Managed Hosting Services and Companies

What are Managed Hosting Services?

Managed hosting services are third-party solutions that maintain, update, optimize, and troubleshoot computer servers on behalf of a client. These services can include updating new software, applying patches, finding and fixing errors, and file transfer storage, among many other tasks. Managed hosting services allow clients to have their IT assets maintained by off-site professionals, which increase productivity and reduce cost to maintain on-premises hardware or software.

There are several broad categories of managed hosting services, each with their own considerations:

• Shared hosting, where the provider houses multiple sites on a single server. These sites share server resources and cost, making them relatively inexpensive but sites can affect each other. For example, a site with a traffic spike may affect the performance of other sites on the server.
• Virtual private server (VPS) hosting, which functions similarly to shared hosting, but it provides more resources to each individual site. This prevents one site’s capacity to affect the whole server, but VPS hosting tends to be more expensive than shared hosting options.
• Cloud hosting, which hosts a site on multiple servers. This means that if one server goes down, another will compensate, ensuring a much larger uptime than you might find with other services. Additionally, cloud hosting provides scalable hosting options, allowing clients to adjust their storage and hosting needs in real time.
• Dedicated servers, which are best for sites that require significant server resources. The client is the only tenant on the server, but the client may also need to manage several backend technical aspects. Dedicated servers are among the most powerful (and most costly) managed hosting services options.
• Colocation hosting, where the client rents physical space from data centers, provides server hardware, and pays for bandwidth. Colocation hosting service providers manage security, cooling, power, cable management, racking, and general upkeep of these assets. This type of hosting is not recommended for small businesses or websites with little content, and instead may be better suited for clients seeking managed hosting services for app or hardware development.
• Content-specific hosting, which provides servers and resources for clients to build sites or host assets for external content management systems (CMS). WordPress is the most common option for this type of service, but some vendors offer support for other CMS products, as well as specific e-Commerce software integration.
• Reseller hosting, which allows clients to resell hosting to others. Reseller hosting services provide ways to manage multiple sites, accounts, and invoices from one dashboard.

Managed Hosting Solutions Features

Managed hosting companies commonly offer:

• Scheduled data transfers
• Migration services
• Scalable storage plans
• File storage, including SSD storage options
• Email integration
• Update and patch deployment
• Log management
• Automated data backup
• Readily available technical support
• Operating system installation and configuration
• Software package installation and configuration
• Domain name registration
• Cloud server platforming
• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certification
• WordPress integration
• Website performance analytics
• Multiple website and database hosting
• Traffic generation support
• Knowledge databases

Managed Hosting Services Comparison

When choosing the best managed hosting services for you, consider the following:

Concurrent visitor count: If you have a customer-facing business, the size of your audience should be a primary factor in choosing the best managed hosting service for your business. If you expect to serve thousands or millions of visitors, you’ll probably need a cloud or dedicated host to support your audience. Conversely, if you do not anticipate a large number of concurrent website visitors, you may find shared hosting or virtual private servers to be more economical.

Experience level: Some managed hosting services options may be better for more experienced users. The amount of knowledge required to operate some servers (especially dedicated ones) may be fairly in-depth, or vendors may have features that experienced users may appreciate more than beginner or intermediate clients.

Security features: If you’re selling a product and collecting customer information, you’ll want to make sure that the managed hosting service has the depth of security you need. A good number of vendors offer SSL certification, which generally accommodates consumer data privacy regulations. Businesses that desire extra security should consider a vendor that provides more in-depth protection against security threats like phishing scams and DDoS attacks.

Level of customer support: High-quality customer support is especially key when evaluating managed hosting services. The longer a business has to wait for their issues to be rectified, the more damage could be done to their operations. If you’re choosing a managed hosting service for mission-critical applications, make sure to choose a vendor that can handle complex inquiries with low wait times.

Automatic update control: While this is a benefit most of the time, it can also pose a problem. Not all vendors provide their customers with total control of which updates get applied and when, which some businesses may have an issue with. Make sure you choose a vendor that has an update schedule compatible with your needs; you don’t want massive updates causing downtime during your highest-traffic hours.

Website building integration: Content-specific hosts generally provide support for WordPress website builders, allowing you to seamlessly transition WordPress sites into a Managed Hosting Service. If you already have a WordPress site or don’t have web development resources, choose a hosting provider with Wordpress integration or other built-in website creation tools.

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Pricing Information

Pricing for managed hosting services pricing can vary based on the number of websites you want to host, the type of hosting service provided, and the features you want to include. Pricing plans at their lowest tiers range between $2 and $35 per month, and plans in this tier tend to only provide shared hosting services. For higher tiers, pricing may exceed $500 per month or be priced by vendor quote. Vendors commonly offer trial periods and free demos of their services.