18 Dec

Key Differences Between VPS and Dedicated Servers

We all want the best hosting servers for our projects, and there are two of the most reliable hosting solutions are VPS and Dedicated server. However there are number of reasons why one should opt for dedicated server instead of a VPS, six of which are listed below:

Maximum Security

In this era of advanced technology people tend to run their businesses more on virtual platforms. Therefore in order to facilitate their business dealing these virtual hosting servers were developed. These virtual hosting servers are shared by many different entities and they carry sensitive data of individual entities. Therefore the security factor of these hosting servers is of great concern for all the users of these virtual shared hosting servers. Now dedicated servers ensure maximum security to one’s data and is highly reliable in that regard.

Consistent Performance

In case of VPS servers, people can find inconsistency in the performance of their servers. These servers sometimes provide services that let them use the maximum capabilities of their CPU and at others they just fail to meet the requirements. It is observed that the performance of VPS servers is inconsistent throughout the day. However in case of dedicated hosting servers it is guaranteed that the maximum CPU resources are available at anytime, whenever the service is being approached.

Enhanced Personalization

In case of VPS, you only get specified range of configurations, with no options to upgrade, they come with prepackaged options. Smart servers, on the other hand, are flexible and their packages come with a wide range of upgrading options. In smart servers you can increase your RAM and can upgrade your server that includes upgrading of CPU and Disk space. No matter whatever the package you start with you can do these upgrading without reinstalling of the whole system. This easy migration option no doubt makes smart server a better option.

Genuine Hardware

In case of VPS, the user remains uninformed of the hardware used for the server. Whereas in case of dedicated server the user is well informed of the hardware the system is built on. It informs the user if the CPU is Intel, Disks are Western Digital and RAM is of some major brand like Kingston, Crucial or Corsair, etc, and motherboards are Super Micro.

User Friendly

Dedicated servers are user friendly. They allow user maximum control over the system virtually as well as physically. In dedicated servers, custom built control centre is there. This is a unique management GUI that offers maximum control over hardware and network configurations. It helps you perform remote reboot virtually if required under any circumstances. Dedicated servers can be configured to use R1Soft backup software and cPanel WHM control panel to enhance flexibility and data security.

Cost Effectiveness

There is not much difference in the prices of the VPS and the dedicated servers, however the main difference is the value delivered by the two systems. No doubt dedicated smart servers delivers more value with better features and flexibility, and this is the main thing that makes dedicated servers more cost effective than VPS.

But whatever of the above mentioned solutions you find the most suitable for your online business performance, rest assured to get premium quality self-managed dedicated server plans, fully managed dedicated hosting solutions or managed and unmanaged VPS online at Softsys Hosting.

11 Nov

Advantages of SSD Hosting

Introduction

SSD stands for Solid State Drives. With SSD based server, access time of websites, databases, E-Commerce applications speeds up significantly. When a visitor is on look out  for information on specific topic and in case it is not available at one address, they will shift and search at some other place. It takes few seconds for the user to close the opened tab and move on to next one. If your potential customer have to wait for their much needed information, it is not useful. To speed up your website, it is time to go for web hosting with SSD than the traditional VPS Hosting. SSD offers best performance, more power and extremely low access time compared to Traditional SATA HDD. Preference goes to SSD for bringing speed factor & reliability in web hosting. Here we will learn about various advantages of SSD Web Hosting.

1. Ultra-Fast:

The key advantage is that SSDs are ultra-fast than HDD since there is no physical head movement required. Hence, there is virtually no latency in data access.

2. Great Data Transfer Speed:

Moving parts in HDD slow down drive performance while SSD has no moving parts within it, which makes data transfer extremely faster. With more disk space, a high traffic site can host multiple images, videos and handle incoming traffic.

3. Data Safety:

Data is important to any webmaster with high secured storage capacity and accessibility. As traditional HDD consist of moving parts, it can result in wear and tear. Additionally, there are chances of losing data by some small mishandling.  There are no such moving parts in SSD and hence it eliminates all of the above factors of data loss. Hence, your data is extremely safe with SSD.

