How to Protect Your Dedicated Server from Online Attacks?

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Dedicated hosting server utilizes a hosting configuration where an individual server is used for hosting one single website. However, in case of shared hosting, the same server is used by many websites to keep them running. Therefore, they are more vulnerable to online attacks. But at the same time, if you haven’t configured your dedicated hosting server properly, it might also be vulnerable to online security attacks. You can host a dedicated server in-house or outside as well. So, how to protect your dedicated server from online attacks?

It is not incorrect to say that nowadays customers are shifting their focus from shared hosting to dedicated server solutions. It is very much evident that security is the prime concern for customers owning or running any website. If you are not serious about the security feature of your server, it poses serious issues in effectively running the website. To get seamless service and high uptime, you need to have topmost security needs for your dedicated server. 

As a dedicated server is utilized by a single website, its security process needs to be assessed precisely. This process contains a variety of steps which need to be processed.

Let’s look at the security measures to improve security of your dedicated server.

How to Keep Dedicated Servers Safe From Online Malicious Attacks 

Security risk assessment involves a comprehensive strategy for risk assessment of your website. Different steps for the process are mentioned below:

  • Which assets need security and why.
  • It helps focus resources over areas to minimize security threats.
  • Multiple installations, setting up of tools and apps can risk website owners. This assessment brings transparency between practical and available security.
  • It focuses on the need for security and whether existing security has any loopholes in it.
  • To keep software systems protected and secure, users need to bear basic things in mind like keeping a tough password to crack, not sharing the password with others, and not clicking on any unknown email links.

Common Steps to Protect Your Dedicated Server

Remove Redundant Services from The Server

As soon as the customers make a default installation, it invites various unnecessary network services which may get configured on its own. Most of the time, these additional installations have led to compromise of security by various data centres. This hampers the dedicated server security and causes security breach attacks. A very simple solution is to turn off the non-essential services or add-ons from your configuration panel. You can disable them so that they do not cause any issues. It removes loopholes and boosts server performance. This will remove them automatically on the next reboot.

Never Combine Production and Testing Across the Similar Server

Generally, developers use the same server for developing and checking multiple applications. As these applications are in the early development stage, they lack acceptable verification and are prone to security breach. Therefore, it is not a good idea to do the testing on the production server directly. Keep limited access to public directories or even sub-directories. If development and testing happens on the dedicated server, related files and apps are at risk.

Discourage Remote Access If Possible

Sometimes it is suggested that administrators log in regionally but if remote access appears necessary make sure it is protected using security protocols and stringent tunnelling. To have advanced protection over dedicated servers, use the security tokens while remote access is given. Also, remote access can be enabled for a limited range of IP addresses to make sure that only the legitimate users are accessing it.

Schedule Regular Data Backups

Do you have a recent backup readily available if your server data is breached? This will help you to restore your site immediately in case anything goes wrong.

To protect your site from serious data breach keeping regular backups of your data proves to be the easiest and most effective step. Dedicated server hosting plans from Eltris provide automatic data backups as and when needed. For example, you can backup sites on a daily basis, while stationary data backup can be taken up every couple of weeks or in a month. The frequency of scheduling backup depends upon the space available to you.

As per a Global Data Risk Report in 2021, around 33% of the folders in any organization are public to every employee. That is a serious problem because there are high chances that any intern accidentally updates or deletes any important file without knowing himself. Therefore, having a backup is very important. 

Use Only Trusted Networks for Login

A very simple way to increase security on your dedicated server is to get aware about the networks you are using while logging in. Only login to your dedicated server hosting account using a trusted network. Never provide the username and password when you are using a public Wi-Fi network.

For example, using free Wi-Fi is very tempting but always remember all that glitters is not gold. Any hacker can easily steal your password if you are trying to login without having a secured internet access. So, always be careful while using the networks to login.

Grant Privileges and Permissions with Care

Customers and administrators should have minimum privileges throughout a selected network. A robust server monitoring strategy, network and permissions play key roles in dedicated server security. Take extra care in giving permission to any anonymous user. Only the authorized access should be given which is beneficial for the customer.  

Check for Security Updates and Patches

While receiving notifications for security updates, always take out time to install them as and when they become available. In fact, check them daily and enjoy peace of mind and ultimate protection from data breach. 

Always take out time to delete unnecessary files, applications or updates which are no longer in use. They help to fix breaches in software programs and removal of unnecessary files or applications. It not only streamlines your server but also frees up space for storing more important and useful data.

Looking Ahead – Protect Your Dedicated Server

By following all the common steps mentioned above, you are at zero risk of developing a security vulnerability which may put your site in danger. It keeps many security breaches at bay and helps you enhance your security standard manifold to protect your dedicated server.

It frees up resources no longer needed and helps in optimum utilization of space. What do you gain out of all this? You have faster speeds, i.e., page-loading speed, as many stagnant and useless files are freed up and information retrieval is fast and easy. This enhances speed, safety and performance to a great extent.

Get 50% off for a limited time on Dedicated Servers with 24 Hour Free setup.

Shared Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting: Which One to Choose

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It is an impossible task to choose from a plethora of web hosting solutions as per our requirements and pricing options. Shared Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting is the dilemma every business faces one or the other day. One wrong decision can badly affect your business in the long run. So, make an informed decision to choose between shared hosting vs dedicated hosting after considering all the packages. Check all the features and choose the one which suits your needs and is best for your business. 

Let’s go through the intricacies of shared hosting vs dedicated hosting and which one to choose.

Overview

Shared hosting uses a common single server for multiple websites to run their businesses. It is one of the most sought-after hosting packages because of cost-effectiveness. Try to analyze with the example of a rented apartment where you are using all amenities of the society such as parking, playground, swimming pool etc. with every neighbor. This is nothing but shared hosting where amenities would be Disk space, RAM, CPU, and Operating system.

In dedicated hosting you don’t share your resources. You own everything from disk space to RAM to CPU usage. Every feature of the dedicated hosting is only for you. It is similar to owning your own house with no sharing of amenities.

