Dedicated server purchase or rental: learn how to make the best choice

Posted by jason stewart on March 27th, 2020

When we talk about technology for companies, servers are one of the first issues that come up, due to their importance for activities, such as personal email hosting for websites, sending emails, storing management software, etc. In short, everything goes through them.

In this sense, it is common for some IT managers to have doubts about renting the best dedicated server hosting the UK. Is this the best option? Alternatively, is it worth buying your server? This question pervades the minds of computer professionals.

To help you answer this question, we developed this post. In the following, we will briefly explain what a dedicated server is and what are the biggest benefits of buying or renting this equipment. Follow!

Contents of this Post 

1 What is a dedicated server?

2 What is the difference between VPS and a physical dedicated server?

2.1 Dedicated Server

2.1.1 The benefit of VPS over corporal dedicated is the scalability

2.2 colocation hosting or Physical dedicated server

3 Should I choose a server colocation or physical server?

4 How does the purchase of dedicated server work?

5 And the rental of a dedicated server, how does it work?

6 After all, is it worth buying or renting a dedicated server?

7 What are the advantages of having a colocation hosting?

7.1 Provides more security

7.2 Facilitates management

7.3 Improves productivity

7.4 Allows the creation of an access policy

What is a dedicated server?

We can define a dedicated server as a computer that is located in a data center. It is its owner or lessee manages a device that is available 24 hours a day and that.

This means that there will be an exclusive space to host your company's website, emails, and data in general. Thus, there is no sharing with other companies, which avoids some risks.

To manage the dedicated server, it is necessary to have advanced technical knowledge in IT, since all customer data, company information, among other items, are stored on site.

Having a dedicated server has many advantages for companies, such as having control over their processors and available memory for data storage, ensuring security, etc.

However, there are two options for using this service: it is possible to buy or rent a dedicated server; in both cases, attention should be paid to some details. We will talk about each of these alternatives in the sequence.

What is the differentiation between VPS and a physical dedicated server?

Understand the difference between a physical dedicated server and a VPS and the advantages that one has over the other. As we are talking about two solutions that offer an exclusive environment, there may be some doubts, mainly regarding their operation. See below how each works.

Dedicated server

There is a great deal of confusion when it comes to dedicated servers and UK colocation, as many people believe that it is only possible to have an exclusive server on a single, physical machine. Virtual servers, known as UK colocation, can gather data from several clients on the same physical machine, each with its own private space. This is possible thanks to the hypervisor, which is the tool that isolates customers on exclusive machines.

The acronym UK colocation - makes the purpose of this server model very clear, as each customer purchases a dedicated isolated machine. In other words, with the collocation server, it is possible to have an exclusive environment, with reduced resources and costs. The difference between collocation servers for shared servers is in the software and the availability of resources, but the structure of both is similar.

The advantage of VPS over physical dedicated is the scalability

In a physical server, when the company works in seasonal periods, the manager has two options: to work with a server with resources above the necessity to supply the moments of discharge and thus be with him most of the idle time, or to make upgrades according to needs. In both options, there is an increase in the cost of the IT infrastructure, not to mention the delay in implementing new slots or modules to the server.

With a VPS, in a virtual environment, scalability is easier, as the resources already exist on the physical server where the VPS is inserted. It is enough for the manager to request an increase or reduction of resources from his provider and that is it, scalability will be quick, practical and the company will always pay only for the resources it uses.

Physical dedicated server

The dedicated Server, as we already know, is associated with a single client, which has access to all the resources present on the physical server - network, storage, memory, and processing. All resources are available to the customer, who can rent or buy this structure. In addition, resources are customized to the needs of that customer, but scalability is limited or time-consuming.

Should I choose a UK colocation or physical server?

The choice of a server model will depend on the needs of your business and the manager should carefully analyze the requirements. If we think of medium and small companies, there is no need, initially, to invest in the latest generation bare-metal servers, with a full range of resources.

For companies that have a steady growth in traffic flow, they will be able to find what they need on a uk colocation server. In addition, a small increase in web traffic will not be enough for the company to invest in a dedicated server since virtual models have prices that are more competitive when the company has lower demands for resources.

Another factor that the company should analyze when choosing its ideal server model is whether its internal team can take care of maintenance on an ongoing basis. In this case, the company can have a managed server. Despite being a slightly more expensive model than the traditional one, it can considerably increase efficiency within the VPS environment.

Assess future growth projections to choose a platform that can keep up with that growth. As we already said, VPS servers allow faster scalability, however, with good planning; it is possible to scale with a dedicated server, as long as financial projections allow it.

How does the purchase of dedicated server work?

If you buy hardware for your dedicated server, you can have exactly what you want. You can choose the chassis, the motherboard and the other components that you deem necessary for your company.

It is an excellent alternative for companies that need to perform very specific operations and that have an experienced IT team to make the necessary changes to the server.

About the disadvantages, the main problem that a company that buys hardware for the dedicated server has to do with scalability. This is because, whenever it is necessary to increase the space used for data storage, for example, it will be necessary to invest in new equipment.

From this, it is clear that purchases of new equipment can be constant, since the objective is to make the company grow - which, consequently, will require more space.

In addition, the rental of a dedicated server, how does it work?

Renting the dedicated server gives organizations nearly the same level of control as who buys the hardware. This is justified because, despite not having access to the physical space in which the data centers are located, you will have very advanced control panels.

Through them, it is possible to perform many activities remotely, such as controlling and scheduling activities, checking data and statistics, scheduling corrective maintenance, etc. All of this without having to access a physical space.

The idea of ​​not having your hardware may seem like a bit of a bad financial decision at first, but that is not true.

Imagine, for example, that you rent an apartment to live. In this hypothetical situation, it may be more interesting to take out bank financing and buy a home, investing in something that will be yours, instead of paying to increase someone else's equity - in this case, the owner of the apartment you live in.

This does not happen with the rental of a dedicated server, because, unlike a house, it represents a service, not an asset. A property, if the necessary repairs are made, can continue to have great financial value in the future. In the case of IT, new, technologies that are more modern will likely emerge, making their equipment obsolete.

If you buy a data center for your dedicated high-tech server, you can take advantage today. However, will it still be advantageous 2, 5 or 10 years from now? Most likely not, as technology evolves very quickly.

That is why opting for a dedicated server rental is an interesting alternative for companies, in this way; they will be able to adapt the service according to their needs. In other words, rent generates scalability, since space can be increased whenever necessary.

Another great advantage of renting a dedicated server is that it does not occupy the physical space of the company. Thus, there is no need to occupy a room or office in the organization just to store a data center, for example. In this way, the free space can be useful for other purposes.