4. Environment friendly:

HDD consist mechanical components which consumes more power. While with stable memory chips of SSD, there is less usage of Power with the best performance and faster access of data.

5. No cooling needed:

SSDs do not need any cooling as there is no heat generated within it. There is a possibility of reduced lifespan with major temperature changes in drives which does not affect SSD’s.

6. Fragmentation:

Since there are no moving components where data is stored on SSD, slow access due to fragmentation that is encountered on traditional SATA drives is not an issue with SSD. Hence, you will get consistently fast performance at all times with SSD.

7. Stability:

SSD do not skip any data during data encryption or decryption process to make sure every single piece of information is safe. Also, considering the above factors of physical safety / cooling / etc, the drive is very safe.

8. Various Threats:

Websites with good web presence are more likely to get attacked by any of the threats – malwares, viruses, hardware crash, network failures, etc. With SSD, these threats are completely reduced or avoidable to large extent.

9. Durability:

Solid State Drives has microchip technology with more durability. This technology increases the longevity of the drive, reducing repairing cost of drive (if any in future).

10. Reliability:

Since SSD uses better technology than HDD. With Microchip technology, SSD can withstand in this competitive market. SSDs are more reliable than HDD.

 

If you are looking for reliable, stable and fast access to your website, application or database, you can consider SSD-powered server hosting services from Softsys Hosting. Our SSD Windows VPS hosting and SSD Server accounts are powered by enterprise-class hardware for reliable and ultra-fast performance.

06 Aug

Choosing Dedicated Server Hosting Provider

It is very difficult to fall in the trap of signing up for cheapest dedicated server through tempting offers that are flowing all over the place. We always think of getting the lowest cost offers to cut our costs – however, it is very important to understand the ‘gotchas’ of the so called cheap servers. I’ve seen many customers complaining online that they are losing thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars due to their server being down with a provider from whom they have obtained the server at a very cheapish rate. I’m not sure how someone can trust placing their high revenue business website on $100 non-redundant server?

I’ve compiled a check list that will be helpful to you in selecting correct dedicated server for your business / personal requirement:

 

Ensure that your provider is using enterprise class server components

Most low cost providers will be using desktop class server components (RAM / HDD / Processor) that is not made to run on 24×7 server environment. They will fail more often than enterprise class hardware which is prepared to run on 24×7 high intensity environment.

In case of RAM, you need to ensure that your provider is using ECC RAM which can auto-detect and auto-correct most of the internal data corruption which is not done by desktop class non-ECC RAM.

In case of HDD, it is important that your provider is using hard drive that is marked for server environment. Some of the popular brands of enterprise class SATA HDD’s are Western Digital RE4, Seagate Constellation, Toshiba Enterprise Class, etc. If you opt for SSD, I will recommend considering the same for it. Samsung 840 Pro, Intel 520, Intel DC S3500 are some of the popular enterprise class solid state drives available in market currently.

Processors are the key to operation of dedicated server and it is highly important that you don’t fall for any low cost desktop class processor. For eg, all ‘Intel i’ series of processors are meant for desktop use and not for servers. Server processors are marked ‘Intel Xeon’ or ‘AMD Opteron’.

 

Network Connectivity

It is always advisable to check on redundancy available with your provider at network level since this is going to be the pipe through which data / website will flow from your servers. You will need to ensure that your prospective provider has multiple connectivity backbones from some of the popular transit providers in US like Level3, NTT, nLayer, AboveNet, AT&T, etc. Having multiple providers will also ensure that your visitors will be routed through the shortest path between your server and their place of access from available different routes from multiple providers. It is not a good idea to rely on just one or two providers since they can go down randomly or have some sort of maintenance which can take your server / website / application out of production.

In addition to network provider, you should also ensure that your provider uses top end networking hardware (routers, switches, firewalls, etc.) which is meant for enterprise class usage. Some of the popular providers of networking equipment are Cisco, Juniper, Brocade/Foundry.