Get to utilize all your resources for your own website only. This allows you to have the flexibility and power to configure your server, install software as per your needs, and completely manage the resources of your website yourself.

Dedicated hosting gives you administrative control of your server where you can customize everything.

What is Shared Hosting?

As the name suggests, sharing of a physical server and all its resources such as CPU, memory usage, hard disk space and bandwidth with other users is known as shared hosting.

Each user has his own isolated virtual environment managed and controlled by the hosting provider. It also has limited options to customize according to your needs. The only good factor about shared hosting is that it is cost effective.

What are the advantages of shared hosting?

  • Commonly used by small businesses because it is cost effective.
  • Best suited for websites experiencing low traffic.
  • Limited resources can be efficiently used by smaller websites through sharing.
  • Unlimited disk space to ease further expansion of business.

What are the disadvantages of shared hosting?

  • The greatest disadvantage is limitation of sharing resources.
  • Restriction on usage of resources as multiple sites are running on the same server. Thus, it affects the overall speed of your business.
  • A peak in traffic will slow down your site and also affect the uptime.
  • Difficulty to run security updates on each website as multiple users are sharing the same disk space.
  • Server customization according to your needs is not possible at all. If done, it may also affect other sites in a completely different manner. Hence, shared hosting providers don’t allow customization.
  • You can only use the standard configuration option in shared hosting.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated hosting is all about using your own resources according to your requirements with greater control and management. You have unlimited resources without being shared with anyone else. There are a plethora of services and software to select from.

Choose a dedicated hosting depending on the type of business you are running. It is best in the following situations.

  • If you have a growing business with frequent product additions, then you need customization. So, you get complete control of your server to adapt to your growing needs.
  • Your website offers video streaming and high-quality photographs.
  • You want a separate and unique IP address for your business. 
  • Your business requires high level security features to tackle sensitive transactions. 

What are the advantages of dedicated hosting?

  • Dedicated hosting provides a higher uptime even when your site has heavy traffic. 
  • 100% processing power as the resources are not shared. This improves Google rankings due to increased performance.
  • Dedicated hosting gives you root access to your server.
  • Your server is completely secure with improved flexibility and control. 
  • Increased reliability as you have root access and command in your hands.
  • Dedicated servers ensures security of your website.

What are the disadvantages of dedicated hosting?

  • Price is comparatively higher than shared hosting. 

Shared Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting: Various Business Scenarios

Planning for long term business expansion? The very first thing is to analyse your requirements in the coming years. Let us analyse various business scenarios and which is a better option for them.

Small Websites

If you have a small website with only a few visitors every month, you should go for shared hosting. For low traffic with limited loyal customers there is no need to go for dedicated hosting. You won’t need root access to customize your website. But, if you see any sharp increase in the number of users in the near future you can opt for a dedicated hosting solution.

Large e-Commerce business

Downtime is equivalent to less profit. Thus, loading time must be lightning fast along with quality customer support. Hence, higher uptime, reliable server and security are crucial for running your business. Dynamic content is also a must in e-commerce business. Therefore, customization happens on a regular basis.

So, dedicated hosting is the only solution offering a stable and highly custom platform for your online business. 

Hosting SaaS software

For a growing business providing subscription based software to multiple users, a high uptime is a must. Also, the resources have to be analyzed regularly if they need to be scaled up or not.

There must be an option of platform customization too. Go for a completely secure option for data security, like PCI DSS 2.0. The best option is to use dedicated hosting in this case.

Hospitals storing Health Data

Hospitals needs to store, transmit and acquire medical data of patients regularly. As the data is very personal, it needs to be 100% secured too. It also needs to be HIPAA compliant.

Therefore, in this case choose a dedicated hosting solution. 

Gaming Service and Video Streaming

Performance and bandwidth are critical in this business with a high traffic rate up to 10 Gbps. Even a time lag of a millisecond will make your customer unsatisfied with your service. Your sales and reputation will get overblown by poor quality streaming, time lag and slower response. Therefore, choosing a dedicated hosting solution is a must to compete with other similar businesses.

Purchase Dedicated Hosting from Eltris to get complete peace of mind regarding your business. You get highly secure, scalable and reliable dedicated servers from Eltris.

Conclusion: Shared Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting

Choosing a correct package with the optimal speed, reliability and performance is crucial for your business. In our comparison of shared vs dedicated hosting, we found that shared hosting is a less expensive option for smaller websites with only a few hundred visitors every month.

Dedicated hosting offers flexibility, power and reliability to your business. Therefore, it is best for those having mid to large businesses with more than thousand visitors a month. Get in touch with dedicated hosting experts today and take your business to new heights.

Common Mistakes while Purchasing Dedicated Server

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There is no doubt that dedicated servers are best for running an online business. But, there are a few common mistakes you should avoid while purchasing dedicated servers. There are plenty of dedicated server providers available in the market. Therefore, choosing dedicated servers can actually startle you and make your decision a difficult one. It indeed is a really difficult task and you might make mistakes while purchasing dedicated server. As an informed buyer you must focus on your requirements. This will help you in making the correct decision.

But you only need to focus on your requirement, and you will form the right decision. It might be the time when you want to switch to dedicated servers and get rid of shared hosting solutions. Dedicated servers empower you with more control and flexibility in running your business. Though choosing a good dedicated server is a daunting task hence it should be planned well in advance as the cost of dedicated servers is high.

Common Mistakes while purchasing Dedicated Server

Cost Management

You must be fully aware about every penny you are investing in buying a dedicated server. No doubt dedicated servers cost you higher but you should be aware about many additional costs which startle you later on while managing your server.  Back-up price, human resource cost, disaster recovery strategy expenditure and maintenance costs are some of the additional money you have to spend while managing the server.

In fact, the client comes to know about them quite later while handling the command and control of their server.

This is the biggest mistake committed by the users while buying a dedicated server.

So, beware of these maintenance costs. If servers are left unmanaged it may prove to be the greatest loophole. This is one of the first mistakes to be avoided while purchasing dedicated server.

