Windows Virtual Dedicated Hosting

If your business is growing and your website’s traffic has increased dramatically, it may be time to take a look at dedicated Windows hosting with a virtual private server. Unlike Windows dedicated server hosting, Windows VPS hosting allows users the configuration capabilities of a dedicated server without the unusually high cost. There are many things companies of all sizes need to understand about virtual private servers before making this decision though. As a beginner, users most likely had their website(s) hosted on a shared hosting plan. In this situation one large server is dedicated to dozens if not hundreds (maybe even thousands) of websites. They all share one IP address and work with the same configurations. In this set up ports must be open or closed at the same time for each site on the server and sites experience simultaneous (but intermittent) downtime when the server is rebooted. If users have a very basic website that does not require custom configurations to run the applications (like WordPress of Joomla for example), than this will not be an issue. If, however, companies need custom configurations to run apps, than shared hosting is not a suitable option. In this case, it is best to look into Windows virtual hosting. If your port configurations or extremely high bandwidth demands begin to affect the other sites that are shared on your IP, bad things can happen:

The server node may overload and take your site down with it.
Your hosting company of choice will track the overload back to your IP and demand that you move to a higher level hosting package on short notice.
You may lose customers/business/sales because your site is down.

To avoid these issues, stay in touch with your webhost.

If your company site’s traffic begins to grow past 10,000 visitors per day, moving beyond shared hosting is probably a good idea.
If a high percentage of users on your site engage in virtual games that involve high definition graphics, you may also want to talk to your hosting company. Online games with HD graphics eat up bandwidth and performance resources faster than anything else on the Internet (besides super-computing).
The last thing you want is for your gamers to get shut out in the middle of a raid or excursion because you didn’t update your hosting plan. Incidents like this cause huge backlash in the online community and may be difficult if not impossible to recover from.

With that said, online gaming sites are not the only sites that need to consider virtual dedicated Windows servers.

Other Uses for Windows Virtual Dedicated Hosting

If you run an increasingly popular e-commerce site you may also want to consider Windows virtual dedicated hosting. When customers on your website place items into their shopping carts, it takes up more memory and bandwidth than you might imagine. If you have 1,000 people all putting items in and taking items out of their shopping carts at the same time, you’re looking at a high level of data flowing back and forth. Many sites have made the mistake of trying to run a promotion on a shared hosting plan and when the word spread to thousands of people looking to cash in on the deal, their site(s) crash. Don’t let this happen to you. From a technical point of view, the benefit of having a VPS is that the small amount of space you get is dedicated entirely to you. While the server is shared, the blocks of server space are entirely yours. This means you can custom configure your ports, reset the server on your schedule and run whatever custom applications you need to. These are the same benefits you would get with a dedicated server, but since you are only getting a fraction of a dedicated server, you only pay a fraction of the price. It is worth noting that the fraction of the server you get is not going to be proportionate to the price you would pay for a dedicated server. Many virtual private server hosting Windows plans start around $24 per month, while a dedicated server may cost $65-80 per month. It also has to be noted that the vast majority of the solutions on the low end of the price spectrum are Unmanaged Windows VPS services offering little in the way of customer support. With that said, it is still unlikely that you need an entire server to yourself. Even though you are not paying a proportionately fair price, you are still paying less than you would otherwise while reaping all the benefits. In short, you can have your cake and eat it too (just keep in mind the whole cake only cost double or triple what that slice costs).At the end of the day, whatever you do, make sure you choose the best Windows VPS for your needs and goals.