5 Signs Your Business is Ready To Move to VPS Hosting
One of the most important keys to business growth is knowing the signs that indicate your business is ready to move to a new stage.
When is the right time to make the gamble and hire those additional staff, with the hopes of hitting a higher revenue goal?
When is the right time to move your office space to the bigger, better office in downtown San Diego?
When is it a good time to make that big investment?
When do you know you need to cut loose a client that is costing you more than the revenue they bring in for your company?
Good business is all about knowing when to make the move. The same goes for your VPS hosting. When do you, as the CEO, make the call to move your SMB to the next level of hosting?
We know it can seem like a tough call – a gamble. But we also know that a good VPS hosting provider can actually increase your capacity for business and improve your company’s ROI. Here are some signs that you are ready to make the move…
Sign 1: You’ve Outgrown Your Shared Hosting Plan
You’ve discovered that the limited amount of disk space on your shared server is simply not enough. You’ve got too much to store, too much data, too many software programs that you’d love to incorporate into your company to make your business run more smoothly, and you simply don’t have the bandwidth.
You have outgrown your current hosting. You need more.
VPS hosting will fill the gap between those lower-level Web hosting plans that offer specific services (such as PHP/MySQL, or Perl/CGI) with a limited amount of disk space on a shared server, and the next huge jump of colocation. Many SMB’s find themselves hanging in this limbo where they are big enough that shared hosting just isn’t cutting it, and yet they are not ready to own and manage the hardware and data within their own company. After all, that’s a huge financial commitment that requires many more bodies, departments, and, of course, additional physical space.
VPS hosting (or a dedicated server) is your ideal middle ground. Your shared hosting problems go away, your hosting is managed by a professional outsourced company with high-security, top-notch bandwidth, and teams on call to troubleshoot any hosting problems you could possibly run into.
Sign 2: You Need Greater or Specialized Security Settings
Shared hosting accounts certainly do have security — but for growing SMB’s, it may not be at the level that you need. This is particularly true for those businesses that handle sensitive data, such as health care information, financial data, personal information about their clients, etc.
VPS hosting will not only screen you from security vulnerabilities, but a virtual private server provider will offer a much higher level of customized security that are under your direct control. Whereas with shared hosting, you would suffer if someone else on your server was a target for hackers or a victim of malware, on VPS hosting you have no one to worry about as a point of access but yourself. The VPS isolation system affords you an extra level of protection.
Sign 3: Your Shared System Doesn’t Allow the Flexibility That You Need
Let’s face it — when you’ve got a shared hosting plan, you’re just one of the faces in the queue. You and everyone else on your server have a limited amount of resources to share, and if you or others are maxing those resources out, then everyone suffers. Think we’re joking?
Here’s an example.
If someone else on your shared server is eating up your bandwidth, your site will take longer to load. Google will note the slow load time of your site, and, in an effort to optimize searchers results, drop your page lower down the SERPS, and offer up your competitors that have a quicker load time.
As fewer leads come in and your revenue drops, your business directly suffers.
With VPS hosting, you have room to expand and grow, with greater flexibility of your resources. You don’t need to worry about whether your newly designed website features, such as shopping carts, heavy dynamic content or video streams, will eat your bandwidth.
You don’t need to be concerned about changes to new software with greater capabilities.
Because you now have the flexibility and hosting resources you need to grow — however quickly you need to.
Sign 4: You Have Multiple Domains To Manage
This is like trying to fit two feet in one shoe. You might be able to get them to fit, but you’re definitely not going to be walking anywhere.
Many SMB’s find that as their business expands, they develop multiple domains or subdomains. This is a common practice, and, from a marketing perspective, often an excellent move as it can allow your business greater exposure. A shared server is not going to be able to accommodate your needs.
A VPS server is capable of delivering all of your sites at a much better speed. It will also give you the room you need to expand as it will be able to scale your needs with more resources and greater space. You are free to promote every aspect of your business with all those domains or subdomains so painstakingly created to grow your business.
Sign 5: Your Business is Growing
When you find that your business is steadily growing (more or less – every SMB has ups and downs), you will find that you need the advantages that come along with the increasing budget.
Think of your hosting plan upgrade as an engine upgrade for your race car — you are allowing your growing business the ability to run faster, better, longer, and with greater success from each race.
While the change over to VPS hosting may cost you more initially, if your site is faster with great delivery and performance, you will almost certainly see a rapid increase in traffic, leads, and sales. You will recoup every penny you spent upgrading your business engine — and more.
Successful SMB’s are those that place themselves in a position where they have the room to grow. Are you able to grow right now?
At Cloud9, we are passionate about helping businesses successfully take the next step in business growth. To us, that means providing the highest quality VPS hosting and dedicated server solutions. To you, that means finding the flexibility, security, and growth potential you need to reach that next level.