You should:

  • Talk to the hosting provider about any additional costs.
  • Pen down all the costs associated with the dedicated server.
  • Always have the opinion of the experienced users who are already using a dedicated server for their business.

Security Threats

Never compromise with the security feature of the dedicated server. You must be aware about security measures taken by the hosting company. If you don’t care about the safety of your hosting server then you are making a big mistake.

Though websites are prone to online threats still don’t underestimate the threat associated with offline security. You must ask following questions to your hosting provider regarding the security of the dedicated server.

  • Access to the server backend is limited or not and by what number?
  • What are the strategic approaches of them in case of an emergency?
  • Do they maintain offsite back-ups? What are their policies regarding it?

Though hosting providers don’t provide security for offline threats, they could definitely help you in back-up recovery.

Business Requirement

Never be in a hurry to buy or upgrade hosting solutions. First go through your requirements before making any purchase. Just because you need more resources for your website doesn’t mean you should immediately shift to another hosting solution. 

Making a checklist is an excellent way to analyse your requirements before opting for a dedicated hosting provider. Here is a checklist for you.

  • Guaranteed higher Uptime
  • Management of bulky files
  • Secured and limited access to the servers
  • Disaster recovery policies
  • Security and safety against all the threats
  • Scalability
  • PCI Compliance
  • Easy and simple migration

With all this done, another mistake a dedicated server client makes is inability to calculate the sites/applications needs.  If possible, hire an experienced person to calculate the needs of your business project and then do load testing to finally analyse your requirements. 

How much data and bandwidth your site needs? 

What are the RAM requirements?

Sales page of a dedicated hosting provider can get you through these answers. But you need to tell your requirement for placing customized orders.

Problems associated with Permissions and Logins:

Clients tend to avoid creating tough passwords and strict user permissions or logins while buying a dedicated server host. I would recommend a few things to be implemented first.

  • Disabling root access logins
  • Setting a safe and tough password
  • Provide only limited file permissions
  • Easy to guess passwords will provide hackers a chance to attack your server space.

Customer Support

Customer support is a crucial aspect of dedicated hosting. This technical support can cost them more than they think. Ignorance of technical support just for the low cost offered by dedicated servers is a common mistake while purchasing dedicated servers. 

Customer support will charge hourly for technical support if it is not covered in your basic hosting plan. They charge exorbitantly for it. So, opt for a dedicated hosting provider who promises you quality technical support without charging any extra fees.

Waiting endless for resolving the issues when they arise is of no use and ultimately it will affect your business.

Avoid cheap servers as many times the staff is less trained and skilled in solving more complex issues. Hence, always go for a quality technical service even if you have to pay little more.

Dedicated servers by Eltris offers unmatched reliable servers and technical support. The customer support will set up the dedicated server free of charge.

Learning Curve

Never make the mistake of deploying your business project on the dedicated server as soon as you purchased it. Always simulate the functions of the dedicated server on a dummy set up before actually doing the live testing. This way you will get to know the pros and cons and give you a learning experience.

It will also make you aware about real time issues and any technical failures. This will help you in troubleshooting the issues and changing or upgrading them according to your needs.

Conclusion

As a beginner you may make mistakes while purchasing dedicated server. Therefore, an informed and well analyzed dedicated hosting solution will fetch you a good deal. Take an informed decision to steer clear of the mistakes other people make while purchasing dedicated server. 

Looking for best dedicated servers? Reach out to Eltris now if you have any questions.

Advantages of Using a Dedicated Server

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Do you want to take your business to greater heights? Well, then you must decide on the best dedicated server for hosting your web application. But why settle down with a dedicated web server? A dedicated web server is quick, safe and has the best combination of software tools to guide you in achieving greater heights in your business. If you want better control and proper management of your business then opting for dedicated server hosting is a great idea. Also, as you don’t need to maintain the server, hence it ensures low costs. This is because you don’t have to purchase it on your own. So, let us guide you with some useful tips to choose your dedicated server provider and the advantages of using a dedicated server.

Dedicated servers are quite popular for personal as well as business companies due to their multiple benefits which we are going to discuss here.

Advantages of Using Dedicated Server

Security and great performance

Dedicated servers are far more secure than any other server as they avoid sharing your space with any other potential spam or malicious application. There is a huge effect on the SERPs of websites due to shared servers as they can blacklist the IP address of the server. This in turn affects the websites using that IP address.

Stability and reliability of dedicated servers are more compared with shared hosting. As most of the websites are unaware that they are sharing the IP addresses with other sites which may be malicious, hence it becomes almost impossible for them to protect their data.

Dedicated servers improve security. This is especially useful for companies where transactions happen mostly over SSL or FTP. Moreover, to resolve your complaints, 24*7 support is available from the dedicated server providers ensuring a low downtime. 

No sharing of Server Resources 

Dedicated server means your bandwidth belongs to you. It can’t be used by anyone else. There is no chance of slowing down as others can’t use your space for running their applications. Hence, it won’t clog your server’s RAM or CPU as the resources of your server belong to you only and nobody else.

Space is surely an essential component as far as web hosting is concerned. But it does include the CPU and RAM of the server. This enables your server to prevent downtime even during peak traffic hours. So, it can be inferred that using shared hosting is suitable for low traffic sites. But in the case of mid and high traffic sites, dedicated servers are a must to have a smooth business operation.

Complete Control

The biggest advantage of a dedicated server is that you get complete control over your website. You are free to take an informed decision about which applications and tools you would like to deploy on your website.

In case of a shared server, complete control over the website is maintained by the service providers as multiple websites are using the same server. This is completely avoidable in case of dedicated hosting solutions.

Use of a dedicated server enables its user complete administrative control over the server where a user can customize it according to his requirements. He can act before any problem affects the website by direct installation and close monitoring of programmes.

Access to a Unique IP Address

The IP address of a server denotes its unique identity and location of the server. If multiple websites are using the same server, they own the same IP address which means sharing of spam sites and lowering of search engine results pages or SERPs.

