How Can You Tell If A Managed Server Is The Right Choice?

So, you’ve finally determined that it’s high time your business sprang for a dedicated server. There’s just one problem – you’ve no idea whether your business should choose a managed host or unmanaged. Truth be told, you aren’t even entirely certain what the difference is between the two.

Don’t worry, we can help. In today’s piece, we’re going to be taking a look at exactly what each term means. In so doing, we’ll help you determine which one your business should go with – and which one they should avoid.

What’s The Difference?

Imagine you’re renting a car, and you’ve been given the choice between two different vehicles. The first one is completely DIY – you’ll be responsible for handling everything from refueling to regular maintenance to replacement and repair. Basically, you’ll end up being both driver and mechanic.

The second choice does literally everything for you. It handles any repairs that need to be done and refuels itself whenever it’s running low. All you need to do is drive – the car handles everything else.

Maybe it’s not a perfect analogy – but you get what I’m trying to say here, right?

Car number one represents unmanaged hosting. With an unmanaged dedicated server, the host simply provides you with access to the physical box. Maintenance and management of that box fall entirely on your organization.

The second vehicle, then, is managed hosting. With a managed hosting plan, a team of professionals keeps track of your server at all times, handling everything from patching to application installation to monitoring. All you do is make use of the server – the host does the rest.

Alright, so now that we’ve established the difference between the two types of hosting, our next step is to go over how you can determine which is the better choice for your business. To that end, there are a few factors you’ll need to take into account – three in all.

How Much Do You Know About Running A Server?

Perhaps the most important question you’ll need to ask yourself is how much knowledge you possess where server management is concerned. Do you have a fully-staffed IT department populated by seasoned system administrators, or are you a small startup with only a few employees – none of them tech experts? If you aren’t one hundred percent confident in your abilities as a server administrator, then selecting an unmanaged hosting plan will be a terrible mistake; managed hosting is definitely the way to go.

Trust me – running a dedicated server is a lot more difficult than it sounds.

What’s Your Budget?

Next up, you need to look at how much money you’re willing (and able) to spend on your server. Managed hosting naturally costs a bit more than unmanaged hosting – so if you’re positive your IT department can’t handle running its own dedicated server (or if you don’t even have an IT department), you’d best be certain you’ve the finances for a managed hosting plan. Then again, if springing for a managed dedicated server breaks the bank, you probably wouldn’t be able to handle running an unmanaged one, either.

How Much Time Do You Have?

No less important than finance and expertise is how much time you’re capable of devoting to your server. Again, this is one area in which managed hosting is the superior choice. Particularly if you’re running a small business or startup, you aren’t necessarily going to have time to see to all the intricate details involved in keeping a server running at top efficiency. What that means is that if you spring for an unmanaged plan, you probably won’t be able to handle the extra workload involved.

Majority Rules

So, there you have it – the difference between managed hosting and unmanaged hosting, and the process by which you can decide which one is better. Truth be told, most businesses should probably spring for a managed hosting plan. Although it certainly costs a bit more than unmanaged hosting, the time and IT costs you’ll save in return more than makeup for it.

If you feel like managed hosting is the right choice for you, we have offer dedicated servers with full management at a great price.