How to choose a dedicated server

Choosing a good but affordable dedicated server can be a complicated and time-consuming task. But making the right decision will pay off in the long run.
Here’s the iWeb guide to choosing the right dedicated server, taking into account your technology, budget and business requirements.

1. Technology

Consider these criteria to in order to assess your technology requirements:

• OS: If you are looking to host ASP.NET code, MS SQL Server or to use Microsoft IIS, you need a Microsoft Windows Dedicated Server. If you wish to use an open source stack such as Apache/php/mysql (LAMP) or Ruby On Rails, a Linux server is the best choice.
• Web Server and Database Server: Depending on your technology stack, you might need a server with plenty of RAM, especially if the architecture builds upon Windows, Java or Ruby, all of which are known to be power hungry.
• Performance: For SQL, video-transcoding, virtualization, or specialized applications like game or chat servers, you may need a multi-processor server, such as a dual Xeon server.
• Bandwidth: If you plan to host images, multimedia like flash videos or an Asterisk VOIP server, the bandwidth and uplink speed provided by the hosting provider are key criteria.
• Management: If you do not have the expertise of a system administrator to manage your server, consider managed services. A good web hosting company should be able to offer you expert advice on how to do load balancing, clustering or any tailored environment, as well as good support.
• Network: You should look closely at the location of the data center and compare it with the location of your  target demographic, But also the quality and consistency of the provider. iWeb’s network is audited by Netcraft and consistently achieves 100% uptime, which is how we guarantee you 100% uptime in our SLAs.

2. Budget

Here are the kinds of costs that you will encounter when you are shopping for a dedicated server, and what to check in order to fully understand the Total Cost of Ownership:

• Monthly price – Check the monthly traffic included in the price.
• Setup fees – Some hosting providers, like iWeb will advise you and configure your servers for free.
• Software licensing fees such as proprietary operating system, database or virtualization software. If you use an open source environment, this criteria shouldn’t impact your choice as much. You may need to enter the sales process to see these prices.
• Price of upgrades and parts such as additional memory or additional hard drives. Also keep in mind the maximum upgrade capacity of the initial chassis and motherboard. You may need to enter the sales process to see these prices.
• Management plans and additional services - Most hosting providers offer packages that include several hours or unlimited support per month Additional support is usually charged at an hourly rate.
• Price of extra traffic – Some providers will offer unmetered traffic, but in this case traffic is usually limited in other ways (like bandwidth). Check how much traffic is included in your monthly price, compare it to your expected traffic, then see how much extra it might cost you if you surpass your traffic limit.

You also need to consider these other costs, which are often overlooked:

• Scalability costs - can your environment scale up to handle more traffic?
• Downtime costs – it is impossible to completely eliminate the risk of hardware failure but you can hedge against it. Compare the cost and risk of downtime to the cost of a high-availability solution.
• Training for your staff
• Backup and recovery – Your hosting provider will usually charge for back up and data protection separately as not all their customers need it.
• Migration and decommissioning costs - will it cost you to migrate to your new server, or to cancel your subscription once you are finished with the server. Migration and cancellation are free with iWeb.

Once you have calculate these prices, you may find that prices between hosting providers differ greatly, perhaps by as much as a factor of 10.
Understanding the expected duration of your hosting needs, the extra expenses you may incur during that time helps you understand the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), which is the key to finding the best value for your money.
As well understanding the prices, make sure that you understand what is included in the price. That means not just the stated limitations but the limits to traffic and performance imposed by RAM and bandwidth amongst other factors.
Finally, remember that there is value in doing business with a trusted and proven web hosting company. Consider how much you are prepared to pay to reduce risk and give you peace of mind. And remember that reliability, maintenance and investment in new technologies mean longer term value and less shopping around in future.

3. Business requirements

You may have some special requirements relating to your industry or activities. Here are some common considerations:

• E-commerce: secure access to  dedicated servers and integrity of data
• Security: including firewalls, protection against Distributed DOS attacks or the possibility of setting up a VPN
• High availability
• Disaster recovery
• Scalability, factoring in the expected growth of your business and web services
• Services such as emails and calendaring
• Management of large-sized files
• PCI compliancy

Once you have listed your technology requirements, business requirements and the prices and costs to check, you are ready to shop for a dedicated server.
Let’s take the example of a small software company launching a resource reservation website, which uses Ruby On Rails and other open source software: