Making the Jump - Time for a Dedicated Server?

Upgrading from shared webspace to standalone server...

[Leonidas]

I'm exploring whether it's time to upgrade from shared webspace to a remotely-hosted dedicated server (I'm looking at a Sun Cobalt RaQ4R): my site has reached 4,000,000 visitors a year; CGI is slow; page delivery seems slow; and performance is fluctuating, possibly (I'm guessing) because other sites on the same server have varying load.

I'll admit to being quite naive about server issues - I'd be grateful for any opinions on the following:

1. Am I right in thinking it's time to make the jump? What are your "rules of thumb" on this?

2. Does anybody have any positive or negative views of the Sun Cobalt RaQ4R? Is it likely to be powerful enough to do the job?

3. Is there anything we should watch out for in making the jump?

Possibly useful information:
- Page sizes average 75K (I know Brett recommends much, much less, but I've trimmed and compressed as far as practical - any more and I'll be "cutting into the muscle").
- Page views on Alexa are much lower than for comparable sites, possibly because of page size, but possibly (I prefer to think/hope) because of performance (I know Alexa coverage is not universal, but it's OK as a rough guide).
- I'm looking to launch a cluster of new CGI services, forums, streaming audio, etc as we expand out customer offering.

[ddent]

Cobalts: I think they were pretty revolutionary when they came out. But I don't think they've really kept up with what everyone else has been doing... as a result I am not sure they are a good option anymore.

Dedicated server: Its hard to say without knowing more about the nature of your site. But, if you are asking yourself the question, and if it is something you can afford, and if you are going to be launching some of the things you mentioned, the flexibility of a dedicated server may be something you will come to appreciate. There are lots of things you can do easily on a dedicated box that you simply can't do or at least have trouble doing properly with shared hosting.

The only comment I would make would be to really think about how comfortable you are in administering the box yourself. If you aren't extremely comfortable with admining the box then don't! Find someone else to do it for you.

Talk to your host. The situation has come up with some of our clients where they've wanted to move to dedicated but weren't really so hot on the administration side of things. We were happy to make arrangements with them, and your host likely will be too. However, you may wish to consider looking around if as it is you are already not terribly satisfied with your host.

Hope this helps...