Affordable Cloud Platforms

The road to establish your web presence is full of crossroads with a plethora of options and choices. It all starts with number of options to choose from different types of web hosting solutions. There are many versions of hosting including VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, shared hosting, and cloud hosting to name a few.

Managed web hosting is a boon for individuals who lack the technical expertise or manpower to manage day to day administration of web hosting, applications, security updates, and other server related tasks. This type of web hosting should be considered for websites that are expected to grow in terms of popularity.

Benefits of Managed Hosting Services

As mentioned earlier, managed web hosting is offered by web hosting provider who performs all server related operations on behalf of website owners. It was primarily designed to facilitate clients of dedicated server hosting and has slowly been extended to other types of standard web hosting such as VPS hosting, colocation hosting, and cloud hosting.

Ideal use of managed hosting

Website owners prefer managed web hosting to reduce their efforts as well as to free up their IT staff from the responsibilities of performing mundane tasks of server management. There are two types of scenarios that encourage use of managed hosting as explained below:

1. Lack of in-house IT expertise- Administration of server space requires greater proficiency and IT knowledge. This is particularly applicable for websites that are resource intensive on account of large number of hits or seasonal spikes. Web hosting services make sure that all administrative and operational aspects of web hosting are properly implemented.
    
2. Lack of other resources- Website owners turn to managed web hosting due to paucity of time because of excessive IT workloads. Managed services look after the server management so that the IT personnel are able to devote their time to focus on more important projects.

Features of managed hosting

The additional expenses incurred for availing managed hosting are justified due to a plethora of services that are offered by web hosting service providers. The type of service offered by different web hosts may differ to great extent. However the following are the commonest services available as part of managed hosting solutions.

Web hosting providers look after server monitoring, software or hardware upgrades, and setting up of control panels in accordance with individual requirements of users. Users of managed services are also able to avail wide range of backup facilities and trouble-shooting services. Managed web hosting services also include security audits and on-call maintenance.

Assured security

Security of databases and servers is the prime need of any web hosting activity for assured business continuity as well as adherence to regulatory protocols. Managed web hosting facilitates uncompromised security of servers as well as databases by running periodic security audits and configuration of firewall.

Reliable hosting providers have required expertise as well as experience of dealing with issues related to server security by assuring spam filtering and virus scanning. Continuous monitoring and scanning of operating systems and vital applications keep vulnerabilities and cyber attacks at bay.

Storage management

Data storage needs of an organization are always subject to change. The change in storage requirements is primarily in terms of storage space. Companies can be relieved from frequent hassles of making additional provisions for more storage space. Costs for purchasing the additional storage and management of the same can be saved by managed storage services.

Similar processes are involved in management of databases. However, database management requires highly experienced database administrators since this is one the most challenging and mission critical operations. Managed service providers will help you design custom database system that perfectly matches your needs.

Cost effective and tailor-made solutions

Managed web hosting can benefit small and medium sized enterprises to a great extent. Since SMEs lack the fundamental infrastructure and manpower to perform server and database management, managed hosting providers shoulder the responsibility of managing web hosting and help such organizations save huge costs related to maintenance and manpower.

Established providers of managed hosting services are capable of customizing the management of hosting services by designing a tailored solution for every individual client. Businesses are therefore able to carve out a perfectly tailored solution by informing their unique needs to hosting providers.

Enhanced business focus

For every entrepreneur, the business and its core competencies are of extreme significance. Managed hosting helps website owners stay focused on their businesses without getting distracted due to the tasks related to server management.

Managed web hosting also saves time and efforts required for routine server administration. Since hosting providers are efficient in round the clock performance monitoring of client’s websites and other web based applications, entrepreneurs can pay undivided attention to growth of their business.

In conclusion

Managed web hosting services may appear to be cost intensive but by considering the wide spectrum of benefits offered by them one can appreciate need to opt for such solutions.

The costs can be easily justified by round the clock availability of highly experienced technical staff to look after your web operations and a plethora of other initiatives that make sure that your digital assets are handled with care and competence.

Every online venture needs support of an efficient host and a perfect hosting ecosystem that constitute a rock-solid foundation for the online business or a web-venture. These aspects of hosting provide remarkable capability to meet challenges of fluctuating traffic or sudden peaks in number of concurrent visitors. 

There are many advantages of getting the right hosting support in addition to the technical expertise such as presence of top-tiered datacenters with multiple redundancies such as connectivity, power supply and so forth.

Most of the potential users of web hosting have no difficulty to understand different types of hosting such as shared or dedicated hosting. However there is a pretty thin line dividing managed and unmanaged dedicated hosting. Moreover, management of server or managed hosting is not discussed during initial shared hosting phase.

If you have made up your mind to move up to dedicated hosting by leaving shared or VPS server hosting, then you must gain an in-depth knowledge about essential features and advantages of managed hosting over unmanaged hosting. These aspects of managed and unmanaged hosting are obviously not related to costs because the option of managed services is bound to cost more than unmanaged hosting.

