With Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) rapidly becoming more prevalent in data centers and home offices, many are wondering if it’s worth migrating to NVMe web hosting now. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Well, like other situations, it depends. For most using Linux server hosting, there are only two reasons to hesitate: price and return on investment (ROI). Keep reading to learn what NVMe web hosting is and why you should upgrade now.
What is NVMe Web Hosting?
Let’s first briefly cover NVMe technology and its impact on the digital world.
NVMe Drives
“Solid state drive (SSD)” used to almost always refer to Serial AT Attachment (SATA) drives. But SSD capabilities were held back by the limits of SATA. The newer NVMe SSDs utilize the PCI Express (PCIe) interface instead of SATA, skyrocketing the potential speed for digital storage. NVMe shares superior performance previously reserved for hardware that required the lowest latency possible:
- Graphics processing units (GPU)
- Sound cards
- TV tuners
NVMe in Data Centers
In regards to web hosting, NVMe hardware upgrades are of course done within the web provider’s infrastructure. Server-side enhancements save you valuable time in serving web pages faster. And this already proves necessary to support the next generation of innovative technologies including virtual reality (VR) and Internet of Things (IoT).
If you’ve been wanting to remove caching software or Cloudflare to simplify your system administration duties, or just save disk space, this is your chance.
NVMe Web Hosting Speed
Our NVMe SSD hosting plans work 6-20 times faster than standard HDD hosting plans. This massive boost in performance enables NVMe web hosting plans to gracefully support unlimited websites, databases, email accounts, and data storage for Launch plans and higher.
There’s no extra software configuration required from you to see this spark in performance. Your server doesn’t steal allocated resources from your web applications. Your data isn’t changed in any way. It would just be resting on the next generation of storage technology.
Less Latency
The phrase “we want it now” includes real-time updates. Customers expect web pages to consistently load in under 2 seconds, no matter how many times they modify filtering options. Otherwise they leave, causing a high bounce rate which negatively affects your bottom line.
Do you host live streams for sports or music events on your website? Interactive fans on social media want to talk about the play or verse as it happens, not what just broadcasted but actually happened five minutes ago.
Collaborative document editing applications such as CryptPad allow multiple workers to produce and revise reports and spreadsheets remotely. Real-time comments and revisions on time-sensitive contracts or requests for proposal (RFP) shorten the time needed to close business deals.
Video conferencing with Jitsi Meet and other self-hosted applications go much smoother when everyone’s audio and video are synced and truly transmitted as soon as possible. If your multimedia server can’t meet those bandwidth requirements, you’ll have to do some optimization work or use a software as a service (SaaS) solution like Zoom.
It’s all about the experience being seamless as if everyone were face to face.
Less Caching Configuration Needed
We cover a dozen methods from minimizing code to content delivery networks (CDNs) in our website speed optimization guide. Many of those strategies are about fine-tuning what you’ve already installed. Some of them require more:
- Advanced Linux terminal skills (e.g. web server configuration)
- Third party software (e.g. Cloudflare and caching plugins)
- Time to configure (even with technical support services)
There’s a sweet spot between making changes to your server environment for improved performance and adding so much software that it negates the goal you’re trying to achieve – a faster website for better user experience (UX). Imagine how much smoother your eCommerce site would run if it was ten times faster without caching issues.
Quick note: website owners can upgrade to HTTP/3 for another boost in web server performance. And yes, this is something you can do for free on software that already exists on your web server.
Better Uptime
High-Availability (HA) is important. It does little good to have a blazing fast online store that consistently struggles with random downtime. A lesser discussed benefit to NVMe SSDs is that they’re greener than their predecessors. They consume less power and space, making hardware cooling in data centers easier.
If your NVMe SSD web hosting has downtime, it’s much more likely to be planned, shorter, and due to mandatory system-wide upgrades rather than neighboring customers exceeding resource limits.
Upgrading is Inevitable
Though you may not hear much about it, NVMe SSDs are quickly becoming the norm in enterprise and personal data storage solutions. Notice how PCs have become slimmer than ever? M.2 NVMe drives are the reason for that.
Improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Because of the high demand on tech today, website loading time is a focal point within SEO rankings. Schemas, XML sitemaps, and SSL certificates are all important, of course. But if your website requires looking at a loading animation for five seconds every time:
- Search engines are not going to rank you high, even in relevant search results
- Your web analytics software will report high bounce rates
- Search engines will also notice the bounce rate and rank you even further down
Website speed optimization is an important SEO tool.
Save Money and Time
Many business owners reach a point where the most cost-effective way to enhance site performance is to upgrade the web hosting plan. Many move from shared hosting to cPanel-Managed VPS hosting for better database performance. Some migrate from a VPS to Managed Dedicated Server Hosting for more disk space.
Why migrate from shared hosting to a VPS when NVMe Shared Hosting would give the extra speed without the extra features you won’t use?
Why upgrade from a managed VPS to a dedicated server when you can opt for a NVMe SSD VPS and remove caching software to save space?
NVMe could negate your need for that load balancing setup with extra private servers. A simpler server environment does wonders for you:
- Less downtime
- Less applications to troubleshoot downtime
- More time to work on your feeding bottom line
In the end, you get more of what you most likely need (speed) and less of what you don’t want (extra work). All of this leads to intangible returns on investment.
NVMe Server Hosting is the Future
Your clients, business team, and SEO metrics benefit from the lightning fast performance of NVMe web hosting. You benefit from simplifying your server administration duties and knowing you’ve taken a major leap for excellent user experience (UX).
InMotion NVMe Shared Hosting is here! If you’re looking for NVMe WordPress hosting, ask our Sales Team about getting the website builder installed upon purchase. And as always, if you have any special requests for your NVMe web hosting plan, just let us know and we’ll do our best to assist.
Is InMotion going to offer NVMe drives for Managed WordPress Hosting and Managed VPS plans? Also, any news on OS migrations for the Managed WordPress plans and VPS when CentOS 7 EOL comes up in 2024?
Other NVMe hosting plans will be coming eventually. I have no info regarding migrations when CentOS hits EOL. If you’re looking to get away from CentOS or cPanel, there’s always our bare-bones Cloud Server Hosting with Debian or Ubuntu Server.