But it is completely avoided in case of dedicated hosting as the server has its own unique IP address. Sharing of resources is not possible with any other site. For example, an e-commerce company involving credit cards transactions must have a unique IP address ensuring safety of clients as well as website.

Low percentage of downtime

Though it is impossible to have an 100% uptime but it can be chosen close to 99.9% by using dedicated servers. This 0.1% downtime can be easily chosen by the website owners as their maintenance time.

Shared hosting doesn’t allow its users any say over downtime maintenance but it is easier to opt for this solution in case of dedicated hosting.

Websites selling goods need to maintain a high uptime otherwise they will lose their customers. This will in turn affect the total sales. So, they need dedicated servers with high uptime.

Flexibility

A dedicated server fits the requirement of a customizable environment where a user can choose his CPU, software, disk space and RAM. This makes dedicated servers flexible and reliable.

Users have full control over choosing software according to their needs, how much memory a task should be using, installing an operating system which suits your needs.

Dedicated servers provide you fixed IP addresses with higher costs. But the deal is worth it. Therefore, many DNS issues clear up automatically. You can choose CPU usage for your applications by installing a database server.

Conclusion: Advantages of Using a Dedicated Server

Though shared hosting comes online at cheaper rates but the advantages of using a dedicated server hosting are far more. There is no chance of a data breach or malicious websites blacklisting your IP address because you have your own unique IP address allocated. No other site can access your dedicated server as it is completely under your control.

There are numerous advantages of using a dedicated server. They are best suitable for websites having mid to heavy traffic to avoid downtime. Websites observing mid to heavy traffic should have better security, reliability and customization. Therefore, you don’t need to think twice before choosing a dedicated hosting provider.

Hence, choose a dedicated server from Eltris as per your needs so that you may utilize the business opportunities and take your business to achieve greater heights. Eltris provides wide range of reliable dedicated servers for your business.

What to Consider When Choosing Dedicated Server Provider

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There are plenty of dedicated server options available in the market. Companies try to lure customers by compromising on essential features of dedicated servers and offering them cheaper rates. Full control, security and performance are three factors which should be kept in mind while choosing dedicated server provider. While shared hosting involves risk of data breach as multiple users share a common server. This hampers the security feature.

Neither you can be sure that all hosting solutions are using dedicated servers nor all dedicated servers are completely similar. Though it is impossible to check important business features on your own, try choosing dedicated server provider using the best technology. To run your business in a better manner you must be aware about how technology can shape your business going forward.

Dedicated server is completely an individual’s physical server as it is used by only your website and provides secured access. It helps you configure according to your needs and protects the user from data breach through other users. 

Key Factors while choosing dedicated server provider

Operating System

While choosing a dedicated server provider, you must choose an OS which suits your business requirements. Design your applications according to the type of system you are using i.e. Linux or Windows. Also, look whether the software running an application is in accordance with the existing OS or not. 

Hardware Choice- A Costly affair

Dedicated servers are quite costly, so always go for multiple options before selecting hardware for your business. Choose hardware which can increase the performance of the application without making users pay any extra penny.

More choices for hardware give your business capabilities to adapt to any business opportunity. For enhancing speed, many CPU models are available offering a variety of cores.

Size of RAM and capacity of hard disk also matters while choosing dedicated server provider. Ultimately it affects bandwidth and speed. Assessment of Hardware specifications of the dedicated server is must to enhance your website’s performance. If a downtime of fifteen minutes does not have any effect on the operating system of the server then upgradation of CPU can be done. 

Control Panel Options

Control panels help in effective running of applications of business system functions. Though stock control is sufficient to operate across the system but if your business needs more demand, then you can opt for WHM and cPanel operating control panels across the Linux servers.

The Plesk control software can run on both Windows as well as Linux servers that helps in future growth of your business.

Stable Security Features

Data breach and risk of safety can lead to damaging your business opportunities and can invite legal action from the customer. If the server systems working across IT business operations go offline, then you might be at risk of data breach.

Be careful while choosing dedicated server provider as the security factors must be considered your top priority. You can run out of business within 6 months of data breach in your organization. 

Location and physical security are two important factors for choosing a dedicated server provider. Considering application and website security, malware protection, firewalls, DDoS protection is necessary while choosing a dedicated server provider.

Eltris provides an extensive range of dedicated servers with high security.

Server Management

Compatible and easy server management are must before opting for a dedicated server. Application installation, system updates and monitoring of a dedicated server can be well taken care of for a long time. 

It will help you with enhanced business performance and resolving and handling of all the customer queries. 

RAM Requirements

RAM plays a key role in deciding which dedicated server you should go for. With extended RAM requirements in future this becomes more important. RAID1 hard disk configuration is good for data security and accommodation of desired drives. Capacity of a hard disk depends on the type of chassis.

IBM, Dell and HP are big names as far as best hardware components need to be selected for your business. Never compromise on hardware for choosing a cost effective dedicated server.

Backup Service

Dedicated server helps to cope with disaster scenarios backup services. A good dedicated server will give you a perfect combination of storage and backup in case anything fails.

Customer support

Quality of hardware components are a must while looking for good customer support. Technical assistance has to match along with cost effectiveness. Uptime should be 99.99 percent or more while considering quality support services. Technical support tells you about proficiency of the technical team and how well they can handle business tasks and troubleshoot your issues.

Fixing of issues should be done even if your server is down. 24/7 support on email as well as phone support should be available. Automated handling of common issues and problems can be achieved by a specialized IT team. Always go for dedicated server hosts providing support via multiple channels such as email, chat and phone.

Conclusion: Choosing Dedicated Server Provider

Hence, it can be observed that high performance and greater resource availability addressing your growing business requirements are key factors to be considered while choosing a dedicated server host. To improve performance of your business, choose a host who provides you with better data security, desired hardware system, better server management with extensive control panels.

If you want to give only administrator level access then dedicated server should be your choice. Hence, dedicated servers are the best choice to host business solutions with better data storage solution for seamless performance of your business. Get reliable dedicated servers from Eltris today and get the best results for your business.

