But pretty soon, you’re going to get more traffic, use more resources or add new functionality onto your site. As your business grows, your needs grow. Maybe you’ve started online marketing, and your website traffic has doubled. Or perhaps, your business needs an ecommerce or shopping cart function to capitalize on the online buying market.

You will run into a resource issue if you are using a shared hosting solution. There’s nowhere to ‘grow’. The shared host has split the server and shared the CPUs among their many clients, giving an equal percentage of the distribution to each.

For the average blogger, or small website owner – the minimal space allocated will be enough. But not everyone requires the SAME amount of resources. If there are 100 clients on a server, and 10 of them are fighting for the bulk of the resources, the performance will suffer.

The price jump between Shared Hosting and Dedicated Servers is quite large, and that can be scary for the average user and/or business. The cost is justified because you are not ‘splitting’ or ‘going dutch’ on the cost of the server with other clients.

Another solution? Dedicated Virtual Private Server Hosting (or VPS). VPS allows you to allocate dedicated virtual resources (CPU/Memory) without sharing. It also offers the ability to scale your resources as you grow – adding on more space or managed services at your own pace. It’s a more customizable and cost-effective solution because you don’t have to buy the WHOLE server, just the room you need.

Compare our prices today:
Unmanaged and Managed VPS Packages

We researched tips from various tech leaders and narrowed down a list to help your hunt for the holidays with gift suggestions from every category and price.

10. Apple iPad

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway - everyone is talking about it this year. The iPad will have sold close to 10 million units by the end of the year, making it the most successful piece of electronic equipment. Apps, WiFi, 3G, 10 hours worth of battery life – iPad is the must have gadget of 2010. We suggest getting it now as we have a feeling there might be shortage closer to December 24^th!

Value: $600

9. A Very Special Heart

A Very Special Heart allows for immediate evacuation with all of your critical health information. It includes a hidden USB that connects to any computer and holds medical conditions, medications, and allergies information. Non-emergency information like passports, social security cards, and birth certificates can be included with an owner-only password. Due to natural disasters, power outages often leave hospitals without any outside communication and AVSH does not need the internet to access your critical information.

Value: $100

8. Xbox 360 Elite 

The Xbox 360 Elite comes with a massive hard drive and when it comes to great tech gift ideas, the Xbox 360 is still the main contender.

Value: $400

7. Logitech Speakers with Subwoofer 

For distortion-free, deep, tight bass, the Logitech Speakers deliver by enhancing your movie, music and gaming experience. This makes for a great gadget to add to your home. The speakers are able to mirror a wide range of low frequencies, the powerful 8-inch, and 120 watt driver, delivering in spades with the subwoofers port noise that eliminates the flared side port. With the remote you control the subwoofer level, volume and power and there’s a headphone jack. The system comes complete with an audio adapter for quick connections directly to your DVD or CD player, or your game console.

Value: $400

6. Home user online file back up

Back up and security in cyberspace is always a concern and this online backup system helps your piece of mind at home. It installs a small background application on your computer that runs silently and searches for new and changed files to backup. Once it finds the file, it automatically backs it up to Carbonite’s data center, where it’s stored in case you need to restore a lost or deleted file. This involves a yearly membership fee.

Value: $50

There you have the first half of our holiday gift guide. Stay tuned for next week to find out the top 5!

Happy Holidays!

CDN Channel Elite Awards recognizes IT Solution Providers for their innovation, leadership and commitment to creating value for their customers. The winners will be announced at the CDN’s Channel Elite Awards Gala on September 16, 2010 in Toronto, Canada.  It is designed to promote the business advantages that technology solutions can create and to recognize achievement in the channel.

For more information take a look at Channel Elite Awards.

To read more about each of the award categories and Atum’s stories click on the following posts:

Atum for Best Small Business Solution Provider

Atum for Greenest Solution Provider

Thanks everyone!

We’re happy to announce that Atum reinforces itself yet again as a leader in small business server hosting solutions! We are proud to announce that we have received Silver in the Best Small Business Solution (IT Business) CDN’s Channel Elite Awards sponsored by Dell, Tech Data and D-Link.

As previously mentioned, the winners were announced at the CDN’s Channel Elite Awards Gala on September 16, 2010 in Toronto, Canada made to recognize IT solution providers for their leadership, innovation and commitment to creating value to their customers.  The gala is designed to promote the business advantages that technology solutions can create and to recognize achievement in the channel.

The Best Small Business Solution Provider awards were given to companies that created the most innovative and problem solving solution for an organization or department with up to 100 seats. Atum’s solution is dedicated virtual server hosting that comes with managed hosting and unmanaged hosting options.  

Atum is a small business itself and understands that other small businesses need help in competing among large corporations (we know how tough it is). Atum helps small businesses virtualize their IT infrastructures leveling their IT performance with enterprise giants, giving small businesses that competitive advantage.

A small business often finds it hard to perform on the same level as large enterprise but Atum’s fully managed dedicated server hosting solutions are able to provide them with the same resources. Our solution is based on hardware and software manufactured by our partners IBM, Microsoft, Citrix, RedHat, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Symantec and Lenovo to deliver premium results for companies that may not afford to host in house. It’s very unlikely that a small business will be able to afford hardware and software by our partners if they do it inhouse and Atum’s plans start as low as $39/mo providing for that opportunity.

To better put cost cutting for a small business into perspective, it all comes down to price. Comparing this to a competitor’s pricing, to outsource a traditional physical server costs $420/month for a minimum package. This adds up to $5, 040 annual for small business managed dedicated server hosting.

