Your Digital Home: Powerful, Secure, and Flexible VPS and Dedicated Server Hosting Solutions

Welcome to the next article in our President’s Desk series.  My goal for this series is to introduce you to the full range of 101domain’s services and capabilities and how we can further assist you.  I hope that you have found these articles informative and valuable in bridging the gap between the work we already do with you and unlocking more value and opportunity for your business.

In recent weeks, we talked about how to pick the right partner for domain and brand protection and introduced you to our security and infrastructure partners at Red Sift and Cloudflare. Today we’ll talk about your hosting infrastructure, which is as important as your domain name. Just as a physical home provides shelter and security, your hosting solution acts as the foundation for your website, applications, and data, ensuring their stability, performance, and protection in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

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Shared Hosting vs. Virtual Private Servers vs. Dedicated Servers.  Why is choosing the right hosting solution important?

For years, 101domain provided shared hosting to thousands of clients.  A decision was made this year to decommission our shared hosting infrastructure and focus exclusively on VPS and dedicated server solutions.  

Why? Choosing the wrong hosting solution as a growing business can limit the business’ growth and success.  Shared hosting, while cost-effective, often lacks the features necessary for growing businesses with high traffic volumes, sensitive data, critical email systems, compliance, business continuity requirements and other complexities.  There are many hosting companies that offer great shared hosting solutions.  They do it cheaper and at scale.  Our goal today is to provide dedicated support and support engineers to our clients and work as partners, not as only service providers.  We felt that shared hosting no longer fit into this model

This brings us to the hosting solutions we offer today:  VPS and dedicated servers. 

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What are the benefits of VPS and dedicated server hosting?

VPS and dedicated hosting are significant upgrades from shared hosting solutions.  Here are  the biggest:

• Increased Control: VPS and dedicated server hosting give you more control over your server’s configuration and software, allowing you to customize the server to meet your specific needs. You have full control over your server environment, including PHP versions, Nginx configurations, and other server settings.
• Enhanced Security: They provide enhanced security by isolating the server from other users and come with built-in security features like firewalls, SSL certificates, and intrusion detection. 101domain includes Immunify360, a comprehensive security suite that protects against malware, hacks, and other threats, as well as CloudLinux, which enhances server stability and resource allocation.
• Greater Flexibility: VPSs are scalable, allowing you to easily upgrade your server’s CPU, RAM, or storage to accommodate your growing needs without significant downtime. VPSs offer a high degree of flexibility, allowing users to customize their VPS to their specific needs.
• Improved Performance: Both VPSs and Dedicated Servers offer better performance because the server’s resources are not shared with other users. Dedicated servers are more powerful and can host many domains and email accounts, although we recommend separating your email system from your web hosting with Google Workspace or Office 365.
• Automated Backups: 101domain’s solutions include automated “don’t think about it” backups, which are included as standard. You can use the Backup to Cloud Pro extension to schedule backups of your data to your own Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, FTP to another server, or directly to the server.

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Choosing the Right Hosting Option:

The choice between a VPS and a dedicated server depends on your specific needs and requirements. 

VPS solutions are the best choice for most clients while balancing high performance with costs and ease of management.

Here are 5 reasons why a VPS might be the best option for your business:

1. Cost-Effectiveness: VPSs are generally more affordable than dedicated servers, making them an attractive option for most businesses. They provide a good balance between cost and performance.  At 101domain, VPS plans start at only $1,199/year.
2. Flexibility and Customization: VPSs offer a high degree of flexibility, allowing users to tailor the server environment to their specific needs. You can easily upgrade your CPU, RAM, and storage as your business grows.
3. Enhanced Security: Although technically not as secure as a dedicated server, a VPS offers more isolation and security than shared hosting. Each VPS is isolated from others on the same physical server, reducing the risk of security breaches or performance impacts from neighboring users. Our VPS solutions come with security features, including firewalls, SSL certificates, intrusion detection, Immunify360, and CloudLinux.
4. Improved Performance: VPSs provide better performance than shared hosting because resources are not shared with other users on the same physical server. This means faster loading times and a smoother user experience for your website visitors.
5. Disaster Recovery: 101domain’s VPS hosting includes automated backups and disaster recovery assurance, protecting your data and ensuring business continuity in case of unexpected events. VPS image backups are maintained and can be restored with minimal downtime.

If you prioritize the highest performance, most storage, increased security, and the most control over the server’s resources, configuration, and software, then a dedicated server is the right choice for you.  

Here are 5 reasons why a dedicated server is the best option compared to a VPS:

1. Ultimate Performance: Dedicated servers offer the best possible performance because all of the server’s resources are dedicated to a single user. There is no sharing of resources with other users, which means that your website or application will have access to the full processing power, memory, and storage of the server.  This means that the resource specifications of a dedicated server are going to be much higher than a VPS.
2. Highest Security: Dedicated servers provide the most secure hosting environment because they are not shared with any other users. This isolation eliminates the risk of security breaches or performance impacts from other users’ activities.
3. Resource Guarantee: With a dedicated server, you have the entire server’s resources – processing power, RAM, and storage – guaranteed and available to you at all times. You don’t share these resources with any other users, ensuring consistent performance even during peak demand. VPSs, while offering dedicated resources, still share the underlying physical server with other VPS instances. If other VPSs on the same server experience high traffic or resource usage, it can potentially, although rarely, impact the performance of your VPS.
4. Storage Volume: A dedicated server will give you the largest storage options available. Dedicated servers have much greater storage capacity than VPSs because you get the entire server to yourself.
5. Dedicated Support: 101domain offers U.S.-based engineering support for dedicated servers. 101domain also has a dedicated Customer Success team to ensure that you have support when you need it.

While VPSs may be more cost-effective than dedicated servers, they do not offer the same level of performance, security, or control. If your business requires the highest level of performance and security, a dedicated server is the best option.

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How 101domain can help you

Our Solutions Engineering and Customer Success team is here to craft a hosting solution that fits your requirements precisely so you don’t overpay for unnecessary resources. Whether you have a technical issue or need advice on optimizing your website, we are here to help.  Partnering with 101domain as a hosting provider offers benefits such as dedicated support, customization, scalability, and security and compliance. The team works closely with you to ensure that you have the right hosting solution that aligns with your specific requirements and budget.

In conclusion, selecting the right hosting solution is essential for your online success. VPS and dedicated server hosting provide the control, security, flexibility, and performance necessary to support your business growth and goals.

If you would like to discuss your options with us, please give us a call today.