Dedicated servers offer reliable computing infrastructure to anyone seeking a new hosting solution for either business or personal use. Whether you’re seeking to stabilize your website performance, store files in a private cloud instance, or host a gaming server, a dedicated server has the processor, storage, and bandwidth necessary for making hosting a breeze. To get started with a dedicated server, you’ll first need to understand the basics of how it works and what you can expect in terms of product specifications.
What is a Dedicated Server?
Dedicated servers are hosting solutions for businesses and individuals looking to utilize all the computing resources of a single server machine. With one company or end-user in control of the server, there are plenty of customization and security options available that wouldn’t be available with other cheaper cloud hosting solutions, such as a VPS, or virtual private server.
The stability of the dedicated server, including both its physical and virtual security protocols, makes it a solid choice for a variety of hosting situations. The hardware dedicated to your website and business is available around the clock, with no limitations in terms of traffic or simultaneous users. In addition, most dedicated servers are easy to scale upwards or downwards as your computing and hardware requirements change. Instead of building and managing your own server, you simply rent out the dedicated server product on a monthly or annual basis.
Dedicated Server Use Cases
Dedicated server hardware can be a valuable asset in a variety of situations, whether you’re purchasing the server for commercial or personal uses. In any situation where you might consider setting up and managing your own server hardware, a dedicated server is typically an easy alternative that ensures you’re hosting on top-of-the-line hardware, without downtimes or performance concerns. Here are a few common uses for a dedicated server.
Website Hosting
Business websites that see substantial traffic may want to consider a dedicated server for web hosting. If your current hosting solution is unable to handle the traffic you’re receiving at peak hours, or you’re having trouble with slow loading pages, you may want to consider upgrading to a dedicated server. Bare-metal hardware can be particularly valuable for eCommerce websites in that they boost the response times for your pages and thereby make it easier for customers to stay on the site without clicking away.
Hot Storage
Outsourced data storage is becoming an increasingly important service for a wide variety of businesses and corporate entities. Cold storage, which allows you to cheaply store items that you aren’t regularly accessing but need to keep, is a service that many cloud service providers offer. However, in order to keep costs low, cold storage machines usually operate with traditional hard drives rather than the top-of-the-line computer parts that dedicated servers use. Hot data storage, on the other hand, allows businesses to access the items in data storage within seconds. A dedicated server is usually a solid choice for setting up this form of data storage for your business.
Private Cloud Video Hosting
Companies that require hardware for private cloud video hosting may want to consider a dedicated server for their media files. Files that contain vital company information or IP often require private cloud video hosting. Examples include training or process videos, marketing materials, and paid media.
Gaming
For the ultimate game server hosting experience, you may want to consider purchasing a dedicated server. You can rent a server for a wide variety of games, but some of the most popular choices include Minecraft, Counter-strike: Global Offensive, Ark, and Rust. The computing power of your server rent out the dedicated server, along with its extensive customization options, means you’ll never have to worry about lag or player limits again.
What To Look for When Looking for a Dedicated Server
Ready to purchase a dedicated server? There are a wide variety of product offerings and tiers of service available with most cloud services providers. No matter what you’re planning to rent dedicated hardware for, you’ll need to keep an eye out for these essential server features.
No Setup Fees
Most dedicated server providers offer access to their hardware without setup fees, as long as you’re willing to sign on for a few months at a time. If you’re looking to sign on for six months or more at a time, there shouldn’t be any setup fees associated with your server.
High-Performance Processors
The best dedicated server products come fully equipped with hardware that ensures your website, data storage, or game server is accessible around the clock. Read the technical specifications for the server’s processor and RAM. If you aren’t seeing either an Intel Xeon or AMD Ryzen, you aren’t getting the computing power you deserve. Intel’s product typically offers a higher single-core performance score, while AMD’s offerings usually win out in terms of multi-core performance.
Bandwidth and Traffic Allowances
Dedicated servers typically don’t have any traffic limits and offer substantial additional bandwidth compared with a VPS. Bandwidth limits should start around 500 MBps, but can easily be scaled upwards depending on your hosting requirements.
NVMe SSD Storage
Dedicated servers utilize high-speed solid state drives to ensure that accessing your files or streaming hosted video occurs without a hitch. SSD storage for dedicated servers typically starts at 256 GB, though at least 512GB is usually preferable for most use cases.
Scalability
The best cloud service providers offer hosting solutions for businesses and individuals alike that scale as your computing requirements change. If you’re planning to buy a dedicated server soon, make sure the product you’re interested in can shift memory, bandwidth, and storage capacities to future-proof this purchase.
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