When should you consider getting a dedicated server?

[weddingm]

Hello,

I currently get 80k unique visitors a month and am hosting with a national hosting company on a shared server. At what point do I investigate going with a dedicated server or VPS? Or should I just purchase and run my own server?

Thanks,
Matt

[maximillianos]

I think it boils down to 2 criteria:

1. Performance. Is your site performing just fine, even during peek hours?

2. Security. Do you harbor any secure data or scripts?

A dedicated server allows you to have complete control over the box. You can have it be as secure as you want, even to the point where the ISP admins don't have root access. Very private.

The downside, most dedicated servers require the owner to maintain them, which is time consuming. All OS patches, upgrades, security fixes, etc are all on your shoulders. Some ISPs are now offering managed dedicated servers where they will do all this for you, but it is at a price. It not only costs more, but you now have a security hole where folks from their company will have root access to your box. A trade off I suppose.

[driverseven]

I wouldn't even think about that last option, unless you have a dedicated tech support person.

I agree with the previous answer -- it's all about performance. Even if your performance got a bit sluggish, it could be better to work with your current provider to pay a little more and get moved to a different server (one where you'd get a bigger piece of the available pipe).

[Leosghost]

managed dedi ..unless you want to be sleeping and eating in the DC..just under your blade in the rack ..24/7/365

( maximillianos ..you are possibly a little too suspicious of host company/data center personnel ..or have been badly bitten by a bad managed dedi support tech :)

or there is the TJ way [webmasterworld.com] ..one of many such threads ..I think at the time he was running his server farm in the attic or the potting shed ..or in a shoe box under the bed ..anyway it made for some fun threads ..til he rented a managed dedi somewhere ..maybe he'll stop by and recount ..:)

[maximillianos]

you are possibly a little too suspicious of host company/data center personnel ..or have been badly bitten by a bad managed dedi support tech :)

Ha... just paranoid I guess... =)

I actually really trust my support guys at my hosting company. I've been with them for 10 years now and they have helped me through a lot.

[LifeinAsia]

The point at when you switch (before, actually) is when your business can not afford to be down because of someone else's web site on your shared server. It doesn't matter if it's because of the negligence of someone else (poor programming, open password that allowed hackers to the server, whatever)- the issue is that you are down and losing money. Before you reach that point is the time to switch.

[JS_Harris]

Nobody can afford to have down time, thankfully many good hosting providers have very little of it. Having your own box doesn't always mean less downtime but it does mean you need to learn how to manage it and be ready 24/7 to do some fixing. Having your own box managed by someone else... well, shared or not that person is working on everyones equally aren't they.

Reasons why you should or shouldn't depend on preference and comfort with what you use.

I agree that performance is key, when you get enough visitors per day and you notice that your peak load times are becoming too high... it's time to see if you can lessen the load. Can you make the pages smaller? Do you really need all of the fancy widgets that make extra database calls? Is your code clean and efficient? Images optimized? If the answer is yes make the switch.

[weddingm]

Thanks for all the info. All very valid points. I just need to weigh it all. The biggest problem is that there is downtime. I just need now to evaluate what's causing it.

[MatthewHSE]

Before you spend a lot of time on your own evaluation, start the simple way by asking the host what's causing the downtime. Maybe they'll tell you, maybe they won't, but it's worth a try.

[weddingm]

They want me try try and investigate why there were down. They say that everything is working fine. The same BS as always. It's hard for me to fathom that such a large company has such terrible service.

[bwnbwn]

You can get a managed dedicated server now for 250 a month so really the cost shouldn't be a big issue. What comes into play is what software you need to buy to get website running.
Then you need some help in setting up the sites and server.

Best advice I can give you here is (if you haven't done this before) is hire an experienced IT guy to come over and help you do it. Don't have it done do it yourself so you learn how, and can in the future add more sites, operate, and work within this new area.

Running your own server is like learing drive it is hard in the beginning but man once you get the hang of it it's like going on your fist drive by yourself.

Before I switched to dedicated I was having problems with downtime, slow response time and other problems due to other sites bogging the server down or crashing it. Since the switch about 4 years ago the site has been down a couple times mostly due to DNS issues at the host. Couple years ago I started doing my own dns and feel this as well has improved my sites performance.

weddingm everything is probably fine on the host end you have sites on the server that all combined are most likely bogging it down to the point your crashing.

[weddingm]

Thanks bwnbwn. I am considering going to a VPS system rather than a dedicated server. It's a bit less expensive and it's betther than shared hosting but won;t be as complicated as a dedicated server. Thanks for the advice on the IT though.