Which Are the Most Vital Features of Managed Hosting?
Managed hosting is when you rent hosting space from a hosting provider, and the hosting provider will maintain the server, applications, and the other technical aspects related to keeping your website online. It is the standard form of hosting you will find for shared hosting packages, and it is suitable for people who do not possess the technical knowledge to run a server for themselves. More specifically, managed dedicated hosting is when you rent an entire server, and the hosting provider maintains that private server for you as opposed to doing so yourself or hiring a third party to maintain it for you.
When choosing a managed hosting provider of any kind, there are several facets that you need to compare between the available providers, and you should choose the best combination for your specific needs.
How to Compare Managed Hosting Providers by Cost
The first figure you will see will most likely be a monthly, yearly, or multi-year contract cost to lease the server. However, there may be other costs incurred along the way that you should investigate before choosing the lowest-cost provider. An example of an extra cost would be to install additional software, such as a content management system, or if they will charge you additional fees for maintenance above and beyond the normal.
To begin, examine the available software packages that will come with your managed server. It is ideal that they would already be set up to install a wide variety of software in case you need to change later on. If it is cost prohibitive to make changes, you will be stuck with a long-term contract for a website you can't use! Also investigate whether or not they would be willing to add pieces of software that become available after you contract with them. If they will charge you exorbitant rates to do so, it may not be in your best interest to choose that provider.
Now, you should talk to the customer service and technical support staff to determine if there are going to be extra costs to have issues rectified. You wouldn't think that a company would charge you extra to replace hardware that has malfunctioned due to no fault of your own, but some will try to pass the cost on to you along with the blame. The best you can do at this time is to seek out as much information you can and base your decision upon it.
How to Compare Managed Hosting Providers by Technical and Front-End Service
Now that you've ascertained a reasonably accurate figure of the costs, look at the people who will be running your server. The fact that you are looking for a managed server means that you don't want to spend your time installing software, doing updates, and so forth. Make sure that, to the best of your knowledge, the staff who will be doing all of that for you are competent. Also, verify that the hosting provider offers all of the services you require. If you want regular backups, make sure they will do it for you on a schedule which you agree to. Will they provide physical and software security for the information on the server? If not, you will lose important data if someone breaks in.
Finally, check into the management and customer service. If there is an error in the billing, you want to be absolutely positive that it will be resolved satisfactorily.
The people on the front end will be the ones you speak to the most, so if they won't give you the assistance you need, there is no way you can resolve any issues whether they are front-end or technical.
Post new comment