Does going managed make good business sense?

SenseiSteve

SenseiSteve

HD Moderator
Staff member
Some managed queries:
  • How much does managed services cost and what is the benefit and payoff, both in hard and soft dollars. Hard dollars are generally very measurable, but soft dollars not so much.
  • Does your IT staff possess/maintain the skill set to competently manage your server/s?
  • What are the risks, if any, by contracting for managed services? Are they outsourced or does that matter?
Your thoughts ...
 
For most business owners, going Managed Hosting is a good thing. They need to be focused on running their business, not optimizing and monitoring servers or updating plugins and scripts. For that matter, many people we work with don't update the content or images on their site either, and just pass it to their web developers. If it takes 5-10 minutes for a webmaster to do something, it can take 45-60 minutes for a business owner, that is not web savvy!

There are many reasons for a managed system, heck, even after decades in the server admin world, I no longer manage our own servers. Things have changed and my focus on server security is no longer a focus. It's best to leave that to someone else.

Operating your own hosting company, you should be familiar with server management so you can get things completed quickly yourself, but there's no reason not to use a managed server too. We used to have Managed VPS servers with KnownHost and it was great - one less thing for us to think about.

As long as you have a good resource for services, then outsourcing shouldn't be of any concern.
 
I always chose managed servers, which if you like me are a 1 man band it is handy to have others that can help if needed, but yes it means i can run my business
 
If you don't know what you're doing or simply do not have the time to manage a server, then paying the premium for a managed provider is well worth the investment in my opinion.
 
Most of users are not technical or they want to focus on different things or as said above if he / she is one man show in this case buying managed service is great option.
 
When you are focusing on your project and something goes wrong on the server side, you need much more time to rectify the issue. It is always better to get managed services as you can focus on your project and give time to your project instead of focusing on other things which are not that much important or you can say not related to your field.
 
If you run your own hosting firm, you should be proficient with server management so you can finish tasks fast, but there's no reason not to use a managed server as well. Going with Managed Hosting is a fantastic idea for most business owners. They should concentrate on running their business rather than optimizing and monitoring servers or updating plugins and scripts.
 
Jain Software said:
If you run your own hosting firm, you should be proficient with server management
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Who says? you do not need to be proficient with server management to run a hosting business. many hosting businesses are happily running where owners have no server management knowledge, this is why managed servers exist.
 
Interesting discussion. But I think it depends on what your business is. I lease a cabinet in a data center. I build my own servers and lease out VPSs. Going managed for me doesn't make sense because that is what my business is. I am the management company for my hosting business. Going managed for me would actually cost me a lot more money.
 
I think it all depends on you as a person and what you have going on. Do you have time to manage your servers? Do you have the knowledge to do so? Does self managing or going managed make financial sense for you?

Lots of variables to consider. I myself went managed back in the day because I had a lot going on. Being a solo host I had to think about my financials for marketing, managing my team, talking to all you lovely people on a daily basis, and the most important bit, dealing with my customers. Having one less thing to worry about for me made sense, especially since my health at the time was not the greatest.

Like I said, it depends on you. Does it make sense for you? Only you can answer that.
 
Yes, it is a good choice to go on managed systems, but some times you can't trust managed systems too. That's why I consider this is a personal choice for each case.

Regards,
 
We currently manage 22 website development agencies hosting solutions.

We're a bit niche in our approach offering unlimited developer support included in our agency hosting (literally fix our clients issues for them) as all of us at CainHosting are website developers, so we understand the intricacies of development and the needs for the hosting of those sites.

Over the years, I've heard many of my clients say that they love that they don't even have to think about hosting, most of them don't even click to install or setup a website, or wordpress installation (for example). They simply email, or message us to do it for them.

I'd say the ability to not even do the bare minimum of installing wordpress with 1-click and only focus on your own clients website development or projects has been quite invaluable for our clients.
 
I guess I just misunderstood the question completely. I thought hosting was the business that was being spoken of. Management is part of that business. Outsourcing management to me is like saying a car dealership is outsourcing sales.
 
LittleCreek said:
I guess I just misunderstood the question completely. I thought hosting was the business that was being spoken of. Management is part of that business. Outsourcing management to me is like saying a car dealership is outsourcing sales.
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When you get a VPS you can get unmanaged or managed.
if you know all about servers then you can go unmanaged, but then you are responsible for hardening the server, etc. so if you need help from the server provider then you will need to pay for their help, but going managed means that you have the backup of the server provider to help out if required without paying any more money
 
I always offer full management as default without question. If a customer doesn't know how to manage or setup the server I will always help them set it up or manage it without incurring any extra cost for the service. This should be standard in my opinion.
 
easyhostmedia said:
When you get a VPS you can get unmanaged or managed.
if you know all about servers then you can go unmanaged, but then you are responsible for hardening the server, etc. so if you need help from the server provider then you will need to pay for their help, but going managed means that you have the backup of the server provider to help out if required without paying any more money
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My misunderstanding is that I thought the question was for hosting providers since the forum is Hardware and Server Configuration which is something normally only providers would be interested in. I thought it was a provider asking the question.
 
HostShark said:
I always offer full management as default without question. If a customer doesn't know how to manage or setup the server I will always help them set it up or manage it without incurring any extra cost for the service. This should be standard in my opinion.
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Totally agree, too many nickel and dime hosting business out there.
 
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