Is your site or business growing in popularity? Has your online presence, email, and website become such an integral part of your business that any interruption to service can slow your operations down? It may be time to look into upgrading to a higher server level.
If your website is as popular as Regina George, it may be time for an upgrade.
What does it mean to upgrade?
There are three primary server levels, shared servers (Business Class), Virtual Private Servers (VPS), and Dedicated Servers. Each level of hosting offers benefits to your website. Prioritizing your site’s requirements will help you decide which level of server to purchase. You may choose to start with a shared hosting package initially. However, as your company grows and your site becomes more successful and critical, you will want to consider moving up to a VPS or even dedicated hosting package to continue the success of your website.
While we do offer a variety of plan options on each server level, this article is specifically going to review the reasons for upgrading to a VPS or Dedicated Server option. You may find that you need more websites, databases, or parked domains but not a higher server level. In cases such as that upgrading to a higher shared hosting plan may be all you need. Our Support Department is a great resource if you don’t know exactly where to go on your upgrade.
How do I know when I need to upgrade?
I’m so glad you asked. Below I’ve listed 5 great reasons to contact our Support Team about your upgrade options.
- Stability, Speed, and Uptime. At InMotion Hosting we have an uptime percentage of 99.9%, so while being on a shared server means you are more likely to experience small instances of downtime, it does not mean it is guaranteed to happen. From a business perspective, more stability on your email services and website is often worth the expense of a VPS or Dedicated account. You must balance the importance of the price of the package against the value of increased stability.
- To be able to run resource intensive applications. If you are looking to expand your website, need to utilize a larger application, or want to be able to host videos or downloadable content, you may want to look into an upgrade. This is not only to ensure your server has the resources to allow your site to run at its peak, but it also ensures your site does not interfere with other accounts on the same server.
- Direct access to the server. In order to ensure that our shared servers remain as stable as possible, root access to the server is only available on VPS and dedicated accounts. So, if you’re a developer and need more room to experiment or to install extra software, an upgrade may be necessary to achieve your goals.
- Multi-Site Development. As a designer, developer, or reseller, you may need to upgrade as you get more clients. Our VPS and dedicated servers do not have a limit to the number of add on domains you may host on one account. Further, VPS and Dedicated servers come with access to Web Host Manager (WHM) so you can give your clients their own cPanel while maintaining control of the account on your server.
- Business success! Obviously, this is the best reason to have to upgrade because it means that your business is booming and your site is so busy and receiving so many hits it is driving traffic to your company as it was designed to do. If this is the case, congratulations! You may need to upgrade to meet the increasing demands of your client base. Similarly, if you are planning a large marketing campaign or know you will be getting national attention, you should contact us to upgrade before the campaign runs. This will ensure that your site will always be available, even as traffic soars, without interruption.
Whether you are upgrading out of necessity or for added stability, we have a selection of packages specially tailored to fit your needs with room for continued growth. Like all aspects of your business, planning ahead to ensure that the hosting package you have will give you the desired outcome is the key to success.
Czaja Silvasi is a QA Representative who monitors InMotion Hosting’s Sales, Support, Billing and Web Design teams to make sure they are giving our customers their absolute best. When she is not busy at work, she enjoys Roller Derby and organizing over 15 pairs of Chuck Taylor shoes that she keeps in her closet. She also has a few awesome websites she runs, but they are not 100% work appropriate. Czaja first joined InMotion Hosting in 2011 as a Customer Care Representative and recently celebrated her 2 year anniversary with the company.
