Dedicated Server FAQs

A dedicated server is a physical server dedicated to a single client. This means that as the owner you have full and exclusive access to your server’s resources i.e. CPU, RAM, bandwidth and storage. These days, dedicated servers are often highly customisable to allow the owner to choose a server which fully suits their commercial and technical needs, as well as their price point. Many dedicated server providers advertise managed server solutions for a fixed monthly rate, giving customers the option of purchasing either a ready-made server preconfigured to a popular specification, or a custom-built server to fulfil their specific requirements.

Where a dedicated server is physical hardware, a cloud server is a virtualised server. Cloud servers typically sit within a virtual environment where compute and storage resources are shared with other tenants. Compared to dedicated servers, cloud servers can be quicker to deploy, easier to upgrade and have higher availability. They can be incredibly flexible and scalable with the ability to add capacity for additional resources at a moment’s notice. Cloud servers are also usually charged on a pay-as-you-go, consumption-based pricing model, whereas dedicated servers are usually on a fixed monthly rate.

Dedicated servers offer guaranteed performance and reliability at fixed monthly costs. This makes them one of the most cost-efficient hosting options for SMEs and for certain heavy workloads, such as SQL databases. More advantages of dedicated servers include:

• Total control over server configuration, from OS and software optimisation right through to root-level and admin access
• Not having to worry about your performance suffering due to a noisy neighbour in a shared environment
• High performance, even when handling intensive workloads, due to dedicated compute
• Ability to configure an array of dedicated servers for high availability or performance

There are many factors which play a role in the cost of a dedicated server. The most obvious factor is the cost of the hardware itself – the latest 56-core Intel Cascade Lake CPU will set you back significantly more than an older CPU with a lower core count. Software licensing is another cost to consider, especially with the latest high-end CPUs and software, such as Windows Server and SQL, operating with per-core licensing.

Additional factors which have a smaller impact on cost are length of contract and overheads such as running costs and amount of physical space required.

The main disadvantage with a single dedicated server is that component upgrades such as CPU and RAM require the machine to be turned off to complete. If you are only running a single server this would mean your service would have to go offline. If downtime is not an option for your business, then you may have to explore some of the high availability options available to dedicated servers such as a multi-server configuration. Our standard servers have hot-swap drives, so we do not require downtime to upgrade storage.