Dedicated Servers vs. Cloud Servers: Choosing What’s Right for Your Business

When it comes to managing your company’s online efforts, choosing the right hosting server will establish the strongest possible foundation for efficiency and performance. Throughout your research, you’ll find some experts suggesting dedicated servers are the perfect solution while others will sway you toward cloud servers. The truth: the answer isn’t that simple. The right answer will be what works best for you.
To figure that out, you need to think about your business’s unique operations and requirements. But even before that, it’s imperative that you understand what dedicated services and cloud services can achieve. Here’s all you need to know.
What Are Dedicated Servers & Cloud Servers?
Both dedicated and cloud servers are methods of hosting servers for whatever purpose your business needs — be it serving up webpages, hosting databases, or a myriad of other functions. In both approaches, you get full remote access to the server and any operating system you wish to have installed, just as if you were hosting the server yourself. While each method is designed for a similar purpose and functionality, they achieve this in very different ways. It is these differences that will make one or the other more suitable for your needs.
A dedicated server is a physical, discrete server that is housed with a hosting company and purchased or rented entirely for your exclusive use. You can configure this server to suit your needs by specifying it’s components and resources, such as size and type of storage, network speed, allocated bandwidth, amount of memory, and more. This is all done on an exclusive basis, meaning that the systems aren’t shared with any other business. For these reasons, dedicated servers are primarily used by larger businesses with higher demands for server capacity and security, or if specific hardware is required.
Cloud servers work in a very different way. Your resources – storage, memory, processor cores, and bandwidth – will be split across numerous physical servers through the process of virtualization. A cloud server is not a discrete physical entity, although in many ways it will act just like a physical server. You can watch it boot, install standard operating systems, etc. For many users, the fact that it is not a physical stand-alone server will be unnoticeable. This approach allows for many virtual servers (often known as VMs, or virtual machines) to be deployed across a pool of physical servers that are managed by the hosting company. This allows for much more efficient use of resources, resulting in savings that are passed down to you, and a very high level of stability due to a highly redundant foundation. In other words, VMs are extremely unlikely to suffer from any of the hardware failures to which their physical counterparts are susceptible. While you have exclusive use of your VM, the underlying hardware it runs on is hosting numerous other VMs deployed for multiple clients.
Dedicated servers tend to be charged on a fixed monthly rate, while cloud servers also offer the option to billat an hourly rate to allow for immediate changes to their resources..
Dedicated Servers Vs. Cloud Servers – Which Is Right For You?
While the basic function of both server types is the same, there are some important things to consider when comparing the pros and cons of each solution in order to find the best fit for you.
Cloud servers are known for their on-demand capabilities. They also tend to be a more cost-effective solution due to the fact that you’re only paying for the resources you’re using at the time, which can be as much or as little as you need. Is your company anticipating specific upgrades or growth? The nature of Cloud servers allows for them to be quick and easy to scale up or down as the needs of your company evolve. In short, they are arguably more flexible and less expensive than dedicated servers.
Dedicated servers, on the other hand, allow for greater customization and control. The nature of the Dedicated server platform enables the highest level of customization to meet your exact requirements. Need a specific processor, type of storage device, or any other component? This can only be done with a dedicated server. This is as close as you can get to building your own server and hosting it yourself, just without the hassle. We build it, host it, and fully support the hardware. With one of our management plans, we will even administer it for you — all you have to do is use it. In addition, the whole server is dedicated to your exclusive use. Because of this, Dedicated servers are often the preferred solution for many large-scale operations where specific hardware is required.
Ultimately, though, the decision should be influenced by all the important factors that matter most to your business. The expert staff at GigeNET can help you evaluate your options and find the right solution for you. Contact us today to learn more.