Putting Certain Things On Separate Servers

[finnegan]

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm overthinking everything but wanting to save time and hassle in the long run.

I'm curious if I should be putting separate projects or software like marketing automation software, tracking, etc on their own server...and what would be the reason for doing so?

 

[Ryuzaki]

There's only two reasons I can think of:

1. You aren't sure when they might spike in resource demand and you don't want all of your sites going down at once.
2. You're concerned about IP Address separation for SEO reasons.

If the 2nd point is your concern, there's cheaper ways to get separate IP Addresses, but I was told by more than one hosting company that IPv4 addresses are all almost taken up so you have to have a solid reason before they'll rent you another one, such as using an SSL cert, etc.

The thing with that too is that unless you really know how to cover your tracks, you aren't going to be fooling Google. There's a ton of ways to figure out what sites you own. You'll fool most people who might go snooping around, but in the end, as long as you aren't doing anything shady, it doesn't matter.

 

[eliquid]

If you are doing things you shouldnt be doing, then do it on sep. servers.

 

[finnegan]

Gotcha.

BTW...I seem to remember reading some place that if you're doing things you shouldn't be doing, it's a good idea to use the nameservers of your registrar and not custom ones.

Any truth to this...and if so, why?

 

[hehejo]

Definitely separate your automation software from your websites and tracking. You don't want your whole network going down just because you violated a ToS or someone complained about some link spam. You also don't want to eat up the resources from your money makers.

Once you have that separation, it really depends. Separation is always good, it adds security if a site gets compromised for example. But it adds cost and overhead. So that's something you need to evaluate for yourself.

Personally if a project is important enough I would put it on it's own VPS. They are cheap enough.

 

[turbin3]

If people want to go down this route, and do it right, they really need to question a few things:

• Sanity
  • To truly do this properly, a person really has to change the entire way they work. Opening the wrong browser, wrong webpage, on the wrong computer/browser indiscriminately, and all of the anonymity you built is effectively GONE.
• Dedication
  • Doing this might really suck, might really mess with your workflow, might add a lot of hassle, might make things take longer, might make things more expensive. Can you really put up with that, and is it worth enough to you to do so?
• Resources
  • It's going to cost money, or a LOT of your time, or both. Taking this to its logical extreme, your going to need things like a VPN, proxies, a VPS or multiple VPS', possibly multiple computers, multiple browsers, and a number of other things. I suppose, if a person really wanted to, and provided enough time and know-how, they could probably custom build a setup to accomplish these things, possibly eliminating the need for some third party services. The fact remains, time is money. This can get expensive quick.
• Paranoia
  • Do you have enough? That's a question you need to ask yourself. There are some fairly obscure, creative, and downright insidious ways you can be tracked and/or identified, often by very peripheral means that might not be obvious.

For most people, I would say they either don't have the time, dedication, resources, or simply don't have the need to go to those lengths. If you are involved in some downright debaucherous efforts (no judgment - get that money!) and truly need to go to those extra lengths, then by all means, jump down that rabbit hole. Just be aware, it's a deep one.