Webfusion
You. The web. Connected.
Why Windows?It's a powerful server operating system.
It's made by the world's biggest software company.
Is it right for your dedicated server?
When you buy a dedicated server from Webfusion, you need an operating system. It's the core software that takes care of all the basic functions on the server.
Our dedicated servers come with a choice of operating systems. You can opt for Microsoft Windows or Ubuntu Linux.
Deciding which you need isn't always easy. So we've put together this quick guide explaining when a Microsoft Windows server is the right choice. There's similar information for Linux too.
Forget about your computer
First things first: you don't have to have Windows on your computer in order to run a Windows server. The two are completely separate.
What's your server for?
You will need a Windows dedicated server if you're going to use Microsoft technology to build your website.
Windows servers are best-suited to sites or applications which use the following:
- ASP and ASP.NET
These powerful scripting frameworks from Microsoft allow you to create powerful, interactive websites. Lots of sites use ASP.NET, so perhaps yours does too. - Microsoft SQL databases
Most people buying a dedicated server will host some kind of database on it. If yours uses Microsoft's database management system, you'll need a Windows server.
(Our Windows dedicated servers actually come with Microsoft SQL and the open source alternative, MySQL, too, giving you the best of both worlds.) - FrontPage extensions
Microsoft's web design software uses special extensions to enable some features. All our Windows dedicated servers have what you need to use them.
These aren't the only options you get with a Windows dedicated server. You'll also get PHP, Perl and Microsoft XML. See full specifications now ›
Working out which technologies you need is usually what determines whether Windows is right for you. So always decide on this before buying a new server (no matter how excited you are to get your hands on it!).
And if you hold the purse strings but not the technical know-how, your server manager or web designer should be able to help make the decision.
Tried, tested and tested again
We've used our close relationship with Microsoft to create what we believe are some of the most secure and reliable Microsoft dedicated servers on the market.
We built, tested, tweaked, tested, adjusted, tested then tested these servers again before we were ready to release them to the world. All that hard work has paid off, and like our SLA says, we'll guarantee 99.9% uptime and bandwidth availability for your server.
So what are you waiting for? See our full range of Windows servers ›
Upgrades
We offer a couple of upgrade options for our Windows dedicated servers, just in case the standard spec isn't what you need:
- Windows 2003 Standard Edition
Dedicated servers 1 and 2 come with Windows Server 2003 Web Edition. But you can upgrade the Standard Edition. Just choose the option when you place your order The other servers come with the Standard Edition as, er, standard. - Microsoft SQL Server 2003 Standard Edition
If you need even more features from Microsoft SQL, call our sales team on 0800 0317 800 to talk about upgrades. (They're a little more complex and best dealt with over the phone.)
And if that's not enough for you, you might be better suited to our custom server range. We'll build the server you want to order. See custom servers ›
Where next?
- See our full server range
- Still not sure what you need? Read about Linux.
- Find out what the key features mean for you.