Atum is able to offer the same managed server hosting solution for $89/month, adding up to $1, 068 for a managed server hosting solution. For an unmanaged hosting solution, we are able to offer packages as low as $390 annual!  Even our highest managed server hosting solution plan adds up to $3, 108 annual making it $1, 932 cheaper than the minimum physical dedicated server solution from our competitor.

We don’t only provide small business hosting solutions that are able to cut costs while increasing performance but we are also small business focused and personal. We offer a variety of small business programs, incentives, discounts and open source solutions. Specifically, one of our main involvements in a small business start is the Microsoft BizSpark program. We were once a startup ourselves and know how essential it is to have the right support from well established industry leaders. Since we’re an exclusive Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we’re pleased to offer a Microsoft BizSpark program designed specifically for startups. Today’s most promising start ups are tomorrow’s future and we help them get a head start in the business by providing them with the right visibility, support and software.

Our small business clients have improved the ability to server their own clients because we are a trusty virtual dedicated server hosting backbone. Our SMB clients rely on technology and can’t afford a hosting failure. This allows small businesses to make the most out of their budgets by focusing on their core business. These resources can now be focused on strategic aims, increasing revenue and profitability in areas like business development.

So there you go Toronto, Canada, and everyone else in the world! This is proof once again that if your small business chooses to go with an Atum virtual dedicated server hosting solution, you will be taken great care of by our fantastic team.

Go Atum!

Thanks everyone!

We’re ecstatic to announce that Atum is yet again a leader in green IT & green server hosting solutions! We are proud to announce that we received bronze in the Greenest Solution Provider (IT Business) CDN’s Channel Elite Awards sponsored by Dell, Tech Data and D-Link.

CDN Channel Elite Awards recognizes IT Solution Providers for their innovation, leadership and commitment to creating value for their customers. The winners were announced at the CDN’s Channel Elite Awards Gala on September 16, 2010 in Toronto, Canada.  The gala designed to promote the business advantages that technology solutions can create and to recognize achievement in the channel.

The Greenest Solution Award went to solutions that most effectively served to reduce the environmental impact. The winning solutions had effective ways of reducing energy consumption, the carbon footprint or the ecological impact of any business activity by demonstrating a less negative impact on the environment than alternative solutions.

This past year, Atum has been very active in Green IT and green dedicated server hosting by providing virtual private server (VPS) hosting, educating businesses on the many benefits of virtual server hosting and helping them engage in going green and green IT. Atum helps primarily small to medium sized businesses virtualize their IT infrastructures through server consolidation. Virtualization is simple – it means doing more with less. Less resources used accompanied by more powerful hosting performance and security results in a win-win situation with benefiting not only the environment but also the small business. With a managed dedicated server hosting the business experiences all the advantages of a physical dedicated server hosting (plus more!) for a fraction of the cost and produces a significantly smaller environmental footprint. Atum creates awareness around server hosting green and that Green IT is no longer just good for the environment; it’s also good for business.

As you already know if you browsed around our website, John Posan of Atum was a proud speaker at the 2010 annual Canadian Pollution Prevention Roundtable representing the IT industry and discussing the environmentally friendly way of business hosting.  We were also one of the four finalists from hundreds of national applications in the Quest for Canada’s Greenest IT that included searching for companies with a sustainability objectives, overall green IT corporate strategy, and personal passion for all things green.

To get a better understanding of the IT and server hosting impact on the environment, let’s take the following into consideration. A small business is usually required to host on average 10 applications. Industry Canada reports that in 2001, there were 2, 190 278 small business in Canada. This means that if everyone followed a traditional IT infrastructure, there would have to be roughly 21, 902, 780 single physical servers just for the small business market segment.  Not to mention, the medium sized businesses and large corporations would each more than triple the final number!  It’s scary to even think about. It has also been stated that most servers are idle running at highest at or below 3% peak average utilization resulting in IT equipment accounting for 4% of global carbon emissions. Sure, 4% may not seem like much but if businesses continue to use traditional IT infrastructures reports show that by 2011, IT equipment would overtake air travel as a polluter.  Atum is able to offer a DEDICATED virtual server hosting solution that consolidates servers without disadvantages leading to increased performance, cost cutting and a decreased environmental footprint.

Atum doesn’t just talk the Green IT virtualization talk and makes sure to engage in a variety of environmental incentives internally and with our clients. The greatest financial benefit Atum’s customers receive with Atum is the cost saving from virtualizing their IT infrastructures and engaging in dedicated virtual server hosting. The money saved can now be distributed to integral departments and allow the business to focus on core areas. As Atum takes care of the business IT needs, the customer has now more money and time dedicated to growing and flourishing.

Atum also isn’t strictly a hosting provider and are a Microsoft and Citrix certified IT consultants. All of Atum’s VPS clients receive 20% off on their IT consulting requirements such as migration, system analysis, application troubleshooting, data recovery, and support. We like to develop relationships with clients that benefit their needs and remind them that server hosting with us benefits the environmental as well as their business.

Another way Atum increases financial benefits for clients so that converting to green IT is easier is through our recycling program that purchases client’s hardware. If a client wants to switch to a virtual infrastructure but doesn’t know what to do with their physical servers, Atum will buy the servers either recycling them properly or reusing them in an effort to assist the client and the environment. Similarly, if a client is hesitant to switch to a dedicated VPS box, unlike many other hosting companies Atum will provide a 30 day no obligation trial to help make the change for the client easier.

We truly believe virtualization is the future of server hosting that is able to benefit the environment greatly.

Being green is a personal passion for us and we are proud to deliver these solutions. As a matter of fact we’re so green, our dress code for work is green only! Come check us out at 5255 Yonge St, Toronto

Go Atum!

Thanks everyone!