Features of managed hosting

There are multiple factors involved in a hosting plan. One of the most vital aspects of any hosting plan is associated with the hardware including the server along with a multitude of software applications and an operating system. 

One can also get additional services from provider of managed hosting such as virus scanning, automated backups, security, and updating of all software applications and operating systems among others. The add-on features of managed hosting plans are nothing but components of hosting management. In short, users of managed hosting are able to enjoy a wide spectrum of additional services and benefits in comparison with unmanaged hosting plans.

While the specific types of services provided under managed hosting plans may not be similar for all managed hosting provider companies, it would suffice to mention the most common services for sake of understanding. 

On such service is that of automated backups and is considered as the most significant as well. Importance of data integrity and availability is a must for seamless running of web applications. Automated backups help obviate need for making frequent backups on your own. 

There are different versions of automated backups and one must take a critical look at the way the backup processes are carried out. Some providers offer their backup services only as courtesy by storing these on the site’s server and few guarantee storage of databases as well as site’s data on separate systems.

These situations underline significance of finding the right host by making a critical analysis of plans and their features and also hint at the complexity of finding a right hosting service for managed hosting. 

The two essential aspects of backups are inclusion of databases and not storing backup on a server that also happens to store site data. Storing backups on a different server improves data safety even if there is a hardware malfunction. 

Additionally, backing up the databases makes great sense in terms of Content Management Systems because you can make sure that all vital data including posts, comments and other customer credentials are provided immunity against possible event of CMS re-installation. 

Understanding unmanaged hosting 

Server management tasks are entirely assigned to users in unmanaged hosting plans and hence it is termed as ‘unmanaged hosting’. It can be compared with Do-It-Yourself projects that require availability of technical prowess since server management as well as installation of software or configuration of operating systems must be managed by the users.

Since the management tasks are assigned to users, unmanaged hosting is remarkably more economical than managed hosting plans. The hosting provider’s support will be limited to running the show by rebooting servers, network maintenance, and replacement of components. Users cannot expect any assistance in terms of software installation, security updates and so forth. 

The server will have to be essentially managed by users including hardware as well as software components. They will be required to fix technical glitches and configuration of operating systems. It is not surprising that several hosts do not even provide a control panel for server administration. 

Moreover, if at all you choose to seek the support of host to address any issues, then the total expenditure will be enough to nullify your savings. This does not mean that unmanaged hosting offers no benefits at all. 

It is the right option for users who need to exercise total control on the hosting environment. It is designed for users who have required technical expertise and manpower. 

In conclusion 

If you are prepared to pay for enjoying freedom from complex server management or dealing with downtime events, then managed hosting is what you are looking for. Managed hosting providers support website performance by handling routine or emergency server issues and the facilities of automated backups or performance monitoring further boost your website operations. 

Majority of enterprises as well as individuals count on website hosting to make sure that, their business sites are easily accessible to visitors from any location on the globe via Internet. Website hosting service providers allocate storage space as well as bandwidth to users. 

Small and medium enterprises need to focus their time and manpower resources for business establishment and growth. In house management of servers and networking equipment can severely impact these resources and company’s overall performance as well. Similarly unmanaged hosting can put excessive burden of day to day server operation as well as maintenance and troubleshooting on IT teams of the organization.

Knowing what you need

Before you select managed hosting to keep your website up and running, you need to assess your hosting needs to design a clearly defined objective for establishing web presence. This will help you understand nature of services that should be offered by web hosting providers. There are multiple categories of web hosting services being offered by service providers and therefore users need have an in-depth understanding their hosting needs. 

One must study various types of web hosting services to choose the most appropriate plan that matches individual hosting needs. Some of the reputed service providers can also offer plans according to the specific requirements of users by way of customization. 

Key attributes of web hosting services

Web hosting service providers are known to offer expert technical assistance, thus minimizing need to appoint web masters for looking after routine monitoring and maintenance of servers and networking equipment. 

Reputed web hosting services facilitate easy access of websites with multiple features such as videos, graphics, animation, or audio files. Website owners can reach out to their prospective clients that may be located in different parts of the globe. 

Web hosting services allow creation of databases that play vital role in sustaining a robust web presence. You can also add various functionalities with help of web hosting providers including e-commerce shopping carts, chat rooms, forums, and e-learning portals to name a few. 

There are host of additional benefits provided by trusted web hosts. These include e-mail accounts that empower your business communications with domain specific mail addresses. 

Efficient monitoring

Every website must be supported by efficient and round the clock server monitoring for business continuity. It involves uninterrupted server scanning to identify probable failures or any technical glitches that would impact server performance. Server monitoring provides an opportunity to address issues before these could snowball into problems leading to server crash. The process of server monitoring ensures that websites continue to operate without any possibility of downtime. 

