So you’ve decided to make the shift to dedicated hosting for your business. There are numerous benefits that come with dedicated hosting. One of the challenges that you’re likely to experience is getting the right hosting provider. There are hundreds if not thousands of companies that offer dedicated hosting. The hosting industry is notorious for having shoddy companies. That is why you should be careful when doing research. There are some tips that will come in handy when looking for a dedicated hosting provider and we’re going to highlight some of them.
Effect of Downtime
Serious downtime will obviously have an effect on your business. One of the key considerations when looking for a dedicated server is how the company manages downtime. With a dedicated server, you will have all of the resources to yourself. It also means there is dependability on one point of failure. As much as the hosting company can’t guarantee 100% uptime, they should be able to provide an assurance that your website will be online for 99.5% of the time.
Scalability
The needs of a business are constantly growing. You might need to scale down or up depending on your needs at that particular time. A good hosting company should make it easy to scale. You should be able to add or remove the components that you don’t need. It is imperative that you’re looking at the scalability of the server when picking a hosting provider.
Indicated Server Requirements
The requirements of a dedicated server will differ from one client to another. That is why it is recommended that you’re purchasing a dedicated server that is likely to address the needs you have. You need to make sure that you’re picking the right blend of RAM, hard drives, and processors. The selection process will entirely depend on the processes that you intend to run. Ideally, you should be checking the turnaround of the processes. For RAM, experts recommend having Raid setup, as it is the most recent technology and works really well with different types of processors.
Flexibility
The flexibility should be in line with the policies that are in place. With a dedicated server, you’re the sole user and you have control over the customizations. You’re also the person that gets to decide the security limits. Setting up the server environment can be challenging if you’re not savvy enough.
Recovering Data
Not every web hosting company will be available for help when you’re trying to recover data in case of a mishap. This is because the hosting company will not be in a position to see what you add to your dedicated server. A good web hosting company will have several reinforcing solutions in case you need help with recovering data in your dedicated server. It is important that you’re speaking to the sales agent about such a predicament and ask what the hosting company will do in case you need help with recovering data.
Support Team
You can easily tell you’re dealing with a reliable web hosting company when the support team is responsive to your questions. How many channels are available for getting in touch with the company? Ideally, the company should have email, live chat, and telephone support. If you’re working with a reputable company, there will always be someone to offer timely assistance.
Performance Requirement
What number of servers do you need? What are the performance requirements? The hardware choices will have a great influence on the performance of the server. A good hosting company should give you the choice of selecting the number of processors you want on the server. You should consider the performance of the core in clock speed. For RAM and hardware setup, it is recommended that you go for RAID configuration.
Load Balancing
If you have an application that scales multiple dedicated servers, there will be a need for load balancing. You might be running a website that is growing in traffic on a daily basis. It will come to a point where you have to use multiple web servers. A good hosting provider should have a load balancing solution so that the requests are being directed to the appropriate servers.
Network Quality
As a customer, you should be able to choose the physical location of the dedicated server. You will be presented with a couple of options. You can choose the location that is nearest to your target audience. There are companies like ServerMania that will give several options for the location of your server.