So you want to go out and rent a server. Great running! Renting a server nowadays, for the most part, is the best way to go for most of you. But the question that raises is if you go for a virtual machine/cloud hosting or a dedicated server. This is based on what resources you need to use.
The time you want a virtual server is when you are going to be using a lot of CPU and RAM resources, in other words, if you are going to do a lot of processing. Processing for virtual machines is relatively inexpensive and you are not going to be hammered to high hell and back doing processing on these virtual machines. So basically you create some virtual machine with like 1 GB storage, a lot of RAM, a good processor, and it just keeps chugging along.
Why would you do it? For example, if you are processing text, there is a lot of processing power that is required. So when you pay for virtual servers, the processing power, and the RAM are already included. The additional you have to worry about that you will get screwed up are the storage and the bandwidth or the outbound traffic. Companies like Amazon can really screw you in a heartbeat. Basically, you look at what you think the cost is going to be and you think that’s not too bad paying $60 a month. The problem is that even if you are not charged for the inbound bandwidth, you are charged for the outbound bandwidth. So if you are sending out video files at about $0.10 per GB, your bill can go really high, up to $10k at the end of the month!
Why a dedicated server is a better option? A dedicated server is a real physical machine that has the server software installed on it,sitting somewhere in a data center. There are many many data centers across America: Siteground, HostGator, VPS New York, GoDaddy, etc. All these have a real physical box. What happens is that you literally rent that physical box. So for let’s say for $99 a month you get quad core Xenon processor, you get 8 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, and, most important – you get a direct connection to the Internet. So the thing is you pay this $99 a month all the time, it does not matter how much bandwidth and resources you use. If you rent it and don’t touch it, you pay $99 a month. If you rent it and you hammer the hell out of it, you pay the same amount $99 a month. So what’s nice with a dedicated server is that you aren’t generally metered for bandwidth and you don’t pay any additional amount of money, no matter the traffic you make.
Now let’s see the main advantages and disadvantages of VPS and DDS.
Why would you choose a VPS?
– Cost effective.
– Grows with your needs.
– Instant scalability. Upgrades are instant and often require no reboots.
– Software customization. Full control over software with admin/root access.
Which are the disadvantages of a VPS?
– Shared resources. While largely isolated, disk i/o is often shared and the host network connection is also shared amongst all VPS instances. During peak times, this can cause some performance degradation but minimums are guaranteed and highly managed.
The advantaged of a dedicated server DDS
– Powerful, 100% dedicated resources.
– Completely isolated. No shared hardware.
– Software and hardware customization. full control over hardware and software components of the machine.
Cons of a dedicated server
– Expensive. A dedicated server requires significant upfront investment.
– Inflexible. Resources are static and require downtime to complete an upgrade.
