Which Hosting Server to Use: Dedicated Hosting Managed or Unmanaged
Jun.26, 2008 in
Web Hosting
Bluehost Hosting asked:
“Unmanaged dedicated servers” – probably quite an unpleasant term for many, especially the beginners, but in most cases is not as “non-servicing” as it seems. It is expected that soon a day will come when a new term will replace the term “unmanaged” in the same manner as the term “used cars” is now replaced by “pre-owned” or how “apartment complexes” are now “rental communities”. The truth is that unless the user has done mistake in choosing a right host or he is keeping unreasonable expectations, unmanaged hosting offers more service and support beyond than most use to think.
The Distinction
As everyone knows that precise meaning differ from provider to provider, commonly speaking one can say that, managed hosting means user’s provider takes complete or near complete care of his/her server. It may include whatever thing from basic system maintenance and patches to applications maintenance, protection, and monitoring. If the user desires dedicated hosting and wants to trust his/her host for any sort of thing and everything concerning their server requires piling up a bond with a managed service provider. Full blown managed services occupy plenty of skilled people hours. Not only that, as every managed customer has his/her own importance, it’s hard for a managed provider to be excessively systematic. Thus for this even it is expected to pay bit more if it is as per user’s requirement , and it is not at all money waste .
Unmanaged dedicated hosting means dedicated servers with less support, and skilled people support as compared to managed server. The services look so good that as soon as one signs up, pays his/her fees, within a few fractions of minutes or little late he/she will get a welcome email with IP address, login, FAQ’s, etc. Now beyond that one is pretty much on his/her own. But wait, don’t hurry its not so simple as it seems.
In fact, there is no scarcity of technical support in most unmanaged providers and they are very good as well. On choosing an unmanaged dedicated service one must possess someone on his/her team who knows the technical side a good bit, but specialization is not a prime requirement. While user may have to wait for a long period of time like 12 – 24 hours or he/she may even have to pay extra for it, nearly all the unmanaged providers generally possess a team of high level technicians available to tackle down serious issues. In addition to it majority of providers give some sort of immediate reboot service as well. Except the user has been suffering from some form of critical configuration files or contains a hardware failure, a reboot can be very effective with a range of issues. Finally, one can conclude that unmanaged providers may not support the user or whatever he/she put on his/her server after they move in, but they provide full assistance for the hardware and software which they sell to their user. If a hard drive crashes they will definitely replace it for the customer (although he/she had better be doing his/her backups) and if user’s system crashes most of the hosts will re-establish it for the customer.
Review
So one can conclude that, if one has got mission critical needs and don’t have the in-house staff to efficiently keep his/her servers performing the way they should, then they must prefer managed services. Yet it’s a more cost effective path that hiring one’s own staff and most likely the user will receive an advanced, steadier level of service. If one’s needs are more basic, and or user and his/her staff has the time and know-how to perform 75% – 80% of his/her server’s maintenance then a reasonable unmanaged service should be ideal.
“Unmanaged dedicated servers” – probably quite an unpleasant term for many, especially the beginners, but in most cases is not as “non-servicing” as it seems. It is expected that soon a day will come when a new term will replace the term “unmanaged” in the same manner as the term “used cars” is now replaced by “pre-owned” or how “apartment complexes” are now “rental communities”. The truth is that unless the user has done mistake in choosing a right host or he is keeping unreasonable expectations, unmanaged hosting offers more service and support beyond than most use to think.
The Distinction
As everyone knows that precise meaning differ from provider to provider, commonly speaking one can say that, managed hosting means user’s provider takes complete or near complete care of his/her server. It may include whatever thing from basic system maintenance and patches to applications maintenance, protection, and monitoring. If the user desires dedicated hosting and wants to trust his/her host for any sort of thing and everything concerning their server requires piling up a bond with a managed service provider. Full blown managed services occupy plenty of skilled people hours. Not only that, as every managed customer has his/her own importance, it’s hard for a managed provider to be excessively systematic. Thus for this even it is expected to pay bit more if it is as per user’s requirement , and it is not at all money waste .
Unmanaged dedicated hosting means dedicated servers with less support, and skilled people support as compared to managed server. The services look so good that as soon as one signs up, pays his/her fees, within a few fractions of minutes or little late he/she will get a welcome email with IP address, login, FAQ’s, etc. Now beyond that one is pretty much on his/her own. But wait, don’t hurry its not so simple as it seems.
In fact, there is no scarcity of technical support in most unmanaged providers and they are very good as well. On choosing an unmanaged dedicated service one must possess someone on his/her team who knows the technical side a good bit, but specialization is not a prime requirement. While user may have to wait for a long period of time like 12 – 24 hours or he/she may even have to pay extra for it, nearly all the unmanaged providers generally possess a team of high level technicians available to tackle down serious issues. In addition to it majority of providers give some sort of immediate reboot service as well. Except the user has been suffering from some form of critical configuration files or contains a hardware failure, a reboot can be very effective with a range of issues. Finally, one can conclude that unmanaged providers may not support the user or whatever he/she put on his/her server after they move in, but they provide full assistance for the hardware and software which they sell to their user. If a hard drive crashes they will definitely replace it for the customer (although he/she had better be doing his/her backups) and if user’s system crashes most of the hosts will re-establish it for the customer.
Review
So one can conclude that, if one has got mission critical needs and don’t have the in-house staff to efficiently keep his/her servers performing the way they should, then they must prefer managed services. Yet it’s a more cost effective path that hiring one’s own staff and most likely the user will receive an advanced, steadier level of service. If one’s needs are more basic, and or user and his/her staff has the time and know-how to perform 75% – 80% of his/her server’s maintenance then a reasonable unmanaged service should be ideal.
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