How many dedicated servers for a social network?

[PizzaBoy]

While most webmasters nowadays envy Zuckerberg and yearn after his success, some of them actually venture to open their own social networks, even if they are small-scale.

I was wondering: how many dedicated servers would be necessary to start a social networking website similar to MySpace or LinkedIn? I assume one has to start with a small number of servers and expand once the traffic increases...

Would the eUKservers be able to support a small social network?

[Ryan]

Yes indeed, starting with a single server or small number of servers and scaling up once the traffic increases is the ideal way to go about it. Initially, the social network might not be very populated and traffic build up would also take time so starting small and then expanding gradually will help.

eUKhost dedicated servers and cluster solutions can indeed support a social network

[Catherine]

When it comes to Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn, these social networks have a lot of traffic and hence they have hundreds or even more servers than that. However, they had started small and grew later. Similarly, you can consider a Dedicated server to start with and then upgrade the package or change the setup as and when required.

[BritishFlag]

A social network requires both bandwidth and disk space. Users personalize their profiles by uploading pictures (and - if you allow it - even videos) of themselves. These alone will require more than one dedicated server, even in the first months...

[Perez]

Certainly, you can rely on dedicated server hosting solution offered by eUKhost. They offer only branded company servers like Dell and offers 100% network uptime guarantee for any server related issues. Since, the servers are built-up on branded chasis and integrated with Xeon processors especially built for high-end servers, you don't have to worry about the hardware failure and the performance issues.

[Ben Stones]

Well, it'll be difficult to compete with Facebook or any other popular social networking service, unless your social networking site is a niche of some kind - perhaps used internally for colleagues. In these cases, a VPS would also suffice as you can always upgrade to a dedicated server at a later date if activity is higher. A dedicated server at the start probably wouldn't be necessary at first, so you're better off saving money and going for a VPS first. It all depends on how active your site will be, the script used and the resources and requirements of that script and if you don't mind getting your site and data migrated to a dedicated server in the future if required.

[PizzaBoy]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Your pieces of advice are very helpful.

I am quite aware that one can't compete with Facebook, but one can dream of reaching the popularity of other social networks, such as Netlog, PerfSpot and Hi5 ...

To start with a VPS? Hmm... Seems like a bit too little. I was chatting with some colleagues and we came to the conclusion that - if a brand-new social network, with a really professional design and a user-friendly interface, popped up overnight, there would be a large number of visitors (not necessarily users) who would be curious to check it out. That would trigger a lot of traffic, and maybe a VPS couldn't handle it. A dedicated server, or perhaps even two, would be best, in my opinion...

[eUKhost.com]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Your pieces of advice are very helpful.

I am quite aware that one can't compete with Facebook, but one can dream of reaching the popularity of other social networks, such as Netlog, PerfSpot and Hi5 ...

To start with a VPS? Hmm... Seems like a bit too little. I was chatting with some colleagues and we came to the conclusion that - if a brand-new social network, with a really professional design and a user-friendly interface, popped up overnight, there would be a large number of visitors (not necessarily users) who would be curious to check it out. That would trigger a lot of traffic, and maybe a VPS couldn't handle it. A dedicated server, or perhaps even two, would be best, in my opinion...

Hi

You can start with a small dedicated server initially, as you can never predict if you will get many visitors or no visitors initially. Something cheap where you spend only £99 a month should be sufficient to get started. You can see the stats and user base after few weeks and then decide if you should go for a bigger server or continue with the same small server.

[ChristyHeden]

I can recommend a dedicated server provider from my personal experience. I got my dedicated servers hosted from an efficient cloud computing company. You can start with a small number of hosted dedicated servers and expand once the traffic increases. Cloud has potential for infinite expansion. Their hosting service is fully reliable, secure, and fast. You can get as much storage space you require. Their servers have enough RAM to ensure excellent performance even for the toughest of programs. Their data center has seven Internet Backbone Providers with ultra-high cumulative bandwidth. Their dedicated server hosting service is very economical and fully supported.

[Stan]

In relation to the suggestions give to you by Mark and Christy, you may start with an entry level dedicated server and later either upgrade to a better server or switch to a Cloud Hosting platform to obtain the best scalability, performance and affordability. I hope that you are aware about our very new product, the eNlight Cloud.

We take pride in saying that this is one of a kind intelligent computing platform offering Practically Unlimited Resources, On-demand, dynamic scaling, Instant Virtual Server Deployment and much more. Plus it follows a pay-per-use model, so you no longer need to pay for the resources that your website doesn't use.

[DPS Computing]

Yes a single dedicated or cloud hosting solution would definitely be sufficient for a new start up social network.

And never say never about competing with the likes of Facebook. I'm sure in 2004 Zuckerberg was told countless times that he'd "never be able to compete with MySpace". And look at Facebook now .