How to Choose a Managed Hosting Provider
by Carlo Damon Seminetti
There are plenty of companies which offer a wide array of choices when it comes to Managed Hosting Services. Choosing the right provider comes down to figuring out which service meets your needs. Pricing can range from free to hundreds of dollars a month or more, depending on the level of service, the amount of bandwidth used, whether or not you share a machine and if you have a single dedicated machine or even a hundred or more machines.
Don’t make a mistake when choosing a managed hosting provider. Follow these resources to ensure that you choose the best provider for your needs:
First, lets clarify what a Managed Hosting Provider will do for you. A reliable provider will have a climate controlled environment which houses many web servers. The provider is responsible for keeping all the machines online as close to 100% of the time as possible. Average users like you and me will rent part of a machine , an entire machine, or place their own machine in the provider’s facility. If renting a machine, you will also be allocated some hard drive storage space. Several hundred user accounts can be hosted on each web server. You will be sharing the resources with other users if you have opt for a shared machine. However, your files and directories are only accessible by you. You will also be paying for bandwidth, which mean how much data is being transferred to and from the machine. Usually, each type of customer account has a maximum data transfer limit per month, and you will need to pay extra if you go over that limit. Renting a machine to host a web site or blog is a very common practice these days, and could cost you less than 10 dollars a month.
Enterprise level users, who have multiple machines for commercial purposes, will look for a reliable provider who also provides physical security for their machines. This means a dedicated cage, which is locked and only accessible to individuals cleared by the company renting the space from the managed host provider. 24 hour support is expected and fast response times for fixing issues is critical for businesses that rely on their web servers to be up and running. Another factor to consider is proximity to your own IT support staff. Many times for custom installations, a company may need to perform upgrades, software patches or troubleshooting, all of which may need to be done on site instead of by remote access. It may also be wise to occasionally visit your machines and perform a visual check to make sure conditions and security are as advertised. Naturally, these enterprise level ‘super-users’ know much more about their specific requirements and usually have the individuals and expertise to make the proper decisions.
Let’s get back to the average user who is just looking to get a web site set up quickly and for a low cost. Now that you know a few basics of what to expect, how does one go about finding a good provider? You can do a quick search on your favorite search engine and you will see plenty of options. Look for a site that provides reviews for the most popular providers. This will give you some background on how reliable each company is and what others like and don’t like about each provider. Reliability (machine up-time) and customer support are extremely important factors. Especially for beginners, you want easy to use tools to upload your files and manage your site. Fast and efficient customer service is also critical for a good experience.
Next, you will want to find a provider that supports tools that you are familiar with. For most users, the operating system, Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS or Windows may not matter. But if you are going to be installing some of your own favorite programs, you will most likely want to go with an operating system you are familiar with. Also, you will want to make sure the provider can support databases, plug-ins, and languages that you may be using.
Although it may seem like there are an endless amount of choices involved in searching for a hosting provider, with a little patience, planning and research, even a internet newbie can make an informed and practical choice.
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About the Author:
Carlo Damon Seminetti is an IT consultant with over 15 years of industry experience.
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