 

24×7 Support

This is one area where most providers fall as they are mostly manned during ‘Business Hours’. Hence, if your server goes down during night time, it will be difficult to get hold of anyone to look into it and get it back in working state. Providers require to pay more for techs working overnight and hence they are either not staffed during night time or they have level 1 tech available who is not permitted to enter data center premises. It is very necessary to ensure that your provider has 24×7 knowledgeable staff available who can fix any kind of issue for you at any time of day.

 

Choosing Correct Server

Once you have identified a provider for your requirement, it will be down to selecting appropriate hardware for your server. In today’s world, processors are very powerful and most generally you will not experience slowness in terms of processing power – however, it is important that you get a powerful processor that is more than enough for your processing requirements.

When it comes to choosing correct hard drive for your server, most clients end up just looking at the amount of hard drive space (500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, etc.). However, you will also need to consider the type of HDD used. The most commonly used is SATA HDD. If you need more reliable hard drive, you can consider SAS drives. The fastest of all are Solid State Drives which do not have any sort of mechanical device / platters as found in traditional SATA / SAS drives. Hence, they are very fast in operation and provides you with best IOPs. However, as you may have guessed, they are most costly and are available in smaller size compared to SATA / SAS drives. Hence, if you have an application that is performing lot of random writes (database / transactional), it is recommend to consider SSD’s for best disk I/O results. In case you have sequential writes/reads (like streaming, etc.), you will not be benefited much by investing more in SSD’s and traditional SATA / SAS drives should be just fine for your requirement.

Once you have chosen correct hard drive and have also come up with amount of disk space that you will need, it is important to take into consideration redundancy at hard drive level. It is a well known fact that hard drives do fail at some point in time and it is necessary to plan for it right at the time of deployment. For redundancy at hard drive level, you will need to consider one of the RAID solution – hardware or software. A very basic is RAID 1 solution whereby you will need to have minimum two hard drives whereby one of the drives will be used for mirroring. Hence, you can afford to lose one of your drive and still have your server up and working from second drive. Once detected, you can replace failed hard disk and allow the RAID array to rebuild to be back at full redundancy level. It is utmost important to have some kind of RAID implemented for your server.

 

Power

After the recent issue with Sandy Storm which knocked out power from majority of the providers on East Coast, customers have become more aware / concerned about redundancy at power level. Hence, it is important to ensure that your prospective host is having appropriate power backup options to fight against utility power outage and/or any other natural calamities. Ideally, data centers should have UPS battery backup (of around 5-15 minutes) to allow all equipment to operate on it by the time it switch overs to generator power backup. It is also important that there is redundancy at generator level along with appropriate amount of fuel on site (most generally providers keep fuel that allows to run the generators for around 12-24 hours.

 

Cooling

It is utmost necessary to ensure that appropriate temperature is maintained in data center in order to allow servers to function appropriately. The data center should also be designed in a way that there is hot aisle / cold aisle to allow maintaining sufficient cooling in data center. There should not be any “hot spots” in data center else it can result in severely degraded server performance along with blowing up some of the important server components. Most data centers maintain N+1 level redundancy at cooling level as well.

 

I hope the above points will help you in choosing a correct provider for your business to ensure that your server / website operates smoothly without any downtime and minimal failures.

We, at Softsys Hosting, have carefully chosen our data centers in Denver & Chicago where we colocate all of our servers (along with network switches, power strips, etc.) so as to maintain high level of services which allows us to offer unmatched uptime and performance from our servers. We do not compromise on hosting quality and this is the only reason why we have had customers staying with us for years together. We are committed to provide excellent services at all times to our valued customer.

You can view our various dedicated server offerings at Standard Servers, Unmetered Servers, Solid State Drive (SSD) Servers & Fully Managed Windows Servers.

 

Thanks

Ruchir Shastri
President – SoftSys Hosting
www.SoftsysHosting.com