If you’ve been reading PC World lately, then you’ve probably already got the pricing scoop. But if you are a little behind on your magazines, then here’s the long and short of the Microsoft SQL news — and it’s good news. Are you ready? Redmond has no plans to boost the price of Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

According to Microsoft, “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 offers an intelligent data platform that enables you to run your most demanding mission critical applications, reduce time and cost of development and management of applications, and deliver actionable insight to your entire organization.”

The server is on schedule to be released in the first quarter of 2008, Microsoft promises.

ServerPronto offers the world’s most affordable Microsoft SQL dedicated severs. Microsoft SQL is available on all of our dedicated hosting packages with prices ranging from $128.95 a month to $348.95 a month. Click here for more information. Click here to read more about Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 plans.

 
Here’s a bit of common sense that you’ve probably heard at least once or twice: You get what you pay for.
 

Sounds logical, doesn’t it? If you pay more, you’re bound to get more. The problem with common sense is that, though it’s certainly common by definition, it doesn’t always make good business sense.
In other words, paying less doesn’t always mean getting less, particularly when it comes to technologies like dedicated servers. So how can some dedicated server providers offer prices as low as $30 per month, while others charge two, or even three, times as much? To understand that, you need to understand economies of scale. Here’s a snippet from Econ 101.

Econ 101

A nationwide discount grocery chain buys its coffee and donuts by the ton. The mom-and-pop grocery store down the street purchases them by the pound. When it comes time to negotiate the price for these morning delicacies, the chain store, since it buys so much coffee and so many donuts, is able to demand a lower price per unit and pass the savings on to its customers.
Customers, who always want to pay as little as possible, respond to those low prices and purchase more and more of their coffee and donuts from the discount chain, which, in turn, allows the chain to lower prices even further. And that, dear students, is an economy of scale.
Simply put, the big guys get all the breaks. If we replace “discount grocery chain� with “dedicated server provider� and “coffee and donuts� with “bandwidth and hardware,� we’ll begin to see where those $30 per month servers really come from.

No mystery here…

Dedicated server providers take advantage of economies of scale when they buy bandwidth in large blocks. They take advantage of it when they scoop up loads of powerful hardware in big batches. As the provider grows, it can afford to hire the best and brightest staff to maintain and support its servers, which leads to stellar uptime – as much as 99.999% in the best cases.
This, of course, creates greater and greater satisfaction among the dedicated server provider’s customers, and, as word spreads, more and more customers in total. As the roster of happy clients grows, the provider can afford to drop its prices even lower.
So how can the low-cost dedicated server providers offer powerful hardware, superior support and near-perfect uptime for less than the price of a daily coffee and donut, you ask?
It’s really just common sense.

Are you ready for the unadulterated truth about dedicated servers? Then read on as we bust the total cost of ownership myth.

Total cost of ownership. It’s a phrase that springs up again and again in debates over high-technology products.

When it comes to discussions about dedicated servers, it’s not ignorance of the compelling benefits these machines offer that keep website owners stuck in the realm of shared hosting. Most of them understand the additional security, flexibility, and upgradeability, among other benefits, that characterize dedicated servers. Rather, it’s the supposed high costs that cause them to shy away from a server they could call their own.

If a high total cost of ownership is the basis of your hesitation, then you should know this: Shared servers may be adequate for small, personal sites, but the reliability and power a dedicated server brings to the table could mean the difference between a 10-second “click and run� visitor and one who spends a sizeable chunk of time – and, perhaps, money – on your site.

They key is to get the right dedicated server host – and the right specs.

The right RAM
As you shop for a dedicated server that fits your budget, consider your site’s horsepower needs. A 2 GHz machine with 256 MB of RAM is ample if you’re just getting your feet wet – and it can be had for a mere $30 per month.

Website owners that offer online shopping or employ more than a few server-side applications may want to upgrade to a 3 GHz server with 768 MB – or more – RAM. Even prices for these mid-range machines run as low as $100 per month.

Are you beginning to get the picture?  Let’s zoom in and take a closer look.

Walking the fine bandwidth line
Bandwidth needs can be tricky to estimate, but it’s best to err on the high side if you have to err at all. Purchase too little and you’ll lose visitors (and probably sales along with them). If your site’s been in operation for a while, examine your monthly transfer logs carefully.

To make sure your traffic needs are covered now and as you expand in the future, take the figure from the month with your highest bandwidth usage and add another 25 percent to 50 percent on top of that. That will keep you on the safe side of site outages.

If your Internet venture is brand new, a 200 GB per month transfer limit may be all you need to get up and running, and it will only set you back a dollar a day. At the other end of the scale, 10 times as much bandwidth – 2,000 GB – and a fast server to pump out all that data costs as little $200 each month, less than some firms spend on office supplies.

Settling on storage
Then there’s storage. Forty to 160 GB hard drives are capacious enough for most websites, but for the truly data-intensive enterprise – such as one with a mammoth catalog or many high-resolution images – terabyte and larger storage capacities are available for less than $200 per month.

Finally, remember that no matter how powerful the machine or immense the bandwidth, a dedicated server is only as good as the company that stands behind it. Choose a firm that houses its equipment securely, and expect a guarantee of 99% or better uptime from the best providers, as well as 24/7 customer support.

After all, you – and your business – deserve no less. And, as you can clearly see, dedicated servers don’t have to break the bank. In fact, they can save you money in extra bandwidth charges, and site outages that leave your customers frustrated and headed for the competition’s site.