Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

November 12, 2010

Are Managed Hosting Right for your Needs?

Similar to dedicated servers, colocation hosting is available in managed or unmanaged forms. Prior to choosing a colocation hosting provider, it is important to uncover which method suits you and your business needs. Managed indicates a staff at the facility that will complete administer all of your equipment, software updates and security. Unmanaged means you are renting space and maintaining your equipment at a colocation facility.

Managed colocation is one of the best hosting options available to businesses that do not have information technology resources available or lack the time to maintain their equipment. In this service, you and your company never need to touch the equipment as this is provided by the colocation facility. In a typical contract, you lease the space and the hosting provider will cover all maintenance including:

• Reboots
• Troubleshooting
• Software upgrades
• Security
• Temperature controlled environments
• Other tasks

This constant maintenance keeps your equipment running optimally and efficiently. The primary advantages to this type of hosting are your equipment will be store in optimal conditions and you do not have to provide any labor when an issue occurs. Also, the data center properly maintains your equipment by keeping it up-to-date which typically prevents issues from occurring in the first place.

All that is required on your part is moving the equipment to the colocation facility and running your business in an optimal environment. The only real disadvantage to this type of hosting is the cost. It is a substantially higher price for this maintenance because someone else is doing the information technology work for you.

Managed and unmanaged hosting are geared toward two different types of customers. If you have the information technology resources to maintain your equipment, then unmanaged hosting is the best choice. However, for those that do not, managed colocation hosting may be the best option available. This leaves the technical aspect of networking equipment to the professionals.

Any type of hosting option at a colocation facility is an excellent choice. There are many factors as to whether managed hosting if right for your business. It is beneficial to create a pros and cons list of the different methods of hosting and see which type best fits the needs of your business. Luckily, there are numerous web hosting choices for all consumers that differentiate from one another and provide very different options. 

Tags: Dedicated Servers,  Colocation Hosting,  managed colocation,  unmanged colocation,  colocation provider