Managed Hosting

There are some significant differences between managed hosting and unmanaged hosting, and it depends on your particular needs which one is best.

Managed hosting can have a number of advantages, the biggest of which is that it provides "end-to-end" server management. With managed hosting, all server-related troubleshooting needs are taken care of for you. If your business doesn't have a full-time server administrator or network technician, this can save you from a lot of grief if there's ever a problem with your server.

You also won't need to worry about hardware and software requirements such as the operating system, network connection or administration. These services are all part of what is being managed for you by the hosting company.

Your only responsibility is to manage the content on the website. This can be done from anywhere in the world, so you don't necessarily have to be local to where your server is being hosted.

Many companies providing managed hosting even offer simple "control panels" that let inexperienced and non-technical people set up and maintain their websites. These control panels offer one-click shortcuts to what would normally be complex commands. They can also fix some problems that can pop up under day-to-day operation of a website.

Another factor that is handled for you with managed hosting is the bandwidth. Your hosting company will monitor your site and adjust the bandwidth to meet any increases in traffic coming to the website.

If your website is particularly busy, a managed hosting plan can also include load balancing, which spreads your traffic out over multiple servers to avoid overloading any particular one.

What About Unmanaged Hosting?

With unmanaged hosting, you'll get remote administration access to your server. It's then up to you to ensure all necessary maintenance is taken care of. The catch is, you'll need to be familiar with the technical side of server maintenance (or hire someone to do it for you).

Unfortunately, if you don't have the necessary skills yourself, server administrators don't come cheap. There's also always the concern that they might quit and move on, leaving you with having to train a new person and get them up to speed on the particulars of your website.

The bottom line is that, unless you either have the skills yourself or already have staff in place to handle the administration, it usually makes more sense to opt for managed hosting.

The additional cost of managed hosting over unmanaged is less than you'll need to pay someone to handle the administration duties for you, and having it done for you lets you focus on the most important aspect of your website - the content.

Managed hosting is simply a type of internet hosting defined by the client leasing a whole server exclusively and not sharing it with other companies. There are many benefits to this concept with very few draw backs. The other alternative to this is shared hosting, defined as a partitioned arrangement in which two or more companies share a web server and all the associated programs an operating system only separated by ruining in their own separate partitions. Let's gain a little more insight into these two types of servers and see why managed hosting may be the best service for your web based needs.

A Dedicated Service

Managed webhosting, or dedicated hosting service as it is also called, is more flexible than shred hosting. Organisations being hosted have more control over many aspects of both the services and how the server runs. Web hosting companies that offer this can usually also provide add on services such as updating, upgrading, and other maintenance and repair needs. This may also mean less overheard and a lager return on the initial investment and subscription services.

The availability of high bandwidth from the access of high powered servers allocated from high powered networks from multiple providers is one reason why many companies have chosen to use outsourced managed hosting servers. Due to the included services and maintenance, along with set up and high cost of running, an outsourced managed sever makes more economic sense to companies. This is why dedicated server providers usually include service agreements that include a 100% uptime guarantee. Another is that they are usually networked across multiple quality uplink providers and this ensures that no matter what, the server will stay online, even if an uplink in the network crashes or fails. Dedicated servers now offer greater bandwidth capabilities than most private owned servers can promise, thus increasing total speed for the server and data transfer.

A Shared Service

Just as its name implies, a shared service is a service shared by companies using a single server and all the same programs even running on a separate platform. This is an economical arrangement for both the host and the client; however, it has some severe draw backs. Being that it is shared, this means that all programs, hardware, and the operating system are set up and picked out by the host for all the companies sharing the server to use. In addition, if unique software is needed for a particular company, it cannot be allowed. Another huge drawback is that bots and other malware can easily infiltrate all companies' material on a server and even cause information to leak over.

It's Just a Better Deal

Looking at both types of webhosting, it should be easy to see why managed hosting is a better deal. In addition to greater flexibility and ease of use, managed hosting allows the clients information to be safe from malware and hacks that may come from other companies if they were sharing a server. Additionally, managed hosting provides faster connection and bandwidth speeds, vastly improving data transfer. The nearly 100% guarantee of connectivity and the ability to connect multiple company sites in a managed hosting alone provides justification for the little extra cost. With the extra service provided by a managed hosting company, it will leave you free to run your business, not your server!