performance in peak business times. You can also check the server logs and be able to implement special security measures. 

Why dedicated servers are so famous and why are they considered as an essential part of any big business brand? Because these servers provide more flexibility, advanced security, 100% uptime, higher performance, automatic updates and backup, easy scalability, operating system support, and less risk of virus attacks. 

Better Security

The dedicated hosting provider will permit the access of a physical server to your company with firewalls and security monitoring tools for enhanced security against: 

a) Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Attack

It is a cybersecurity threat that is developed to steal confidential information like credit card data or client data that sells out in the black market. DDOS attacks are also used for large-scale disruption of your business. You are getting the benefits of a server having dedicated hosting and developing a brand reputation, the result is that your hosting server is on the target of DoS attacks. The following are the types of distributed denial of service attacks that target your system in different ways. 

i) Volumetric Attacks

In this type of DDoS attack, a bot sends a huge number of false client requests to overwhelm the network’s bandwidth to every open port. The attackers conduct a scan to find out the open ports so that they can enter the network. There are two main types of volumetric attacks; UDP floods and ICMP floods. UDP (User Datagram Protocol) relates to the transmission of data without checks and ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) is used between network devices communicating with each other.

ii) Application-Layer Attack

As the name indicates, this DDoS attack is mainly targeting the applications that users are interacting with. It interacts with HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, or SMTP protocols so that the application will be unable to deliver content to the end users. Application layer attack is hard to catch and troubleshoot and it can mimic legitimate web traffic more easily.

iii) Protocol Attacks

Protocol attacks include fragmented packet attacks, smurf DDoS, SYN floods, ping of death, etc., and consume server resources. It is usually targeted at particular network parts that are used for connection verification. In protocol attacks, the malformed pings are sent to the network so that it uses maximum memory to verify these pings.

This type of attack can also target firewalls, load balancers, and other intermediate communication equipment by sending large amounts of irregular data. You can get the real benefits of a server only if you have secured it otherwise you will lose your client’s trust.  

Security Measures

• Make sure you are using a firewall to block the malicious data before it damages your server.
• Use a monitoring mechanism for unexpected traffic increases.
• Install protection tools and keep everything up to date 

b) Malware

Business owners can install the software, so dedicated servers are vulnerable because of different security threats. Malware is the name of malicious software variants, including viruses, spyware, worms, rootkits, trojans, and ransomware. The main functionality of all these applications may change but recording any action or replicating the confidential and critical database is understood. Keep in mind, that malware can be combined with valid applications and different scripts. 

Implement The Following

• A dedicated hosting provider should check your website for unusual advertisements and invisible frames regularly.
• Test all software applications on your home device before uploading it to the website.
• Ask your hosting provider for vulnerability scanning or real-time server monitoring.

c) Hacks

Hackers are actively looking to destroy your brand reputation with the help of advanced tools and technology. Most of the hackers get into your dedicated server with the help of a password because business owners don’t have complex and strong passwords. 

d) Strong Password 

Whenever you buy a dedicated server, make sure you are not using their default passwords because most of the cyber attacks are caused by this mistake. Any well-reputed organization needs to implement different procedures to keep their passwords strong and unbreakable. What they have to do is: 

• Don’t include the letters or numbers related to their identities 
• Use the combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numeric digits, and special characters
• Change the passwords after a regular time interval 

​4. Reliability

Online businesses are available and accessible to anyone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. It is a good idea to start your online business with cheaper web hosting but for saving only a few dollars per month, you can lose your potential customers and revenue if your website is offline. The benefits of a server, when you use dedicated hosting, can never be ignored in the Long-term business policies because these servers are housed in a data center. It is a place where redundant power resources and proper cooling keep the servers up and running in case of any grid/power failure. 

5. Best Option

There is no investment in hardware and zero CAPEX with power, cooling, management, and other required utilities. If you try to build your server at home you need to invest a lot of money to create a proper environment and hardware. It is a time-consuming process and requires technical knowledge, so get a managed dedicated server and focus on your business instead of setting up a server at your home or company. 

