A couple of years ago, I used to run 2 dedicated servers and a VPS. Since then, I’ve dropped the dedicateds (to save money) and house all my sites not on a single, powerful VPS. A VPS is nice because it’s a lot cheaper than a dedicated server, and with most hosting companies VPS’s are managed. However, if you want a managed dedicated server you need to pay extra.

I’ve been exclusively with ServInt for years now. They are the absolute best hosting company I’ve ever come across. There have been several times where I’ve hit some traffic spikes and the VPS can’t handle the load, so they upgraded me temporarily to an extremely high powered VPS at no charge for like 24 hours. They’ve done it on multiple occasions and without it, I would have had my sites down. Another positive of a VPS is that the hosting company can upgrade you to more RAM with the flick of a switch. Not like a dedicated where it takes hours/days.

During the holidays, most of us see an increase in traffic. Whether it’s from holiday shopping, people staying indoors (cold weather) or kids being home from schools – you will see traffic increases and you need to be prepared. Downtime during this season is not good. It can cost you a lot of money.

Today, I upgraded my VPS to a higher level. I’m tripling my RAM and bandwidth for a slightly higher monthly fee. I only need the extra juice until about mid-January, so after that I plan to downgrade to what I am currently on. Because I pay month-to-month this is very easy to do.

How are you planning for the holidays? Do you expect more traffic? Are you amping up your servers?