Best Managed Hosting

Managed hosting provides servers to users for websites. This comes along with technical support. The server vendors provide the required hardware to clients. 

The vendors often take up the task of setting up and configuring equipment. They provide clients with facilities like FTPs (File Transfer Protocols). It also gives them application support and other facilities. These differ from owned websites and public cloud sites. 

Owned hosts usually belong to one party (individual or organisation). Public cloud sites are those where you can store information online. Examples of cloud sites include Gmail, Facebook, etc.

What is Managed Hosting used for? 

Many bigger companies do a lot of their business online.  They need elaborate platforms for this. Platforms that do not burden them with having to look into technical issues of the site and servers. 

• Managed hosting enables you to customise IT facilities for your business. It does this better than cloud services. They can help customers adhere to compliances or industry standards. Clients may need to get their systems in a more dedicated or customised model.
• Organisations can select dedicated IT environments. There is no need to worry about the delivery of the services from data centres of their own. Industries may often need data and workload stored on different servers.
• These kinds of sites cater to a wide range of IT uses. This includes finding disaster recovery and data backup. And large-scale storage and big data analytics.
• They are also ideal for running legacy or custom apps. We can also use them as modes of extending in-house architecture.
• Managed hosts can also include dedicated and shared ones
• It is best suited for elaborate businesses like e-commerce or online gaming.
• Good vendors will provide facilities like support through email and chat. This will allow you to streamline your work better. Some sites may even update plugins in a separate environment.
• The servers of managed sites have large infrastructures. This allows them to have a global reach. As a result, they can place their pages close to consumers. Now your visitors can load pages faster. Because placing your site closer to visitors reduces network latency.
• Customised solutions are a plus point to look out for in a site. These will suit your individual needs.

How did we pick the best Managed Hosting?

How do you decide which hosting is the best for you with the range of options available? The nature of your business would determine the best vendor for you. They must offer features, services and add-on bonuses tailored to your needs. Test as many hosting plans as possible. 

• High-Performance hardware is an essential part of any good site. Choose hardware like Intel Xenon CPU’s and SSD hard drives.
• The quality of the control panel is very important. It can make a big difference in taking care of the tasks that are not present in the site’s service package.
• You must have full root access over any server in case you are leasing it. Make sure the vendor provides this by enabling full root SSH/RDP access.
• Websites nowadays need good port speed. They need port speeds of 1Gbit. 
• You may want round-the-clock availability for the service since you are paying for it. Your service provider must provide 100% uptime.
• Your managed site should provide you with firewall protection. These assure you protection from an array of security threats.
• Having an IT expert there to help in case of any issue is something to ensure. Your service provider should offer you technical support 24/7, throughout the year.
• It is good to ensure that you pick vendors who provide services customised to your needs.
• The time taken in troubleshooting is vital to any business. Loss of time equals a loss of money. Solutions should be available after hours to sort out any issues in the shortest of time. Having your site managed ensures round the clock back up and troubleshooting facilities.

Why do I need Managed Hosting? 

Small business owners often have to juggle many responsibilities. This makes it hard for them to look into technical issues. This is especially true as their business grows. Even if you have your own in-house IT staff, it is not the best idea to use them for web hosting.

• It is usually not cost effective to have your own IT staff to maintain and track your servers 24/7. But something may go wrong after working hours. The web host will often have a support staff who will track your server round the clock.
• Administering your hosting needs yourself may prove to be an expensive affair. A service provider can charge bulk rates for bandwidth, software, and server space. This saves you a lot of money.
• Use your in-house IT staff for other functions. This ensures that you put their talent to better use while still having tech support. Managed hosting websites can often handle issues faster.
• The web host can offer you much better security. It can also enhance performance. It does this by using the technology available through the data centre. Your website will then be accessible and reliable for your customers.
• Websites of people who lack the required expertise to run them can rely on this kind of host.
• A poll carried out on twitter showed that 63% of people preferred uptime as a valued quality.

What should I look for when buying Managed Hosting? 

Every organisation is unique and its requirements will vary. A good hosting site should be able to cater to the specific needs of clients. Once you have chosen a vendor, it will be difficult to change. This makes it important to look at various factors before deciding. 