Business Benefits of Dedicated Servers for a Website

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It takes extra effort to make your company’s online presence felt. You must be wondering how your own website is performing among so many online competitors? Most business owners are ignorant about the fact that they are sharing servers with innumerable other websites. Therefore, it is high time you realize the business benefits of dedicated servers. Are you looking forward to expanding your business? Be competitive as every effort counts.

All businesses use a wide range of possibilities for hosting their web application, mail server or website. The most widely used method is shared hosting. Here, a large number of websites use a single server to host their website. This leads to more downtime and also sharing of resources.

Whereas Dedicated hosting is the solution if you want to gain more control over the business. In dedicated hosting, a server is rented from a dedicated hosting provider by a client, and exclusively uses resources of that server. Dedicated servers give the RAM, CPU and disk space to their clients. This reduces the businesses upfront cost as the server is maintained and built by the provider. The business benefits of dedicated servers are numerous and we will discuss them in detail.

Though a dedicated server will cost you more, the benefits are worth it’s price as it provides the confidence to strive in the competitive world of ecommerce. Let us now check the business benefits of dedicated servers and why should use a dedicated server for your business.

Six Business Benefits of Dedicated Servers

With a dedicated server, you can get exclusive returns from your business in the following ways:

1. Exclusive use of dedicated resources

The entire web server is exclusively yours by having a dedicated server. You get peak performance at peak business hours as now you have exclusive right on bandwidth, RAM, CPU and disk space requirements.

You don’t need to worry about the changes in bandwidth during peak hours and running of bad scripts on different websites. This leads to slowing down your server and eventually degrading customer experience. 

With dedicated servers other websites cannot slow down your application by clogging your CPU. Root access to the server is also an essential and exclusive feature of dedicated servers. Configuration of settings and installation of own software is possible. So, it is your prerogative how you use your dedicated plan to bring your business to top. 

You can choose any operating system to run your applications. Special server security measures can also be added by you. In short, you can run your business—in a flexible, secured, and exclusive way.

2. Flexible management of your start up business

A dedicated server takes care of your growing business requirements. Limited use of software, applications and operating systems already present on the server is provided if you opt for shared hosting. Hence, a client has to choose from limited resources and the idea of customization completely vanishes.

With growing demands, modifications in existing applications and settings can be achieved. It enhances your flexibility with the advent of new opportunities and changing markets arise or unexpected markets materialize.

A dedicated server also enhances backup, processing and storage space. Therefore, it provides users with a better experience and quicker page load time. This makes them feel back returning to your website later as well due to lightning speed.

3. Enhanced performance and improved reliability

With exclusive rights come better performance and reliability. A dedicated server reduces your chances of server crashes even during peak traffic hours.

Shared hosting is suitable only for low traffic whereas high traffic demands are addressed by dedicated servers. If your site uses videos and image displays, the dedicated server provides you with the required bandwidth you need. Google recommends that your page load time should be 2 seconds or less.

The dedicated server gives you optimum customer experience through improved speed and performance. A dedicated server protects you from any malicious codes present in any other site which may be sharing resources with you in case of shared web hosting.

It comes with a higher cost and is fairly less price to be paid if you are getting a high power, better storage, and bandwidth by using dedicated web hosting. With no upfront capital costs, a dedicated server provides a strong hold on the web. 

When you buy dedicated servers from a reliable company like Eltris, the IT support team is always there to provide you with technical assistance. Qualified technicians are always there to troubleshoot your queries.

4. Improved security through data separation

Dedicated servers give exclusive access to your business. With secured monitoring and firewalls, infrastructure improves manifolds. It improves security against malware and hacks. Dedicated hosting protects your sensitive data if using FTP or SSL protocols.

Secured firewalls, continuous network monitoring and exclusive access by hosts lets you freely and confidently concentrate on your business with increased industry demands.

As your data is exclusively yours and has nothing to do with other client’s data, this separation feature also prevents service attacks and helps you with easy and fast recovery from backend exploitation.

Running of your applications by customizing security and access control is another feature of dedicated servers. Improving levels of security manifold protecting business data and customers.

5. No capital or upfront expense

You may need capital reserve for diverse areas of your business so reducing upfront capital expenses is the need of the hour. Dedicated hosting providers charge you with reasonable fees to equip you with top of the line equipment.

This reduces overhead costs for purchasing new equipment. Therefore, it is a low cost affair to access resources of a full time dedicated server. A dedicated hosting provider serves multiple clients. The service cost paid by you is nothing compared with the advantages of physical security and technical support.

6. Unique IP address

If you are using shared hosting it means sharing of a common IP address with many other websites. This eliminates the feature of unique IP addresses. This may pull down your ranking if the shared website is a spam or malicious site.

Hence, you can completely get rid of this by using a dedicated server providing you with a unique IP address. This really makes you stand among the crowd of e-commerce businesses if you are providing credit card transactions utilizing SSL. Hence, sites dealing with heavy traffic, can customize according to their needs by using a dedicated hosting provider.

Conclusion

Now since you have understood the business benefits of dedicated servers, using a dedicated hosting provider is the solution to all your business needs. You can choose between shared or dedicated hosting depending on your budget and needs. Let us guide you how much a dedicated server costs? The answer will depend upon

  • the bandwidth requirement
  • computing power you need
  • how much backup and secure data storage you need

You can choose from a wide range of dedicated servers available on Eltris with different RAM and storage needs.

Why Choose Dedicated Servers Over Cloud Servers?

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If you are running a website for your business or planning to launch your website, the only thing you should worry about is the uptime. A reliable uptime with lightning fast speed is a must to have a successful online business. Two types of servers are available in the market i.e. dedicated servers and cloud hosting. Choosing the right one for your business is very important. Each one has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Dedicated servers are a better choice for starting a new online business as you get independent physical server and resources. Let us see how dedicated servers are better than cloud servers.

