Multi-Server Solutions

Multi-Server Solutions

Many growing websites eventually reach a point past which single-server hosting solutions are no longer viable. Perhaps you’ve experienced a significant increase in traffic, and your single-server hosting configuration or dedicated hosting environment is no longer capable of keeping up. Or maybe you have expansion plans that will exceed the capacity of your current setup. Whatever the reason, if your website performance has begun to lag, it’s time to make a change to ensure that you can keep pace with your customers’ high expectations.

We can help you decide whether a multi-server solution is the best strategy for your business. A multi-server solution can help your site achieve better scalability and performance without the added costs of server clustering or high-performance computing. This approach is the most common service upgrade for companies whose websites started out with dedicated hosting or a single-server solution.

If you opt to implement a multi-server solution, the Jupiter Hosting team will analyze your current server capacity in order to identify the elements of your site that require a greater concentration of server and system resources. Based on this information, we will divide the components of your site onto several separate servers, allowing each service, feature, or component to have access to more capacity and server resources than before.

Multi-server solutions are most frequently needed to support database-driven sites and three-tiered applications. A common configuration involves dividing the web server, application server, and database onto two or three separate servers (not counting the servers that are used to ensure redundancy and provide outage protection). For the vast majority of websites, this design eliminates common server capacity issues and restores optimal site performance. For sites with unusually large requirements for data storage and file delivery, it can also be helpful to separate file storage and I/O functions from other application layers.

Is it Time for a Multi-Server Solution?

The Jupiter Hosting engineers work overtime to identify the signs and symptoms that might indicate that it’s time for you to upgrade to a multi-server solution. Based on all available usage data, we can usually make recommendations about changes that need to be made in order to maintain optimal performance before server overload occurs. Our Network Operations Control team keeps tabs on your site’s traffic and use of resources, and often begins devising an action plan for implementing a multi-server solution long before an adverse event takes place.

Your input is vital to the process of making an upgrade decision, as well. If you’ve begun to notice any of these problems, it may be time to consult with a member of the Jupiter Hosting team to consider your options.

  • Page performance of the site begins to lag, or to feel consistently slow
  • Processes on the server are taking up more than half of CPU, RAM, or I/O resources
  • Customers begin to complain about availability
  • The single-server platform is sending frequent warning messages to the Jupiter Hosting Network Operations Center about impending processor, RAM, or I/O resource exhaustion
  • You are planning changes that will likely result in anticipated growth, traffic spikes, or customer influx
  • Your server load is operating at levels greater than prescribed for optimal application performance