FEATURED Should I choose dedicated, VPS, or cloud?

I dug around in google, but couldn’t find an answer, so I’m hoping to get advice here.

I run an automated stock trading system out of my Windows 8 desktop in my office currently. Task Scheduler automatically runs a script to download information my my brokerage or market data service at 4:30pm, 8:30pm, 11:30pm, and 1:15am. Other than that significant usage of the computer is not expected. In other words, all I need the server to do is download and send data over the internet several times a day only at handful of certain scheduled times. Bandwidth usage is minimal (I am not hosting a website or doing any other sort of thing on this computer that would eat up lots of bandwidth; I haven’t measured but I expect I use less than 100mb of upload/download per day).

My thinking is that it’s a good idea to move this server from my office into a professional data center, so I don’t have to worry about the internet going down in my office or a piece of hardware failing while I am out of town.

I am new to this though, so despite research I am not sure whether I should use a dedicated server, VPS, or cloud. As a startup I am cost conscious, so I’ve been looking at wholesale internet, and OVH VPS Cloud so far. My hardware/software requirements are: Windows OS; 200gb HD; 8GB or 16gb RAM. That is all. I don’t have any specific CPU need.

The most important thing for me is uptime. It’s ok if there are 30 min outtages here and there, but 10 hour outtages would be bad. That being said, I was hoping to keep cost under $100 a month, and the $55/month at Wholesale Internet certainly looks attractive.

I was hoping to get people’s opinion on here though, given the description of my needs above as a whole. Thanks so much!

If uptime is your main concern, then moving to a datacenter hosting environment is your best option. You should be able to get a theoretical 100% uptime on most formal providers. TIER-1 ISP connectivity, power and infrastructure redundancy, physical and logical security is something you do not normally get with an in-house solution, not to mention enterprise grade hardware infrastructure for servers, routers, switches, etc.

As for the type of infrastructure, VPS and or Cloud differentiate mainly by the billing cycle (hours vs monthly periods) and some offer failover in case of node failure. VPS/Cloud can be easily backed up and restored at any time. Flexibility and/or scalability is another factor to consider VPS/Cloud over dedicated. You can scale up and/or down a VPS server at any time given your resource variable needs, if any.

A dedicated server, seems overkill for this kind of task and you will have to pay a higher price for it. With a dedicated solution you will loose the flexibility/scalability that VPS/Cloud offers, but you would have completely dedicated physical resources available to you, which you might not even need.

Hope it helps!

Thanks for the responses so far.

Latency is not an issue, since I enter all my orders overnight before the market opens. So I don’t really have a location requirement either, although since I am US based, I’d prefer as US provider.

Seems like some are recommending dedicated and others VPS. So I’m still confused : ) Any particular providers for each? Still not clear on where to go from here. For my price point, I gather that VPS or VPS cloud would be more reliable in terms of uptime? Scalability is not a big concern for the foreseeable future. Since I am looking for reliability, I guess I should go the managed route over unmanaged?

I would suggest going to a managed provider so they can handle all the server stuff for you. That will prevent you the need to manage the server and if you don’t know what you are doing it can be a bit tricky.

If you want to talk with more details send me a pm or you can add me on skype @ bryce910 and I can help you out more

Definitely suggest a Raid-1 configuration for your purposes. You will have a fail safe if your information is critical. You could have this as well as a onsite, or offsite backup. Dedicated would be best if you want your data by itself with the least chance of downtime due to other “natural disaters” like DoS attacks against other VPS users (if you were on a VPS node. This will also mean less strain on the server you reside on. Although most nodes are equiped for this I personally find comfort in a Dedicated box away from others.

Windows will run you about 20.00 or more depending on the host (for standard). So factor that into your budget, if going with a Dedicated box. Other then that you should be able to find a solution close to your budget of $100.00.

Just remember when looking at hosts you want to pay attention to support times, support quality, SLA (if they have one, which you will likely want), HW replacement times, backup options, and their ability to react to downtime. Take a look at some reviews scattered around WHT and elsewhere!

I’ll try to clarify things a bit

If a classic Dedicated server goes down, then you’ll have downtime. How much, it depends on the provider.

If the Host of your VPS goes down, you’ll still have downtime. Again how much depends on the provider.

If you don’t want to have downtime, you should choose a High Availability solution.

A High Availability Cloud Server with windows and without management for the simple task of running windows for the tasks that you need would be reliable and not expensive too.

Thanks Bryce! I’ll PM you tomorrow to try and setup a skype call.

Massive grid, your explanation was helpful. I was looking on your website, and is this what you might recommend for me: Cloud Server V w 4 cores, 16gb for $69/month?

That price includes 24×7 operation (I’ve played around with Amazon EC2 but they charged by the hour)? If so, that’s pretty impressive pricing compared to Amazon and Google. Can I install my own copy of Windows on that or do I have to use yours?

Has your cloud server service ever had downtime? If so, what’s the longest period?

I’m glad that you found my explanation helpful.

4 Cores and 16GB of RAM will be adequate and yes, the price includes 24x7x365 operation with 100% uptime SLA. If the server goes down, you get money back.

Thank you We’ve managed to offer not only competitive pricing but High Availability and 100% uptime SLA as standard compared to all the other cloud providers.

You get full KVM access and you can install any legal software you want or need.

Hardware always has downtime. We’ve managed to decouple hardware failures from the servers we provide to our clients If the hardware fails, client’s server moves elsewhere in the Grid. Downtime is only the time for the client’s server to be booted (it depends on the client’s server, usually 1-2 minutes).

Moreover, I’d like to add that we use Tier IV Datacenters and top quality hardware to minimize hardware downtime to avoid even these reboots. That’s why we didn’t had any downtime at all, the last year, since we launched this High Availability Grid.

Lastly, I’d like to mention that due to our High Availability Grid, scheduled maintenance on our infrastructure (for example in case of capacity upgrades, etc) occurs without downtime for the client’s server.