​6. Enhanced Performance

You are using the entire server for your exclusive use and sharing the resources with hundreds of other website owners has a significant difference in the performance of the website or application. Having root access to the server, you can install whatever you want and configure settings according to your business needs.

Moreover, you can also access the server logs and take it as your computer working in a well-maintained and managed computing environment. You can also install a different operating system as per your interest and drive your business in a scalable, flexible, and responsive way. 

​7. Bad Neighbor Protection

As the name indicates, the physical server is dedicated to your company and you can install firewalls and security monitoring tools to enhance your security as per your business requirements. In the case of a shared server, you have hundreds of neighbors that are using the same server and consuming the total bandwidth.

If you are a beginner and don’t have much knowledge about the threats that are causing your website slower than usual or other issues. So, it is compulsory to investigate what is going on. Following are the bad examples of bad neighbors: 

a) Websites with Large Traffic

Websites having large traffic that need more resources for functioning affect your website performance is the most common problem in shared web hosting environments. So, it is also possible that multiple websites are hungry. 

b) Spammers 

If your neighbor is a spammer then it can cause your email to go to the blacklist because you have a dedicated IP address hosted on the same server with a spammer website. 

c) Websites Having Suspicious Content 

You have a dedicated IP address but keep in mind you are sharing the same C-block with your neighbors. Any bad neighbor can be dangerous and problematic for you because Google or other search engines can treat it badly. It can harm your search engine ranking so if you are going to run your online business it is necessary to host your business on a dedicated server. 

How To Select the Right Dedicated Server?

1. Finalize Your Performance Requirements

Every organization or business has unique performance requirements for their hosting servers. Do you have to answer some questions like How many website visitors do you expect to have? What kind of services do you need to provide using the hosting server? This valuable information will help you to understand how many servers you will use and the kind of hardware to use. 

2. Understand Potential Downtime

It is also necessary to get acknowledge the impact on your business if your hosting environment fails. The benefits of a server can never be ignored when you get a dedicated hosting option because you are not sharing the server resources with anyone else.

However, the major disadvantage of a dedicated server is a single point of failure. To avoid the potential downtime, you have the option to scale to multiple servers otherwise you need to determine how much potential downtime you are willing to risk. 

3. Consider Bandwidth Usage

If you are going to consume maximum bandwidth, but predictability is low then you could choose a package that has unmetered billing or a maximum of data traffic included. This is an easy way of understanding how much you will be spending on the hosting of your dedicated hosting server. 

4. Test Network Quality

Network quality is based on the physical location of your server and the quality of the hosting provider’s network. Nowadays users don’t wait for long loading times, so it is not suitable that your website visitors are in the APAC region then hosting in Europe might not be suitable because the data delivery will be slower. 

5. Application Scalability

Is it easy to add more servers according to the changing business requirements? Few applications are difficult to scale to multiple devices, so it could be easier to move the database to a high-speed server that has more processing capacity, RAM, and faster storage with Solid State Drives. Migrating to a cloud environment could also be a good option. 

How To Secure Your Dedicated Server?

You can get the benefits of having your server if you go through some steps to secure your hosting server before making it live. What you have to do is make sure the server is up-to-date and other packages are also updated. Change the default SSH listening port and don’t forget to install updates regularly. Most of the servers are hacked because they are using the standard port that can be easily found and targeted. So, make it harder for hackers by changing the SSH listening port. 

Change the root access password that is created automatically and set a unique password with the combination of digits, symbols, and upper- and lower-case alphabets. If you want to get peace of mind and consider it difficult then get a managed dedicated server from a well-reputed hosting provider. 

How Do You Choose A Right Dedicated Server Provider?

However, it is a difficult question because every hosting provider is talking about their services best. You may consider different factors including network quality, application scalability, bandwidth usage, potential downtime, and performance requirements before making your final decision. Several hosting providers are claiming that their hosting services are perfect for your particular business needs and you can get the benefits of a server they are offering. But before choosing any hosting provider it is essential to understand your business needs and why would you need a dedicated server. 

There is no doubt, that dedicated servers are the best but you have to know what type of dedicated server with what specifications you are looking for. It will help you to boost your business growth and increase the ROI. If you are still confused about choosing a dedicated server, contact us today for a free consultation.