Before we start talking about how managed hosting can boost your business, let’s first understand what is managed hosting. As defined by TechTarget, “Managed hosting is an IT provisioning model in which a service provider leases dedicated servers and associated hardware to a single customer and manages those systems on the customer’s behalf.”
Now let’s understand what are the different features of Managed hosting
Different managed hosting providers offer different features. However, the most common ones include:
- Automatic backups of data
- Disaster recovery process in place
- Load balancing
- 24 x 7 support for resolving different technical glitches. They resolve technical issues at the beginning to prevent small issues from turning big
- Application support
- End-to-end server management including server monitoring, configuration, and maintenance
- Data security
So, the vital question remains – is managed to host for you?
Before you decide if you want managed hosting for your business or not, let’s understand what are the benefits of managed hosting.
- Managed hosting lets you save huge on your operating costs. In a managed hosting model, you don’t need to spend for people managing your server. So, you save for hiring database admin, system admins, and other heads.
- You can’t afford your hosting server to be down. Downtime costs your revenue and turns off your customers. Hence you need to hire a team of professionals who will support 24 x 7. Plus, you need to train them to have your business up and running throughout the day and night. Having a professionally managed hosting model means there will be a dedicated team who will do the task for you – 24 x 7 x 365 days.
- Database security is taken care of by experts. Which means you don’t need to worry about updating your OS, virus scanning, spam filtering, auditing for security checks, firewall configuration, etc. Instead, you can focus your time and energy on your core business while the rest is taken care of by the managed hosting partner.
- Your server is monitored proactively in a managed hosting model. So, you will be alerted for vulnerabilities immediately so that your business is not hampered in any way. Having a dedicated server monitoring team increases your operational cost by manifolds.
- However, the biggest benefit of having a managed hosting model is you can reach out to them any time, from anywhere through different modes of communication channels.
- Last but not least, you don’t need to break your head over data backup. It is taken care of in a managed hosting model automatically. This means, there is no fear to lose your vital data as data gets backed up and stored securely.
- If you are doing customer transaction that deals with sensitive data like personally identifiable information, etc. then you need to follow certain mandates partnering with a dedicated hosting provider would benefit your business.
- One size doesn’t fit all and hence managed hosting service provider offer tailor-made solutions to businesses which means you get customized services that fit your requirements.
Everyone likes IT to work seamlessly. But it is no magic. You need constant monitoring intervention to keen your server going on. If you want your IT infrastructure to deliver seamlessly and wow your customers with a smooth transaction experience, then you need to ensure that your server is up and running 24 x 7, literally. For this, you need to continually manage and optimize your server usage.
If you have the resources and budget, then there is no doubt to do it in-house. You allocate a budget and dedicated team of experienced professionals who can do this for you. But if you are just starting up or have a limited resource/budget then managed hosting model can work great for you. You can focus on your core business while all the server hosting and management issues are taken care of by a team of expert professionals. You can then utilize your resource and budget in other critical activities. Further depending upon your priorities, needs, and budget you can choose from different models a service provider is offering – for example, proactive support, on-demand support, and so on.
