A four part series on purchasing the best
dedicated web hosting plan for your needs.
Part 1
What is it? How it works.
Dedicated web hosting is basically renting a whole server solely
for your use (dedicated). It is much like having your own server
but the biggest difference is you do not need a large initial
investment to set it up. Dedicated web hosting comes in two forms.
Managed and unmanaged.
Commonly, unmanaged hosting plans include hardware, operating
system, web server and Internet connection. Managed plans however
include the basics and pretty much everything else that the only
thing you need to worry about is your web site and content.
Knowing this, you should carefully review your organization’s
setup to see if you have the financial & physical resources to
manage your servers. For most organizations, the higher monthly
cost of a managed plan works out to be more cost effective
overall. There would be occasion an unmanaged plan works best. In
these scenarios the organizations already have a good support
department but would rather not have hardware and certain software
maintenance concerns.
Without needing to share space & resources you gain many benefits.
Your web page will run better and faster because resources are
used to serve only your web site and you can optimize the server
and database for your web site. Another benefit of server
customization is you get to install and run the programs that your
web site needs, not re-programming your web site to fit the
server.
You also have full access to storage, which is certainly a perk
for a growing web site. Managed dedicated hosting customers also
generally enjoy a better level of service. Many web hosts assign a
personal representative who also supports a handful of other
accounts. Managed plan customers get the freedom to build the web
site the way they want it without having hardware, operating
system, certain software, middleware, security, Internet
connection, backup, power backup, staff, casualties & loss
prevention even insurance responsibilities.
Part 2
Hardware & Connection
As with choosing the operating system or software, hardware
requirements depend a lot on your web site’s current and future
needs. We’ll give you some good basics to look for.
Processor Type
Intel is recommended for large web sites because it’s emits less
heat. You should choose Celeron for small web sites and Pentium 4
for medium web sites. Dual Xeons are highly recommended for high
traffic web sites to give you the processing power; more so if
your web site uses a lot of server side scripting. On the average,
processor speeds of 2 to 2.4 GHz are good choices.
Memory
Your server should have at least 512MB of memory for serving up
your pages in a reasonable time. If your web site makes heavy use
of server side programming languages (PHP, CGI, ASP) we highly
recommend a 1024 MB minimum and high traffic web sites should have
2048 MB and thereabouts.
Hard Drive
Between IDE and SCSI hard drives, most would like to have a SCSI
drive. They are very robust, and use little if no processor power
making them very fast; an ideal situation for anyone but the cost
is prohibitive. If budgets permit, an 18 GB SCSI hard drive is
very sufficient for most. If you choose IDE, choose a 7200-RPM
drive with about 40GB of storage. You might wonder why you need so
much since your shared hosting plan only has a fraction of that
and you still have left over space. Do not forget, with a
dedicated server, you need space for software to run your web
site. In a shared environment that software space is owned by the
web host and not added towards your hosting plan.
Part 3
Estimating Bandwidth
Web hosts calculate your usage using one of these three methods.
Per use, capped, or 95% use. Each one is quite different so be
sure you understand your requirements versus the method used in
the plan. You’ll need to first understand the basics. Data
transfer is measured in bits or bytes. Here’s a simple equivalents
chart:
8 bits (b) = 1 byte (B)
1024 byte = 1 kilobyte (kb)
1024 kilobytes = 1 Megabyte (MB)
1024 Megabyte = 1 Gigabyte (GB)
Data transfer is the measure of bits or bytes traveling over time.
So, if you are told 1 Mbps it means 1 Megabyte is being
transferred in one second. If your hosting plan has 600 GB per
month you can transfer as much as 600 GB of data in one month.
To calculate usage, your host relies on usage reports such as
Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG). The report shows your web
site’s average incoming and outgoing traffic. The following
formula is then applied:
( Monthly Average incoming + Monthly average outgoing data ) /8 x
60sec x 60min x 24 hrs x 30.5 days = Total month’s bandwidth
Per Use Method
In this method, a web host calculates your usage in a month and
bill you the price per Gigabyte, Megabyte or Kilobytes. Some web
hosts charge in blocks of 10 or 100.
Capped Method
Using this method, your web host will allocate a certain amount of
transfer a month. If you exceed it, your web site will either be
inaccessible or is considerably delayed. While this sounds like a
bad option, most use this method because it’s a fixed cost. You
should get the plan with a little more transfer than you expect to
use.
95% Method
In this method, your web host looks at your total bandwidth usage
for the month. The top 5% of use is discarded. The remaining 95%
of will be used to calculate your usage. If you have occasional
usage spikes, this might be a good method for you because the
peaks will not be calculated.
Knowing this, you need to go back to your current web host’s
control panel to find out what your average use is. Add on a
certain percent for growth you expect, and then look for a plan
matching those requirements.
Part 4
Choosing A Dedicated Web Host
Having a dedicated server is expensive and not as easy to migrate
as a shared server environment. So making sure the host is right
is ever more important. Some of the utmost concerns you should
have when choosing a dedicated web host is of course the company
reliability and support. You should expect better, more responsive
support than a shared web host. You shouldn’t settle for anything
less than 24 x 7 telephone support preferably toll free. Find out
how quickly the average response is in the event of hardware,
connection or certain software failure. If they never had a
failure, do they have a contingency plan in place? Check their
network reliability. Verify information, as best you can; don’t
take the web host’s word at face value. Take your time, ask around
and talk to their customers.
If purchasing a managed plan, ensure server monitoring is included
and your web host stays on top of security patches. Try to stay
away from long term contracts and choose a month to month option
at least until you know how satisfactory the web host is going to
be.
Ask this pertinent information about your plan before signing up:
What it costs for additional storage space or transfer
What it costs for additional IP addresses. How many does it
come with
What it costs for memory upgrades
Is there an uptime guarantee
What method is used to calculate bandwidth
Is there a money back guarantee
Dedicated hosting and other high-end plans are more profitable for
the web hosts; so web hosts have the tendency to accommodate you.
Negotiate and you might end up getting additional IP addresses or
setup at no cost.
This is a AskWebHosting Exclusive Article
Written by Boris Mordkovich and Christophe Jacquet for
AskWebHosting.com
|
