Managed hosting is one of the fastest growing segments of the hosting industry. While more websites continue to aggressively advertise this type of service, it remains a solution and term that isn’t quite as understood as it should be. This guide will attempt to clear up a few of the misconceptions that are floating around the Web and provide some valuable information that customers may actually put to beneficial use for online businesses.

Managed hosting is basically a hosting solution wherein the server is managed by the Web Hosting company. To ensure smooth operation of hosting a web site, the server has to be consistently monitored for any glitches and regularly upgraded with security patches and new features.

While a large number of companies choose to hire full time IT staff to manage the servers and perform regular operations, it is not always the most cost efficient system considering the personnel and training costs. This is where the role of managed hosting companies comes in. Hiring managed hosting companies to manage the operations of the server is essentially outsourcing the server management. These companies hire full time employees who have expertise in performing hosting management operations and are able to provide a more cost efficient solution than an in-house team by having multiple clients.

Moving Beyond Shared Hosting
Most, if not all, reputable hosting companies provide basic server management like critical security updates and basic uptime monitoring. It is essentially in their own interest to provide these basic management services. However, for the perfect operation of server, a lot more monitoring and management is required compared to basic services offered by these companies.

The difference between having a managed hosting company manage the servers and the basic management provided by most hosting companies is the level of monitoring, additional value added services and the level of tech support to the customer. Most managed hosting companies offer a service level agreement and provide specialized services which are not covered by most hosting companies in their basic management offerings.

Many companies looking for a Web presence often wonder if they need managed hosting. It’s relatively easy to assume that any company could benefit greatly from managed hosting services. Whether or not it is actually necessary can depend upon how much technical know-how the business or its staff has. It also depends on the size of the Web project. If they are using a VPS or dedicated server, the management process can take several hours a day that they would be better off spending on things that actually generate income. One thing is certain about most managed hosting plans: they reduce the amount of work that a company needs to do and this is a good thing for any business.

Having access to highly trained staff at a fraction of the cost of hiring them full time and the level of customer service provided are not the only reasons why it makes sense for most companies to choose managed hosting companies to manage their servers. The additional services offered by such companies make it absolutely worth it to hire them.

Backups are a good example of one such service. Most hosting companies offer basic backup services for a short period of time and they take it at longer intervals of time, usually at midnight. However, managed hosting companies usually offer backup services for a larger period of time and more frequently. Also, the level of customer service offered for restoring the data back is much faster than usually offered by most hosting companies. This is especially important in the event of a catastrophic failure on a popular site, which may lose money for all the time it is not accessible.

Even if a company can handle most of its other tasks, it may not want to handle all of the work surrounding backups. Here is yet another reason to go with managed hosting: ensuring that security is maintained at all times on the server. Data security is just as important as the data itself. With flaws and bugs being discovered all the time as far as Web servers and Web apps are concerned, companies need to make sure that their servers are secure on a 24/7 basis. Anything less could be considered negligent.

Other Areas to Consider
A lot of business owners make the mistake of thinking that training an employee is the best approach when it comes to managed hosting considerations. But if you think about it for a moment, it’s not really all that simple. How much would it cost you to turn a person who is anything but experienced when it comes to managing a server into an expert? There is really no doubt that such an approach would have a pretty impressive price tag associated with it. Time is money, especially when it comes to business operations and managed hosting.

Even if you were to train someone, it is highly likely that even after spending a large amount of time and money on the person, he or she may still not be able to match up to the level of expertise offered by the staff at the managed hosting company. Even more important is the fact that the managed hosting companies maintain servers for multiple companies, and hence have a large amount of experience that can’t be matched by the in-house staff. Here are some of the benefits of having experienced staff on your pay-roll:

• Little Guesswork. If a person has just been trained, then he or she may need to refer to theory and try to make sense of the situation to fix it. This will not only take time but may lead to the wrong conclusion of the cause of a problem because of lack of experience. On the other hand, if someone has dealt with a lot of similar situations in the past, he or she may be instantly able to recognize the cause of the problem and rectify it quickly.

