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Dedicated Servers 101 – What Happens Behind the Scenes

September 5th, 2009 By: Hosting News

Dedicated Content Sponsored By: Softlayer

Are you an affiliate marketer who spends 5 figures monthly on traffic and doesnâ€™t want to see that investment go to waste due to horrible hosting? Has your website outgrown its current hosting package? Are you planning to celebrate the launch of your website with a massive advertising campaign and want to make sure that traffic doesn’t go to waste?

If the answer to at least one of the above questions is â€œyesâ€, looking for a dedicated server is the wisest approach. The market is literally flooded with dedicated hosting providers, and that can prove to be an advantage or a disadvantage: it all depends on your attitude. On the one hand, competition encourages companies to offer quality dedicated hosting, but on the other hand, the number of choices out there may seem overwhelming and making an informed decision becomes essential.

The First Step – Expectations

There are a lot of choices you will be facing:

Should I go with managed dedicated hosting or handle everything myself?
A Linux dedicated server or a Windows dedicated server?
Is this dedicated server powerful enough?
Do I have any special needs?

Questions such as the ones mentioned above should always be answered before making a purchase and, when it comes to some of them, going directly to the source would be recommended. If youâ€™re having trouble making your choice between a Linux dedicated server and a Windows dedicated server, pick up the phone and call the hosting company youâ€™re thinking about choosing or at least send an email. Itâ€™s in their best interest to help you make an informed decision, so the responses will usually be quite helpful. The same principle applies when it comes to managed dedicated hosting: ask them what exactly makes managed hosting an option worth considering and determine if the benefits are worth the extra fee.

Whatâ€™s the main difference between Linux dedicated servers and Windows dedicated servers, you may ask? It is basically s represented by the applications which run best on them. If youâ€™re interested in running applications written in ASP or Coldfusion, Windows dedicated servers represent the best choice. On the other hand, Linux dedicated servers are cheaper and that should be kept in mind if your needs are not very specific.

As you can see, there are a few important differences between Linux dedicated hosting and Windows dedicated hosting. Based on your needs and based on what the hosting company representatives recommend, you can make an informed decision. For regular websites, both Linux dedicated hosting and Windows dedicated hosting are great options, but analyzing things in detail and gathering information never hurts.

Asking the Hosting Company – Always a Smart Approach?

Definitely not! While, when it comes to purely technical aspects related to their own plans, asking them makes sense, the same principle does not apply when it comes to other issues.

Think about it this way: sure, you can pick up the phone and ask them what makes a certain managed hosting package of theirs, for example, better than a cheaper one provided by another company, but that is not exactly a smart thing to do.

Most representatives have dealt with such questions in the past and know exactly what answers to give so that their company ends up seeming like the best options, and some will simply lie. Thatâ€™s why, before making your final decision when it comes to regular dedicated servers or managed dedicated servers, itâ€™s always recommended that you gather information from third parties as well.

Is Unbiased Information Just a Myth?

Before making their final decision, most people perform searches on Google for terms such as â€œdedicated servers reviewsâ€ or â€œmanaged dedicated servers reviewsâ€ and assume that all of these reviews come from actual customers.

That is unfortunately no always the case. A lot of times, these so-called testimonials are actually made up by the owner of a certain website who has a clear agenda: convincing you to sign up using a certain affiliate link. In fact, most websites you will come across are anything but sources of unbiased information. The vast majority of them are actually run by affiliates of certain companies who get paid for every new customer they refer.

Does that mean that finding unbiased info online is just a myth? Definitely not! While most reviews cannot be trusted, there are a lot of them which can, and finding them is possible as long as you give it a shot: try asking some people you personally know for recommendations or try following up with a person who has posted a certain review on one of those websites youâ€™ve found in order to find out if the review in question is real or just made up.

One Word – Research

When dealing with something as important for your business as finding solid managed dedicated servers or dedicated servers which are not managed, you need to always check and double-check before believing something. Advertisements are often misleading, and if you fall for them, you are the only person to blame.

Since 1996, Superb Internet has been consistently rated as one of the very best web hosts by all web host rating agencies, such as Web Hosting Magazine, in all areas, especially customer support and reseller services. Superb Internet provides a complete range of managed web hosting solutions, from virtual shared web hosting through to high-volume, mission-critical dedicated server solutions. SuperbHosting.net’s core focus is customer service, and continuous service improvement, with offices and 24-hour/365-day operations in McLean, VA, Tukwila, WA, and Vancouver, BC, serving customers in over 150 countries worldwide.

View further information onÂ Dedicated Servers here.