MANAGED HOSTING

MANAGED HOSTING

By: Richard , from ; developersnetwork.com

Companies who do not have the technical equipment or technical personnel to handle in-house hosting will benefit by outsourcing their needs to a managed hosting company. Managed hosting provides servers, services and support, all in one package and usually for a monthly fee. Unlike the colocation model, managed hosting customers do not buy their hardware outright. Instead, customers choose the components that they need and pay a recurring packaged service fee, which includes their required hosting and capacity needs. The managed hosting provider assembles the server, installs all the software and provides technical support. Servers are housed in a telco-grade data center and are maintained by the managed hosting company. Managed hosting companies guarantee their hardware for the life of the server, with defective server components being replaced as required, often at no extra charge to customers. This eliminates the problem of server inadequacy or obsolescence that can arise with customers who own their own equipment.

To a certain extent, managed hosting customers also face restrictions such as being limited to the hardware, operating systems and facilities offered by their managed hosting provider. However, while a virtual hosting company may only offer one platform or operating system, managed hosting companies typically offer support for multiple operating systems. Most hosting companies offer a variety of different managed server packages including value-added services customers opt for, such as e-mail systems, firewalls and performance-monitoring software to suit a wide range of budgetary and technical needs.

As servers are housed in a secure data center on the managed hosting company’s premises, customers do not usually have physical access to them. Managed hosting companies compensate for this lack of control by providing 24/7 technical support that includes constant monitoring and maintenance. The managed hosting company performs all software installations, hardware replacements, and hardware and software upgrades. Scaling is a simple matter for managed hosting companies, who typically have on-site provisioning departments. Typically, all that is required to add another server or increase bandwidth is a phone call or e-mail. Other advantages of the managed server concept include low up-front capital costs, flexible month-to-month contracts, and rapid server deployment; if the parts are on-site, it can take less than one man-hour to build and deploy a managed server.

The up-front capital costs involved in managed hosting are extremely low when compared to colocation. Managed hosting companies typically charge an “initiation of service” fee that includes the set-up fees for a number of value-added services, as well as for the provisioning of the server itself. The recurring fees for managed hosting cover monthly software and hardware costs, data center fees, and maintenance and monitoring by technical support staff.

<<Back>>

Other Related Links