Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

January 19, 2011

How Managed Hosting Can Save You Time and Money

Dedicated hosting is often touted as the pinnacle of web hosting, providing access to a personalized private web server that is only utilized by a single webmaster at all times. Typical cheap web hosting plans offered by web hosting providers operate in a shared hosting environment, which contrasts from dedicated hosting because you are required to share your web server with dozens, or even hundreds of other webmasters.

Unfortunately, not all forms of dedicated hosting are ideal for the average webmaster or novice web developer. Along with the incredible capabilities and functionality of a dedicated server comes additional server administration responsibilities, and the need for more expertise in server management. The following information outlines the main types of managed hosting, as well as the pros and cons of managed hosting.

Types of Managed Hosting

There are two main types of dedicated hosting – managed hosting, and unmanaged hosting. It is also important to note that there are varying degrees of managed hosting, with fully managed hosting being a full-service solution which includes 24-hour support, and partially managed hosting being a more limited solution. It is also important to realize that different web hosting providers have varying opinions and definitions of what they believe fully managed hosting is in comparison to partially managed hosting. In other words, while one web hosting provider may advertise their service as a fully managed hosting plan, it may actually only contain the capabilities of another company's partially managed plan.

Pros of Managed Hosting

The most obvious advantage associated with managed hosting is the ability to relax and/or focus on other more important aspects of online business, while your hosting provider deals with all of the administrative aspects of server management. By eliminating the need to update, maintain, and optimize server performance you can boost productivity and spend the extra time devoting more monetary and physical resources towards more important endeavors. Thus, although managed hosting typically cost more than unmanaged hosting, it can actually save you money by eliminating the need for additional technical assistance, which is often paid for on expensive hourly basis. Instead of paying an IT support team to fix problems with your server's operating system, you can have constant access to an in-house support team included with every fully managed hosting plan.

Cons of Managed Hosting

Of course, with the additional support of managed hosting comes a reduced amount of power and authority. Although all dedicated hosting plans give you the ability to install new software and alter the basic configuration of the server, fully managed hosting plans remove some of this freedom by allocating such tasks to the web hosting support staff. Managed hosting also costs more than unmanaged hosting, and this expense may not be warranted if you already possess extensive server knowledge and expertise. After all, paying for additional support when it is not necessary is just as senseless as attempting to save money by managing the server yourself without adequate knowledge or resources.

Tags: dedicated hosting,  private web server,  server administration,  server management,  Managed Hosting,  partially managed hosting,  fully managed hosting