E-commerce is a prime of example how the internet can be leveraged as a platform with endless potential. Although success is not guaranteed, this medium has no boundaries, meaning there are infinite possibilities for your online business. While there is a lot of money to be made out in cyberspace, you do not have to break the bank to get an e-commerce solution that allows you to sell products or services from your own website. There are several options available to you, but shared and dedicated hosting are easily two of the most popular. Shared hosting makes a fine choice for some, but there are many reasons why it may not be the best option for your business.
Potential Security Issues
One of the biggest drawbacks of the shared hosting environment is all the potential security issues it presents. These days, web hosting providers grant their customers a great deal of power and this very factor can make a shared server very unstable and insecure. All it takes is one careless user who executes a command that compromises the entire server. And if one site can be compromised, that makes everyone else residing on the platform much more vulnerable to attack. A dedicated server doesn’t automatically ensure better security, but it can be configured to provide an environment that is far more secure than a shared server. You do not have to worry about anyone else making any critical mistakes so if the server is compromised, you only have yourself to blame.
Lack of Resources
Some web hosting companies make promises that would leave you to believe they can offer you the world on a string. This includes critical resources such as bandwidth and disk space. In fact, it is not uncommon to find a host that they offers you unlimited amounts of both resources. What you should know is that such offerings do not exist as every network and computing resource is limited in capacity. A dedicated server has its limitations as well, but since you are not forced to share resources with neighboring users, you have all the bandwidth and space to yourself, which should be more than enough to accommodate most needs.
Limited Flexibility and Control
As we touched on above, web hosting firms do provide their customers with far more power than in past times, but that control cannot compare to what can be obtained from a dedicated server platform. This type of hosting arrangement gives you control over the entire server, providing the flexibility to run your own operating system, e-commerce software and other technologies you feel are best suited for your business. If you require the control to make configurations and alterations to the server at any give time, a dedicated hosting package would be the best option for you.
When compared to a shared platform, the advantages of a dedicated server are plentiful. Keep in mind however, that this type of environment is not made for everyone. It is more expensive and technically challenging than shared hosting, which can generally be maintained by anyone with basic computer knowledge. If you are absolutely certain that a dedicated server is the right move, you can benefit tremendously from a solution that provides your business with the best chance to succeed.
September 27th, 2009 at 1:02 am
We’ve seen a lot of ecommerce sites run into problems like this. A lot of times, how the site was developed comes into play as well. Depending on the platform, even a dedicated server needs to be specially configured to make it work efficiently.