Every online business model is different and choosing the best web host is not an easy task. Even a slight delay of 1 second for the page response time will make you lose 7% of your valuable customers and conversions. Even Google has included page speed as the SEO factor while ranking sites on its search engine. Let us check more about dedicated servers and cloud servers.

Dedicated servers

It is a physical server which is purchased independently. Only your business will use the server and no other website will share your resources. In conventional servers, shared servers were used to host multiple websites. Dedicated servers are used by companies which require high level of security, 100% uptime guarantee, and high server capacity.

When you are not sharing the server space with others, all your data is securely present and stored exclusively for your use. It requires regular maintenance and patches to keep your data secure.

Cloud server

The cloud server hosts your website on a virtual environment and not on physical hardware dedicated for your use only. Multiple servers comes together to provide the resources and storage space for your website. This virtual environment is managed by the cloud service provider.

You can increase or decrease the resources as per your needs and requirements in a cloud server. Therefore, you pay only for what you use. Unlike a dedicated server, your website won’t be saved at a physical server. AWS, Google Cloud, and Digital Ocean are some of the examples of Cloud servers.

Now let us see why dedicated servers are better than cloud servers.

Performance

Dedicated servers perform much better than cloud servers. The level of performance given by a dedicated server can’t be matched by the cloud server. Dedicated servers provide fast data processing and information retrieval. Since all the data is processed locally, you won’t find any lag while the functions are getting performed.

Cloud servers have to pass through the SAN for accessing the data. Then the request also needs to pass through the hypervisor. This extra time adds a certain amount of latency that is not possible to be reduced. Hence, the performance is lower than dedicated server.

Another let down from cloud servers is that the underlying storage and network gets shared between multiple websites. This results in frequent I/O errors. Also, if you want to send huge amount of data to the storage space, you will experience slow network issues in cloud servers. This is because the cloud servers offer higher storage but not fast storage.

Companies looking for CPU intensive load balance features always prefer dedicated servers. This is because dedicated server is entirely reserved for a single website. Therefore, there are no queue requests.

Therefore, dedicated server will always offer a much better experience and positive results than the cloud servers.

Transparency

This is a major difference between dedicated server and cloud server. You don’t have the authority to check the server’s performance in a cloud server. If there is a bottleneck which is affecting the performance of your website, you can only check the same in a dedicated server but not in a cloud server. Thus, you are relying 100% on the cloud service provider to figure out the issue and fix it.

Dedicated server doesn’t share any resources and thus do not have any underlying hardware issues. Comparatively, cloud servers are more prone to similar glitches.

Redundancy

Nodes used in the dedicates servers are more reliable than cloud servers. In case of cloud servers, the computer node performs all the tasks. If that node fails, the entire workload will fail. It is a complicated thing to set up, maintain, and monitor.

Security

Dedicated servers provide 100% security and it is nearly impossible for a hacker to breach the security set up of a dedicates server. Cloud servers are provide good security but not as much as dedicated servers.

Customization

You have full control to customize the dedicated server as per your needs and requirements. But in the case of cloud servers, you have to select predefined packages and can’t customize them.

Conclusion: Dedicated servers are better

Now you must have realized that dedicated servers are better than cloud servers. Businesses can easily customize the dedicated servers and they are the most powerful machines available in the IT industry.

You can easily purchase a dedicated server from Eltris at reasonable price and fastest speed. Choose from brands such as HP, Dell, IBM, Huawei, and Supermicro. You can also select the region of your choice from Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Also get 24 hour free setup and the lowest price guarantee.

You can contact the support team for more details.  

Why Hosting Your Own Email Is Not Recommended?

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Businesses are aligning towards hosting their own emails. They feel it’s the magic bullet to a safe, private, and secure email experience. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Having a private email server to host your email might sound fancy on the surface. It could sound like sending and receiving letters on a small, isolated island with no people and animals around. But there are drawbacks, a lot of them, for that matter. Today, we’ll look at why hosting your own email is not recommended for small businesses.

1. Cumbersome setup process

First and foremost, setting up your own email servers is not easy. It requires proficiency and thus hosting your own email is not recommended. You need to know the ins and outs of how emails work, along with the technicalities of the backend. Though there are tools that allow you to host your email for free, they come with the following drawbacks:

  • You’ll be exposed to security threats and vulnerabilities.
  • You’ll receive a myriad of spam emails in your inbox.
  • Your emails will end up in receivers’ spam boxes.

The third point is critical. Spam detectors and blacklists work on a merit-based system. The more your email address gets reported as spam, the higher chances it has to be blacklisted. 

When you host your email, you’ll probably rent a server. Many server types are available, with shared servers being the cheapest. Since small businesses are looking for ways to reduce their costs, they subscribe to shared servers. 

This means they’ll share their email server with other email users who’ve hosted their email. If one of the shared users has high spam reports, emails coming from you might also be marked as spam. 

Dedicated servers are a better pick, but what about the extra work you’d need to put in? You’ll need to keep your email system on the server and look out for updates and maintenance. And if you’re not a techie, all of this will be overwhelming. You can, of course, hire IT experts, but then you’ll need to incur extra staffing costs. All these factors suggest that hosting your own email is not recommended.

2. Storage issues

Emails can eat up space quicker than you think. Most email users only access their primary inbox, and rightly so. If you have robust spam protection mechanisms in place, only relevant emails will land in your inbox. 

But what about other inboxes, like Social, Promotions, Draft, and Spam? Most email users don’t check these inboxes. Emails, therefore, pile up and consume more storage. As a result, you end up paying for more storage space month after month.

Email hosting providers, like, Eltris, offer efficient inbox management capabilities. They regularly clear your spam boxes and old emails, so you don’t run into storage problems.

3. Painful migration

Setting up your own email host is just the beginning. You’ll now need to transfer all your contacts, emails, and email configurations to the new host. Besides, you’ll need to repeat the migration process every time you change your host. 

And the migration process is by no means pleasant. Think about the work you’ll need to put in, let alone the overhead costs. This surely makes us think that hosting your own email is not recommended. 

