Managed Web Hosting

The term managed web hosting typically refers to a dedicated server that is fully managed by the web hosting provider.

If you have a large and complex website that receives a lot of traffic you may find you’re your shared hosting plan is limiting your growth and the capacity to serve your customers. It may be time to move on to a more powerful dedicated web hosting plan that comes with a full managed web hosting option.

Shared hosting involves placing many websites on one server. All sites share the resources of that server such as disk space and bandwidth. Dedicated web hosting means that instead of renting space on a server, you rent an entire server for your sole use.

Some web hosting providers also provide you the managed web hosting option that can be added to the dedicated web hosting offering. With a managed web hosting, get the same level of peace of mind and ease to use that typical comes with a shared web hosting and at the same time you’ll get a more powerful and performing dedicated web hosting environment with more CPU power, more hard disk capacity, more bandwidth and security.

Managed web hosting is much more expensive than shared hosting because the cost of operating the server is not divided between various accounts. The advantages of managed web hosting include the freedom to use the resources of the server as you please.

A managed web hosting service offers the support and expertise to maintain your server and to perform routine maintenance such as software upgrades. This kind of service can be a viable alternative to hiring your own staff to look after your servers.

Managed web hosting, however, can be a lot more expensive than unmanaged web hosting. Whether the price is justified depends on the complexity of your website and whether or not you already have people on staff who can look after the day to day operations of a unmanaged dedicated server.

Unmanaged web hosting, despite its name, does not really leave you entirely to your own devices. Most hosting companies will offer a certain level of support for all their dedicated web hosting packages. This support of course includes hardware maintenance for things like hard drive failure and extra technical support may be available if you need help with configuration or software installation. You will probably have to pay for this extra support but hiring a tech on an hourly basis from time to time may be cheaper than going with a full managed web hosting package.

If you want to consider unmanaged web hosting instead of managed web hosting check to see how much control you can have over the server hardware. If your server becomes hopelessly locked you should be able to perform a re-boot or to expect someone to do it for you with a minimum of delay.

As with any dedicated web hosting package, the value of the unmanaged or managed web hosting offering is linked to the reliability and integrity of the web hosting provider. If your website has grown to the point where you need dedicated web hosting you need a hosting provider that you can rely on to keep your site online as much as possible.

Whether you choose managed web hosting or the unmanaged option depends on the technical requirements of your site and the ability of you or your staff to manage a dedicated server so that it is running at peak efficiency.

If you prefer to have the re-assurance of having highly trained professionals looking after the server, go with managed web hosting plan. If you or your staff can handle most of the maintenance chores, you would be better off with an unmanaged server.