Dedicated servers are the foundation of every other type of hosting, from shared hosting to the largest cloud platforms. At the bottom of every infrastructure hosting stack is a physical server in a data center, although it might be obscured by virtualization layers and slick interfaces.
I often speak to server hosting customers who find the idea of dedicated servers somehow scary, as if they were harder to use or more complex than cloud servers or less flexible than other hosting modalities.
In fact, dedicated servers offer a whole host of advantages compared to other server hosting options, so I’d like to debunk the dedicated server myths I hear most frequently.
Myth 1: Dedicated Servers Are Slow To Deploy
Dedicated servers can be up-and-running in anything from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the customizations and options the customer needs. Usually, that’s fast enough.
We’ve been spoiled by on-demand servers that can be launched in seconds with the push of a button.
While that’s certainly useful in some cases, it’s not worth the inflated cost and reduced performance that plagues cloud users.
Few system administrators or developers make a habit of deploying production hardware on time-frames our team can’t handle.
Myth 2: Dedicated Servers Don’t Scale
Dedicated servers are as scalable as any other server hosting option — with some differences. The resource ceiling on dedicated servers is much higher than cloud platforms, which is great if you’d like to, for example, avoid the complexity involved in spreading a database across many different nodes. Clustering introduces complexity that most businesses shouldn’t have to deal with.
Dedicated servers also scale horizontally in the same way cloud servers scale — add more of the same and load balance.
Myth 3: Dedicated Servers Are Expensive
There is a kernel of truth to this myth: if you need a low-powered server for testing, development, or to host a low-traffic site, a cloud server is likely to be the more economical option.
But for any scenario with serious resource demands, dedicated server users pay less for more. For predictable, long-term workloads, dedicated servers offer the best value for money.
Myth 4: Dedicated Servers Are Hard To Manage
Dedicated servers are no harder to manage than any other server. Unlike with colocation, we take care of the heavy lifting, providing a powerful enterprise-grade server with redundant network connectivity and an ultra-reliable supply of power.
We also offer managed dedicated servers for clients who don’t have the time or the inclination to configure their servers — we work with you to provide the best server hosting experience.
Myth 5: The Data Center Doesn’t Matter
Finally, if you’re looking for a dedicated server, look beyond the server specs and the price. The quality of the data center that hosts your server has a significant impact on its reliability, performance, and availability.
Dedicated servers sit at the top of the server hosting hierarchy, and they’re the right choice for many businesses.