4. Security concerns

Your email defines you. It’s like your ID proof on the internet, your single contact with the digital world. What if it gets hacked? Imagine getting your Social Security Card or driver’s license stolen. 

Having your emails hacked is even worse. Not only does the hacker get your personal information, but all your conversations and interactions will also be accessible. Someone can misuse your email account to send messages to your partners and clients under your name. 

Enterprises have highly-skilled IT teams to keep an eye on such incidents. But what about small businesses? You probably don’t have an IT team looking into your email security, right? And when you host your email, you can’t expect security updates from the provider. All in all, your email is at a high risk of getting hacked. 

Email service providers, on the other hand, offer strong email encryption, multi-factor authentication, spam filter, and virus protection. These companies invest in privacy and security to ensure your data and interactions remain secured. 

Sadly, free services like Gmail and Yahoo aren’t completely secure either. When you sign up for them, you agree to share your private information, including your exchanges and interactions. Thus, these services collect your personal information and use it for targeted advertising.

5. All cookies in the same jar

No matter how renowned your web host is, nothing is certain in the online world. Browse through the best web hosting providers in the world, and they’ll offer 99.99% uptime. Some of them offer 100% as well, but it doesn’t mean your site will be up 100% of the time. There will come a time when your web host’s server will go down. 

If you’ve hosted your email on the same server, your email will also go down. Your connection with the digital world will completely cease. You won’t be able to use your email. Your business will come to a halt.

When you host your email to another server, it doesn’t get affected by your web host. Even if your website goes down for an hour, your email will keep working.

So, what should you do?

Hosting your email is a bad idea if you don’t have the necessary resources, manpower, and knowledge. Setting up an email server, maintaining it, and updating it can be burdensome. Besides, it comes with various security and operational challenges. 

The best pick is a dedicated email service provider like Eltris. Email clients take care of everything ranging from hosting to updates and maintenance. For a small subscription fee, you can get a secure, private, and efficient email experience.

Conclusion: Don’t host your email yourself

As discussed, hosting your email comes with various security concerns and additional costs. But even if these problems didn’t exist, why take the pain of managing a server and the costs and responsibilities associated with it? There are email service providers available that provide cutting-edge email hosting services. 

Eltris, for example, offers flexible, cost-effective, and highly secure email hosting solutions. Check out Eltris now.

How to Use Welcome Emails Effectively for Your Business

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Businesses and email marketers often struggle with email engagement rates. Though the average email open rate is 21.33%, most companies hardly manage to achieve half of it. Welcome emails, however, stand out. Different studies suggest different open rates for welcome emails, but the number lies somewhere between 30-60%, significantly higher than regular emails.

However, they’re not so easy to pull off. With almost every company using welcome emails, you need to stand out. In this post, we’ll talk about welcome emails, why you should use them, and some best practices to get the best results. 

Let’s get started.

What is a welcome email?

A welcome email is the first email a company sends to its subscribers or prospects. In most cases, it’s a part of the customer onboarding process that gives the subscriber an introduction to the brand. 

As you can probably speculate, a welcome email is the first impression you can make on a new customer or subscriber. Consider it as being greeted by the gatekeeper when you enter a store. 

Welcome emails can be of a variety of types. They can be simple, straightforward messages, like “We thank you for being a part of our family.” Or you can take it a step further and deliver videos, offers, sign-up forms, or anything that inclines with your brand strategy.

Why use welcome emails?

So, do you really need to take the pain of sending welcome emails to each of your subscribers? Well, the short answer is no. You can survive without sending any welcome emails at all. 

However, don’t scratch your head when your emails get low open rates, and your subscribers readily opt-out of your list. 

Here’s why you should make welcome emails a fundamental part of your email marketing strategy. 

1. Reduced unsubscribes and spam complaints

Just because a visitor has subscribed to your mailing list doesn’t mean he’s eager for your next email. Though it’s hard to estimate a number, an average person subscribes to 20-30 email lists. 

Ask yourself. How many email lists have you subscribed to? Now, how many of them do you regularly engage with?

People tend to ignore most of the brand emails they receive. By sending them a welcome email, you ensure your subscribers remember you. And if you add value in your welcome email, with a video or e-book, you can also pique their interest. When your subscribers are interested in your brand, they’re less likely to tap out of your list. 

2. Improved engagement

As discussed, welcome emails increase engagement levels. They are a perfect opportunity to show your subscribers who you are and how you can make a difference in their lives. Besides, the average open rate of a welcome email is 50-60%, compared to 21.33% of regular emails. 

3. No extra effort

If you’re using an email productivity solution like Eltris, you can use autoresponders to automate your welcome emails. When a user opts-in for your mailing list, the autoresponder will trigger a welcome email response. Therefore, you can enjoy better engagement without putting in any extra time and effort. 

4. Improved customer loyalty

Loyalty is an area of concern for businesses, especially when it comes to email marketing. People will subscribe to your mailing list and opt-out after you send your first email. 

Unsubscribes are a part of email marketing. And acceptable unsubscribe rates can vary from industry to industry. For real estate companies, 0.40% is considered a healthy unsubscribe rate, whereas, in the marketing and advertising industry, anything above 0.09% is high.

The reasons for people unsubscribing from your list can vary. Maybe they’re no longer interested in your product or services. 

But in many cases, people unsubscribe because they could’ve forgotten about you. As discussed, people subscribe to multiple mailing lists simultaneously, so forgetting about a few is no big deal.

But when you send welcome emails, you create an impression. Well-framed welcome emails can embed in your subscriber’s minds, encouraging them to keep receiving emails from you.

Welcome email tips to stand out

Sending welcome emails is not a new trend. Businesses have been doing it for years. So, how do you stand out of the horde? Here are a few tips you can follow. 

1. Be timely: Send your welcome emails promptly. Sending them on the same day is the best. If you send a welcome email after a few days, your subscribers could forget that they subscribed to your list in the first place. 

2. Have a catchy subject line: Show enthusiasm! Your subject line should emanate excitement. Also, make it unique, so it stands out in a crowded inbox. A few good examples are:

  • Yay, You’re Signed Up!
  • Welcome to XYZ!
  • Welcome, John. You’re subscribed. 