• Look for hosts who provide good speed on their servers. Especially during peak traffic hours. Load Impact Testing tools can test server speed.
• Scope of service is a key point to consider. Sites must provide support for every level of user. This ranges from complete newbies to professional users. They receive partial or full hosting management.
• Value-added features are a must. Features such as those that allow for updates without rebooting.
• You can check that your server has a physical hardware RAID with at least two discs. This way you would still have a working disc should one malfunction.
• Assess the uptime you need and ensure that your vendor can provide the same. Look into ways of compensation if they do not meet your requirements. Luckily most service providers maintain over 99% uptime.
• Make a good estimate of the expected traffic on your website. This will help you decide your budget for a service provider. Honesty with yourself is important. This will ensure an accurate traffic estimate and save a lot of money.
• For WordPress pages, a good staging environment is important. This allows you to test changes to your website. You can then make it available to your visitors.
• You might prefer sites with simple interfaces.
• Your site should be as secure as can be. A good quality plan keeps your data safe as it travels through the internet. This can help prevent hackers from stealing private information about your website users.
• Ensure that the vendor owns their hardware. They may often lease their hardware. Or they may resell servers from others. If this is the case, it may present certain issues. 
• Lack of spare parts- you may only rent the servers but not the parts. If the server malfunctions, you will need to shift your site. This could take hours or even days. Your site will be offline for this time.
• Custom solutions require vendors who own their hardware. Rented hardware restricts this except for some things like RAM upgrading.  
• Service providers who rent or lease will not provide you with on-site support staff. Since they own nothing, they will not have data centres.
• Company stability is an important consideration. Your service providers need to assist you for the long haul. Fly-by-night companies are common among web hosts. Be sure to research your vendor’s site well.
• Managed hosting is often available as a value-added service. You will usually calculate the plan costs by first finding out how much an unmanaged hosting plan is. You will then add the management costs.

Does Managed Hosting cost more? 

Cost is a vital factor to consider when choosing web hosting options. Balancing savings with quality of service is essential. 

• The average hosting price is about 29 USD per month. This gives you about an hour of administration time.
• Most Managed hosts charge between 50 USD to 75 USD per hour for technical support.
• Some companies offer fixed rates for their services. The costs range from 230 USD to 400 USD. Longer contracts are much cheaper than shorter ones.
• Make a comparative study with other hosting methods to arrive at a better decision.
• Managed hosting is often cheaper than having in a house IT staff. But it can be more expensive than other kinds of hosting. 

Managed Hosting Pro’s & Con’s 

Managed hosting offers several benefits like technical back up or speed optimisation. Factors like cost are also important. Here are a list of pros and cons to look at before deciding.

Pro’s 

• The environment which contains your site must always be up to date. Managed hosting ensures this.
• Your service provider will manage speed optimisation for you. This will ensure a much lower chance of downtime.
• Cybersecurity is better executed with managed hosts. They offer multilayered protection and authentication.
• Managed vendors offer a diverse range of solutions. These will cater to any needs and issues of the client.
• The service provider takes full responsibility for infrastructure maintenance.
• Having full control of your server means external issues will not affect you. Otherwise, issues with other systems on the server may cause adverse effects for you.
• Many managed sites are turbo optimised. This makes them up to 20 times faster.

Con’s 

• Greater costs for extra services.
• Narrower access to the application and your scope of control.
• The data customising and storing policy may not be customisable. Only higher level service packages cater to clients’ specific needs.
• Some Managed Hosts can offer limited flexibility. 

• You will find significant differences in the quality of the hosting service. This is usually when you have access to the hosting resources.
• Dedicated sites have a single point of failure. Complete shutdown results should something go wrong with components like the CPU. Especially in case of a power outage.

Conclusion 

We have looked at factors to consider when shopping for a managed host. Good web hosts cater to various needs for your business or project. Know what you are looking for in a host site. You must know all the positive and negative points of different service providers. Cost-effectiveness allows you to save for other investments. Cutting down expenditure along with quality and value-added features are important. It is important to know the benefits and adversities of the various vendors. This allows you to choose the best for your needs.

Some key points to remember when picking the right host for you;

• The flexibility of customisation. This would include things like customised apps. This is essential for ensuring services tailored to one’s needs.
• Specialized IT and tech support.
• Provides facilities like data backup and recovery.
• Have control and root access to the servers.
• These sites are ideal for managing in-house architecture.

With all this in mind, you will find a host that will bring success to your business or project.