Web Hosting - Managed Vs. Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting

Managed Vs. Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting

"Unmanaged dedicated servers" - this is a pretty uninviting term to many, especially the non-gurus, but in most cases is not as "non-servicing" as it seems. In fact, I think someone one day soon, ( who knows maybe me ) will coin a new phrase to replace the term "unmanaged" - similar to how "used cars" is now "pre-owned" or how "apartment complexes" are now "rental communities". The truth is that unless you just picked a lousy provider or have unreasonable expectations, unmanaged hosting offers more service and support than most think.

The Difference

While exact definitions vary among providers, generally speaking managed hosting means your provider takes complete or near complete care of your server. This can include anything from basic system maintenance and patches to applications maintenance, security, monitoring, etc. Someone that needs dedicated hosting and wants to rely on their host for pretty much anything and everything regarding their server needs to strike a relationship with a managed service provider. Full blown managed services involve lots of skilled people hours. Not only that, since every managed customer is unique, it's hard for a managed provider to be overly systematic. For this - expect to pay a great deal more than today's budget server provider but if your needs demand it, and you choose a solid provider it should be money well spent.

Unmanaged dedicated hosting obviously refers to dedicated servers with less, little or none of the skilled people support you'd expect to find in managed. You signup, you pay, and in a few minutes to a few hours you get a welcome email with IP address, login, FAQ's, etc. - Beyond that you are pretty much on your own. Relax - you are not really as own your own as it seems.

First off, most unmanaged providers do in fact offer technical support, and most that we've seen is very good. If you choose unmanaged dedicated service you do need to have someone on your team that knows the technical side a good bit, but they don't necessarily have to be experts. While you may have to wait 12 - 24 hours or you may even have to pay extra for it, nearly all the unmanaged providers I know do have high level techs available to handle serious issues. In addition most providers give some sort of immediate reboot service. Unless you've been tinkering with some critical config files or have a hardware failure, a reboot can help with a range of issues. Lastly, unmanaged providers may not support you or whatever you put on your server after you move in, but they do stand by the hardware and software they sell you. If a hard drive crashes they are going to replace it for you (although you had better be doing your backups) and if your system crashes most will fix it for you.

Summary

The bottom line is if you've got mission critical needs and don't have the in-house staff to efficiently keep your servers performing the way they should, then you are going to need managed services. Even still it's a more cost effective route that hiring your own staff and most likely you will receive a higher, more consistent level of service. If your needs are more basic, and or you or your staff has the time and know-how to perform 75% - 80% of your server's maintenance then an affordable unmanaged service should do you just fine.

Please refer following web sites for useful resources related to web site hosting:

http://www.vipwh.com
http://www.thehostingguide.com

About Author:

Paras Shah
Chief Technology Officer
VIP PowerNet, Inc.
Phone: (713)787-6501
Email: paras@vippowernet.com
http://www.vippowernet.com

Created & Maintained by Empower! CMS Web Sites

Host2Sell Web Hosting | Emarketing Workshops | Site SEO Review | FREE Newsletter

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Elements Of Web Hosting
When you first start out trying to get a site on the Internet everything seems so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through the 'Beginner Friendly' information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that the Internet and the proce...(related: Web Hosting)

Server Host: Where Does My Web Page Go?
For those of you who don't really understand where or how your web page is sitting on your hosting sever, this is a basic over view of how it works.A server is basically hardware and software and protocol. We will go over these three basics of your hosting server.Server hardware.Server hardware is so similar to your old PC hardware that the price of server hardware has come down considerably. Down enough that it's tempting for a lot of us to host our own server. But that's a whole different article. All a server is:Very fast processor. A large amount of RAM. A vast amount of Disk Space.Connection to a T1 line (access to the outside world).The hardware is housed in very large office buildings. There are many racks of servers filling these climate controlled rooms. Most of the server host brag of the...(related: Web Hosting)

Where To Get Cheap Web Hosting
First, to see if you can use cheap web hosting you need to know how much disk space you will need. How large is your website? How many pages, video files, music files, etc. do you need? Second, a cheap web hosting company will need to know how busy your sight will be. If your site is going to have a lot of visitors, cheap web hosting may not be for you. Third, how many email accounts do you need? Cheap web hosting companies do not usually provide many. Lastly, how much are you willing to spend? Cheap web hosting is not as technical as the more expensive web hosting.If you go online, you can find a list of the top 10 cheap web hosting compan...(related: Web Hosting)

Shared Web Hosting Service Explained!
The next concern for you after designing and developing web pages is to get your web site hosted on the Internet. But with s...(related: Web Hosting)

How To Find The Best Web Hosting For You
Deciding on the best web hosting company for a web site is often difficult if an individual isn't sure what they should look for in their web hosting company. Examining the promotional material and information of most web hosting se...(related: Web Hosting)

Managed Hosting
Managed hosting is a dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties.Managed hosting are meant for those websites that are designed to host busy e-commerce sites and dynamic, database driven Web pages. Perfect for organizations that dont have the ti...(related: Web Hosting)

Battle Of The Hostings
There are literally thousands of hosting solutions on the internet right now, from the free ones at www.geocities.com to the ones who charge you an arm and a leg. After filtering out the sharks, the copy cats & other crap, finally I have decided to review two of the best and most complete hostings package available on this planet. Please note that these are not the cheapest hostings around but these really give good value for your money, instead of asking you to upgrade later for an additional fee. Here is why :Host 4 Profit is our first contender weighing at 300 Megabytes disk space and with a traffic limit of 10 Gigabytes per month. You might thi...(related: Web Hosting)

Internet Domain Registration - Establishing And Transferring Your Domain Name
If you're in business, one of the most important things to you may be your ability to establish an internet presence. Operating som...(related: Web Hosting)

Dedicated Web Hosting Explained
Why is dedicated hosting such a big hit on the business web hosting market? If you look at the costs it involves, usually ranging from $150 - $1000 per month, another question comes into your mind: Does it even worth it?Why is dedicated hosting such a big hit on the business web hosting market? If you look at the costs it involves, usually ranging from $150 - $1000 per month, another question comes into your mind: Does it even worth it?When you have one single web server is rented to a single customer by the web hosting provider, you have dedicated web hosting. There are two similar solutions quite common too in the web hosting industry: virtual dedicated servers and co-location web hosting.To make it easier to grasp the concepts, a virtual d...(related: Web Hosting)

Dont Get Fooled By The Web Hosting Wolves In Sheeps Clothing!
Are you looking for web hosting? If you want to set up a personal website, or a modest commercial one, you are probably in the...(related: Web Hosting)