Managed Hosting is a type of web hosting. The main selling point is that it is, as the name suggests, managed for you. This means that you will not have to worry about the hosting of your website.
One of the major advantages is that this worry is taken away from you. It is the responsibility of the hosting company to make sure that your website hosting is taken care of and that any problems are quickly sorted out. You staff do not have to think about the hosting, meaning they can get on with their own jobs. This allows you to focus on your business instead of keeping an eye on your website all of the time. This sees a potential cost taken away as well. If your hosting needs a lot of attention then you will need to employ IT staff with knowledge in that area. If you choose a managed hosting package, though, your payroll costs will be reduced. Managed Hosting does costs of course, but it may be cost effective compared to employing your own staff. A hosting company specialises in hosting so will already have staff performing these tasks on many different sites, so they may be able to offer it cheaper.
With Managed Hosting you can be safe in the knowledge that your hosting is in safe hands. The hosting company’s staff will have extensive expertise in hosting, and therefore will know what they are doing. If you are performing most of the hosting tasks yourself this will not be the case. If you are a solicitors firm for example, then you may not have the expertise to sort out all your hosting needs. Having a Managed Hosting package will means you can get on with your job as a solicitor. This means you can do your own job better, as can everyone else within your organisation, and this could lead to a more successful business.
For a website to be successful there needs to be minimal downtime. Downtime means that the system is unavailable and potential visitors will be unable to view your website. Every website will have some downtime but it should be as little as possible. A good Managed Hosting company will make sure downtime is rarely a problem. They will always be keeping a check on your website so will be able to sort out any problems that result in downtime. Other problems with the hosting will also be resolved timely. As you probably do not have the time to keep checking there are no such issues, this is another advantage of this type of hosting.
As with all types of hosting, there are some disadvantages. It can be expensive. As mentioned above, you can save money if you would otherwise need to employ extra staff, but if it is only fairly basic hosting you require then it may prove to be unnecessarily expensive. It all depends on the specifics you require. The costs are significantly more than unmanaged hosting.
The other main negative is that you will not have overall control of your hosting. Some people prefer to be hand on, but with Managed Hosting you are handing this control over to the hosts.
These are the only real negatives of Managed Hosting but they can be important ones. If you do not have the needs for this advanced type of hosting, then it is completely unnecessary, and could turn out to be a waste of money. There are much cheaper options available, so it all depends on whether you would need to employ your own staff and whether you need the extra’s and support offered by Managed Hosting. If you do have the expertise and want control of your hosting but still need it to be hosted by someone else, then there are other hosting options available that would suit you better.
Whether or not Managed Hosting is for you all depends on the type of website that you have, and whether the all round package suits you and your site.
Andrew Marshall ©
Managed Hosting
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