3. Greet your subscriber: Personalization is the key to success in email marketing. If you know your subscriber’s name, always address them by their first name in the welcome email. This arouses emotion, as they feel recognized. 

4. What next: Don’t leave your subscribers hanging with a thank you note. Tell them what to expect next. If you send weekly newsletters, tell them that they’ll receive their first newsletter on this particular date and time. If you want them to take action, specify it clearly. 

5. Give them a gift: As discussed earlier, adding value in welcome emails is critical. Send your subscribers a video, e-book, report, offer, or anything that might add value to their lives. Make them feel that subscribing to your list was worth it.

Conclusion: Welcome emails

There’s no right or wrong way to utilize welcome emails. Some companies don’t use them at all, and they’re still doing pretty good. But if you’re a small-medium business, engaging your customers should be your utmost priority. And with welcome emails having engagement rates as high as 60%, it’s something you can’t overlook. So, devise a welcome email strategy and integrate it with your existing email campaign marketing efforts. Check out Eltris for easy and cost-effective email marketing and automation solutions.

What Are Email Campaigns and How They Are Useful?

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Email is the simplest tool for business marketing. Traditionally, emails have helped companies generate billions of dollars in revenue. But on the other hand, most businesses struggle with low email engagement rates. Email campaigns are the core of email marketing. They can help your business thrive and reach new heights. But only if you use them in the right way.

Today, we’ll take a look at email campaigns and how you can use them to grow your business.

What is an email campaign?

An email campaign refers to a series of emails sent to multiple recipients at once. In most cases, email campaigns are used in marketing. Companies send emails to their subscribers, providing high-value content or valuable offers. 

In addition to marketing, email campaigns are also useful in sending out an important message or notice to a large number of recipients. For example, companies inform all their subscribers if they’ve changed their privacy policy. 

Email campaigns are also useful in internal communications. Senior executives use campaigns to send notices and information to multiple employees at one time. In a nutshell, an email campaign is a sequence of emails sent to multiple recipients. These campaigns can either be manual or scheduled.

Benefits: How are email campaigns helpful?

Email campaigns are essential for email marketing. If done correctly, they can offer tangible benefits to your business. Here are some benefits of email campaigns. 

Lower costs

Email marketing is one of the cheapest forms of marketing. You don’t need to pay for advertising costs, and you don’t need to incur any print or postage costs. All you need is an email autoresponder system that allows you to create high-performing email campaigns at minimal costs. 

High rate of engagement

You’re able to send emails to your subscribers only because they willingly provided you with their email address. They are already interested in what you have to say, which makes email campaigns highly engaging. 

Although it’s possible to send unsolicited email messages, it’s strongly recommended that you avoid such actions. 

Targeted marketing

Other forms of marketing, like paid advertising, are highly widespread. You’ll get many eyeballs, but most of them won’t be interested in what you offer. This leads to a low ROI. 

As email campaigns are sent only to your subscribers, they guarantee positive outcomes. 

Generate revenue

Email campaigns put your business in an auto-pilot mode. A report from Marketing Week demonstrated that email generates around £29 billion in retail sales every year. 

Email marketing isn’t like other marketing channels where you bombard the prospect with your offer and persuade him through the buyer’s journey. With a compelling pitch and clear call to action, you can drive sales via email with an ROI like no other. 

Easy to set up

Starting an email campaign does not require you to burn the midnight oil. All you need is an email account with a reliable client like Eltris, a subscriber list, and a content strategy. Everything else is automated, so you don’t need to keep checking in on your campaign over and over again. 

Easy to track and measure

Measuring marketing ROI has always been a hurdle for organizations. Deciding upon which metrics to track and how to measure the success of a marketing or advertising campaign is tricky. Thankfully, this is not the case with email campaigns. 

Emails have straightforward metrics. Open rate is the most common, which denotes how many people open your emails. If you’re sending an offer or a sales email, you can simply measure your sales.

Global marketing

Who doesn’t use email, right? If you use other platforms, like social media and search engines, for marketing, your reach gets reduced. For example, some countries don’t use Facebook or Google. But using email is necessary for personal and business communications. Therefore, email campaigns allow you to seamlessly reach a global audience. 

Unparalleled ROI

The email has an ROI of $44 per $1 spent, which is the highest among all marketing channels. If done correctly, email marketing using campaigns can boost your business, grow your brand, and skyrocket your sales.

Email campaign tips to follow

Here are a few tips you should follow for your email marketing campaigns. 

1. Personalize

You’ll often come across the word “personalization” in marketing. Many email marketers think of personalization as merely addressing subscribers by name. 

2. Automate your efforts

Without automation, you’ll not achieve the desired results. Manually sending emails is not only time consuming, but you’ll also miss out intricate details. It’s always better to have a trusted partner to take care of all your marketing needs, and this is where email automation plays a big part. Automating your email campaign not only improves your efficiency but also increases your conversions. 

3. Conduct testing

It is important to know that though email marketing can be highly rewarding, it does not work like a magic wand. If you’re expecting your first email campaign to generate massive sales and revenue, you’re driving on the wrong lane. Email is getting more competitive, and to succeed, you’ll need to constantly improve your efforts. Conduct regular testing, and see what works and what doesn’t. 

4. Cut down promotion

Companies use email for promotion, and it’s good to promote your new products and offers via email. But make sure your entire email campaign doesn’t consist of only promotions. 

The core of email marketing is to provide value to your subscribers. Create a healthy ratio between valuable content and promotion. 80% value and 20% promotion is a good number to get started. 

Conclusion

Email campaigns make up a large portion of marketing efforts for most small businesses. They are cost-effective, easy to create, and have high return potential. 

However, most new business owners and marketers tend to use emails in the wrong way. It’s essential to keep in mind your subscribers’ requirements and create an email campaign strategy accordingly.

Also, check out Eltris for an easy and cost-effective email hosting solution.