Enhanced security

There are multiple precautions that need to be taken to ensure that the server is securely operating. These are updating operating systems, running security audits and frequent virus scans, and configuration of firewall to name a few. Web hosting services are backed by vast experience of carrying out security related tasks and have the appropriate tools and manpower as well. In order to make sure that servers and networking equipment are performing to their fullest, they monitor operating systems and core applications to rule out potential hazards. 

Managing backup and storage

Storage needs of organizations can never remain constant. Business growth, expansion plans, and traffic fluctuations can impact resource requirements including storage. Established service providers of web hosting services possess high end capabilities to make sure that businesses do not suffer due to resource availability. Organizations choose managed storage services to mitigate expenditure required to maintain on site storage facilities. 

Data security is an important factor to prevent any intrusion or hacking attempts. Data loss can lead to irreparable damage to business prospects that may force the business to shut down. Backups are extremely essential to prevent data loss. It is observed that a disaster has potential to cause immense damage to data that can be as high as 50 percent.

Periodic data backup services ensure that organizations are always prepared to face challenges that can be of manmade or natural origin. Website owners can be assured that their website data storage is maintained efficiently so that they are able to concentrate on business growth. 

Cost efficient services

It is not feasible for small and medium businesses to maintain in-house IT infrastructure that can cost a fortune. In addition to huge capital expenditure, there is also need to hire technical personnel to look after various technical aspects of running websites and maintaining server infrastructure. Website hosting services providers are well equipped with dedicated infrastructure of data center to offer seamless technical support through experienced technical professionals. These technical support executives are available round the clock to resolve any technical issue. Business owners are able to divert their manpower to accomplish more productive work than routine server maintenance. This can improve their bottom line with greater focus on core functions. Incessant uptime guarantee enhances business continuity to improve overall revenue generation. 

Takeaway

Businesses can derive remarkable advantages by choosing managed website hosting services. One must appreciate multiple benefits of managed web hosting in order to get proper understanding of its significance. 

Every business wants to wade through the success path! Every business envisages for wider customer base! Few achieve, many struggle, and majority fail!

As technologies have become more complex in recent times, keeping up with the changing business demands has become a more challenging task for businesses. There are a smorgasbord of tools that allow organizations to manage their server environment on their own, however, technical prowess, round the clock monitoring, and time required to manage it can be out of reach for internal IT teams. It may also lack the necessary flexibility, depending on the organization shape and size. Managing company’s infrastructure in-house can help in saving overhead expenses, however carrying out the task successfully is not a cakewalk, as it demands high-end technology and human resources to be in place.

Managed Hosting Services to Rescue…  

Managed hosting services free a business’s in-house IT team from the burden of day-to-day server management activities, allowing them to focus on their competencies.

Let’s fathom how businesses can benefit from managed hosting services:

Security: A managed hosting service provider acts as an extension of an organization, providing them access to tools, technologies, and other resources for smooth business functionality. Buoyed by flexible technologies, procedures and operations, these service providers adopt best practices and standards to adapt readily to their evolving requirements. The IT professionals at the hosting partner’s end possess rich experience that helps them to look after your organization’s security 24*7, which in point of fact is not feasible with internal IT team. Furthermore, the IT administrators keep a constant track of all activities to prevent every threat that can affect your business operations.

Holistic Management: Besides keeping security channels strong, the other benefit of managed hosting services is that experts perform backup of your data and systems so you can focus on other important aspects.

System Hardening: Another way managed hosting solutions benefit organizations is by performing system hardening – right from the software patching, removing unwanted software, usernames, logins to removal of unnecessary services. This, in turn, allows businesses to perform uninterruptedly without worrying about security of their critical IT resources.

SLA bound Network Uptime: Managed IT service providers ensure maximum network uptime for business critical websites and applications. When managing in-house, most of the businesses encounter server issues that further to crash or failure. However, a reliable service provider has a team of skilled professionals that takes care of your server environment and addresses the arrived issues in the nick of time. They provide 99.95% to 100% network uptime, which means your website or other hosted applications will remain accessible to you and your end-users no matter what unforeseen situations may arrive.

Regulatory Requirements: Every business has its unique structure and regulatory demands. Well, the list of security and regulations is endless such as HIPAA, PCI, and ISO. A business needs to explicitly understand what regulatory needs they have to bring in place in order to comply with business’ standards. Also, they need to have expertise to implement it in the right way. Managing all this internally is not an easy feat. And, if tried without having any hands on experience, it can have an adverse effect on business functioning. Here, managed hosting service provider can help in clearing up such mess. They possess the expertise and know how to meet regulatory needs of diverse businesses.

A team of well-versed experts complement business’s internal staff to deal with cyber-attacks and ensure that your business operates seamlessly 24*7. MSP helps organizations with complex applications and databases, confidential data, high-traffic online presence, and audit/regulatory concerns in the most holistic manner. No matter how complex your server ecosystem, a reliable benefactor can help you enhance system performance and reduce overall costs.

If you are looking forward to opt for managed hosting services, you can connect with our experts now!