Web Hosting:

Operating a web site can become very involved once a companies hosting requirements progress to the point of needing a managed dedicated web server. Managed services are economical for those companies that have the time and capital to invest in server administration.

The benefits of managed services include; equipment procurement, provisioning and installation and network monitoring and management backed by a Service Level Agreement. A managed server offers extended features and support that one might expect from a dedicated server such as; choice of OS, routing equipment, network connectivity and complete administrative control. Many managed server providers have assigned a service representative who will cater only to a small handful of clients. Many companies also offer a suite of other features and services related to management such as application and database management, high –availability and load balancing.

With unmanaged services, the customer has complete remote server administration and freedom over the functions of the server. The customer is ultimately responsible for the installation and management. For this reason, unmanaged servers are recommended only for those individuals and companies having extensive server administration resources or expertise as well as time to manage the server.

While managed services are more expensive, it is a wise investment for those inexperienced in server administration. If opt for managed services and find that it's too costly, you can always switch to unmanaged services once you've gained some knowledge in administration.