Dedicated hosting options are a dime a dozen today. Every company both large and small that offers any type of hosting package will undoubtedly offer a dedicated hosting option. When your business is growing by leaps and bounds and you don't want to take the chance some other shmoes website I going to crash the server your cohabitating on your ready to step up to the big leagues.

But with the wealth of options that exist for you to choose from how do you make the decision about where to plant your flag in cyberspace? As with any business decision you can look at it one of two ways. What's best for business, and what's best for the bottom line? These two options don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Don't be pennywise and pound foolish.

One of the biggest mistakes that you can make is only worrying about keeping the accountants from taking a 40 story nose dive because you blew the budget on hosting. To be honest we aren't talking about a huge increase in price by using a service that's a little more reputable. And if your accountants are really that fragile they were probably going to take the plunge for some reason, so don't be so hard on yourself!

While prices will vary by five percent or by five hundred percent you only need to focus on what your company actually needs and don't be dazzled by the up sale that most providers will try to win you over.

Uptime, every time, all the time.

This is the mantra for anyone doing business on the web today. If your server is down you are out of business. The old rules of the web still apply. If you're not providing content of some sort within five seconds kiss the visitor goodbye. Think of your website as a brick and mortar store. If a construction firm said they could build you a new facility for half of what the competiton bid but your location may wink out of existence five to ten percent of everyday, you'd probably think twice about saving a few dollars. That's how you have to look at up time. Anything less than 99.9% uptime equals FAILURE!

Customer service is key for your business and FOR your business.

Another huge consideration along with guaranteed uptime is the level of customer service you can count on when something goes wrong. Let's face it at some point there will be a flood, a power outage, a plague of locusts, or server eating gnomes. How your ISP provides service when the chips are down is going to mean the difference between your IT departments planning a revolt, and your IT department actually revolting.

Make sure you have a telephone number to an actual human being. Twenty four hours a day. Imagine the aforementioned contractor assuring you that if there's a problem with your location teleporting out of existence you can feel free to drop him a line. Just write him a note and leave it in the hole where your business was and when your business gets back he'll be sure to read it. Don't be that guy emailing customer service that your site is down when customer service's site is down too.