• Better Handling. A person who has past experience with a problem will know what may go wrong while trying to rectify the situation. This in turn may help avoid any catastrophic mistake which may lead to data loss or worsening of the problem. Whereas, a beginner who doesn’t have much experience will be doing a lot of more guesswork and that may turn things worse.

• More opinions. Nobody is perfect and even an experienced server management professional encounters at least one situation where he shows his limits. If you choose a managed hosting plan, the hosting company will put other people at your disposal in case something like this happens. Chances are high that at least one of those persons will come up with a solution. If you only train one employee, he will be on his own and it’s fairly obvious what would happen if he were to be put in a situation he couldn’t handle.
Incompetence and Its Price Tag

Before making your decision, you need to determine how much each minute of downtime costs you. If you are making $30,000 per month, for example, each day of downtime costs you about $1,000. If you choose to go with an un-managed hosting option, you save a few dollars each month but if the site ends up being down for as little as one day due to a mistake, you might end up losing more money than the cost of server management for the entire year.

Lack of competent help has a price. The more money you make through your website, the more willing you should be to pay for quality services. There’s a reason why organizations that require highly specified technical training, such as NASA, offers some very impressive salaries. The same principle is valid for every other kind of business that is dependent upon high level technical training or expertise.

If you need a true professional to handle things for you, being generous is always smart. Having constant access to an expert in server management helps reduce downtime and that in turn saves money. If the website is offline, you won’t be making any money. If the website is slow, you will be making far less money than you could and should be earning. You need someone to keep your website secure, online and loading fast. You need a service that always gets the job done and helps you tap the website’s true potential.

”Best” Managed Hosting Providers
First of all, it’s important to understand that you shouldn’t trust everything you read online. A lot of so-called reviews are full of nothing but fake testimonials published by people associated with a certain company (maybe the owner, an employee or an affiliate).

A testimonial which can be verified is worth hundreds of times more than a random one. If some of your friends are webmasters, don’t hesitate to ask them for a recommendation. If you’re a member of hosting discussion boards such as webhostingtalk.com, don’t hesitate to ask a few questions. If a lot of members with at least some history on the forum vouch for a certain company, at the very least, it is a good idea to give that company a certain level of consideration. After you have put together a list with a handful of candidates, contact them and see how things stand as far as support is concerned. If a company’s overall support is less than impressive, it’s fair to assume that their server management services are nothing to write home about either. Therefore, it is a good idea to send them an email and give them a call. Based on their response time and, of course, on the quality of the responses, you will be able to determine which companies could be worth it and which probably are not.

Communication with the Managed Hosting Provider
After you’ve chosen a “winner,” contact the company in question and explain what you have in mind. Let them know what scripts you plan on using and what your expectations are before making the payment. If you have certain questions or are looking for suggestions, be sure to mention them. Keep in mind that many of these people have probably seen everything there is to see when it comes to web hosting, so their input could definitely be worth quite a lot.

It’s important to understand that clear communication is the key to every kind of success. It is important to have proper documentation of an issue and email certainly helps on that end. However, email is certainly not perfect and there are a lot of technical reasons why it may end up not getting delivered in time or at all. This is why it is important to have a telephone or online chat access to the professionals at the managed hosting company.

Whenever you’re contacting someone, always remember to be polite. If you’re frustrated about a certain hosting problem, calmly explain everything and make it clear that you want things handled as soon as possible. Once the website is back up, send them a “thank you” email at the very least. You can get a lot of mileage with this practice. People remember those who take the time to be gracious.

When it comes to successful small business, it’s all about relationships and knowing how to get what you want in the most efficient, professional way possible. Transparency is also very important. Tear down any wall that could be keeping you and your hosting company from communicating. The server management professional is now a part of your organization, so you should act accordingly. Finding a good managed hosting provider is only complicated if it is made to be that way. Once everyone is on the same track, things will run smoothly and without a glitch. By choosing the right managed hosting provider and maintaining good communications, it will be more likely that your small business will achieve much greater success.

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