When it comes to managing your server and online systems, there are two options. You can choose the do-it-yourself approach, where your IT teams carry out the technical work in-house, or you can opt for a managed hosting solution, where your service provider undertakes the tasks on your behalf. In this post, we explain how managed web hosting can boost productivity, free up time and help you cut costs.
What is managed web hosting?
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of managed web hosting, it basically refers to a hosting service where your host looks after the day-to-day management of your server, operating system and other technical requirements. This includes tasks such as software updates, security monitoring, and in some cases, backups and technical support.
All shared hosting solutions are managed as a matter of course, simply because the server is shared by lots of different websites and no individual business has sole control over it. However, with VPS, dedicated servers and cloud servers, where companies do have their own server, there’s the option of a managed or unmanaged solution.
Choosing managed hosting ensures that your websites and applications run effectively without you having to worry about the technical skills involved, something that can be highly beneficial for all companies, especially those without in-house IT expertise.
How managed hosting boosts productivity
One of the chief reasons for choosing a managed hosting solution is that it can boost productivity. For instance, as part of their managed services, a web host will optimise the performance of your server, ensuring that your websites and applications always perform efficiently and deliver higher productivity. By making use of content delivery networks (CDNs), caching and load balancing, for example, they can speed up website loading times to enhance user experience and improve search engine rankings. This can help keep more visitors on your site for longer and lead to more sales.
The 24/7 technical support provided with a managed hosting solution can also boost productivity. With experts on tap, around the clock, you have the help you need to resolve issues quickly, thus preventing downtime and mitigating the consequent costs and damage.
For more information, read: Application Monitoring and its Benefits for Businesses
How managed web hosting frees up time
Managing your server and carrying out other essential admin tasks can take quite a lot of time. If your IT team are used for these purposes, they have less time to focus on your company’s more important business-oriented priorities and are thus less productive than they could be. By taking this burden away from you, managed service providers automatically give you more time to be productive.
There are a number of vital tasks that a managed web host can take responsibility for to give you more time. One of these is server monitoring, where the hosting provider continuously checks your server to detect issues that can lead to downtime. Using advanced tools that track server health, resource usage and performance, they can address problems quickly and resolve them before they cause a disaster.
Another essential task that managed services can help save time with is security. With the rising number and sophistication of cyberattacks, companies need to give this issue continuous attention. Managed services can help by updating and patching your operating system for you and by deploying firewalls and intrusion and infection prevention tools to identify and eradicate any threats. Additionally, they can offer automated backup solutions, so your systems and data are backed up at the frequency you require without any need for manual intervention, providing peace of mind while saving you even more time.
A benefit for users of cloud technology is that a managed solution can now take care of scaling. The ability to scale up on demand has always been one of the big appeals of cloud hosting, enabling companies to have more resources during peak times. Traditionally, however, this required IT teams to monitor resource usage and upscale or downscale manually. A managed hosting solution can do this for you without IT teams having to do the work. Using advanced monitoring tools, additional resources can be added automatically, ensuring your website and applications can perform optimally. Furthermore, resources will be downscaled as soon as demand drops.
Financial benefits of managed hosting
There are numerous ways in which managed services can help minimise costs. Two key areas are expertise and tools. Many of the tasks that web hosts offer as part of their managed services require technical skills. Skilling up your IT team either involves employing additional technicians or training existing staff – both of which come with large price tags. Using managed services not only means you don’t need to pay to acquire these skills; it also means the skills you do have in-house can be used for more productive purposes. Moreover, many of the tools that web hosts use to deliver their managed services, like advanced firewalls and monitoring and security tools are expensive. Rather than having to invest in them in-house, with managed hosting, they come as part of the package.
Other financial benefits come from using 24/7 technical support rather than paying for third-party consultants, saving money from real-time scaling and reducing the chances of downtime or cyberattack.
For more information, read: How to Achieve Cost Optimisation through Managed Cloud Services?
Bespoke managed services
While some of the services provided as part of a managed hosting package come as standard, busier companies will be pleased to know that some web hosting providers also offer bespoke managed services. In other words, you can work in partnership with your provider so that they take over more of the tasks you need them to, whether this is to deliver expertise not currently available in your company, free up time, increase productivity or save costs.
Choosing a managed web hosting provider
While plenty of web hosts offer managed services, finding the right one depends upon whether the services they offer meet your needs. The services on offer should include server management (e.g. updates and patching), server optimisation, proactive monitoring, security and 24/7 support. Additionally, depending on your choice of solution, you may find automated backups, free migration, automated scaling and other services available.
In terms of quality of service, check out the web host’s reviews and ratings to see what existing customers think of them. This is a good way to compare hosts and the managed services they offer.
For more information, read: 6 Essential Services A Managed Server Provider Should Deliver
Conclusion
Businesses need to manage their servers and systems in a way that boosts productivity, reduces the burden on IT teams and helps keep IT costs down. With IT skills in short supply and modern tools expensive to acquire, having that capacity in-house can be challenging. Managed hosting provides a solution for all these needs. Indeed, as businesses increasingly rely on their hosted IT systems, for many, it is the way forward.
Want to see what managed hosting can do for your company? As the UK’s leading independent managed hosting provider, all our hosting solutions come with managed services included. Find out more about our VPS, Dedicated Server and Cloud Server solutions by visiting our homepage.
