What is "Managed" Hosting?

Those in the digital space are familiar with Managed Hosting in one way or another.

This is a business model where a service provider leases hardware to a single customer. The service provider also provides management of the servers, software, and networks necessary for hosting for the customer.

If an issue arises, a managed hosting provider is there to help pinpoint the problem and rectify it.

What is Fully Managed Dedicated Server Hosting?

Fully Managed Dedicated Server Hosting is an isolated hosting environment where the provider handles the setup, administration, management, and support of the server or platform application. The resources are specific to the user ensuring that your data alone is hosted in your environment without being affected by the issues that arise from sharing resources.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the most popular example of multi-tenancy. This is where many sites or applications exist on the same server. Quite often, shared hosting divides the server resources among customers. This would include storage and bandwidth and in some cases RAM and CPU cores.

Think of shared hosting as a home with renters all sharing the same living space.

Managed Dedicated Server Hosting

Dedicated hosting would be an example of single-tenancy. With this type of environment, a single customer hosts their site(s) or application(s). With managed dedicated server environments, the server hardware and resources for that hardware belong to that single customer.

To continue with the above analogy, think of dedicated hosting as a home with one occupant. This avoids “noisy neighbors” encroaching on your space, disrupting your space and the space of those visiting your site.

What Does It All Mean?

I’m sure you were asking that question. To put it simply, “managed” means that your service provider will manage your environment for you so you don’t have to. Moreover, you don’t have to pay someone to do it for you.

Don’t get me wrong, there are those that prefer to manage their environment in-house. We will explore that idea in a moment. But for those that are starting out fresh, managed hosting makes more sense. Most likely, you may not have the overhead for a Systems Administrator yet.

Why Would Someone Pay for Managed Hosting When They Could Manage In-House?

This is a question that every business owner has to face, and it’s a tough one. There is much talk in the industry from agencies and business owners, especially around the cloud, security, internet of things, privacy, and cyber attacks.

What Benefit Does Managed Hosting Offer Over In-House Management?

The answer to this question will differ between companies. It will depend on the project that you are working on. Effective planning can be the difference between success and failure for your business. I learned from past experience that a Business Continuity Plan is a time and money saver. According to cio.com, a Business Continuity Plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood or cyber attack.

No matter the size of the company, when it comes to managing your infrastructure, you value time and money.

There are three large categories of costs that you must consider.