What’s a ‘managed server’? If you are not familiar with the term, let’s get you up to speed. The all-knowing Wikipedia of course has a lot to report on the subject. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managed_dedicated_server Take a look and then continue reading this article below.
The major advantage of managed servers is the economies of scale they produce and offer to the customer. No matter if a managed server user is a large company, small company or a single user working out of a home office, the advantages of using a managed server over ones own server implementation are numerous.
There are three basic goals of any server, and goals 2 and 3 basically work to serve goal 1.
The first goal is having 100% uptime (or as close as possible to it). Uptime refers both to the server itself – it must remain on and operating – as well as to the local network its connected to, which must remain functional and accessible in order for the server to be accessed from anywhere else.
The second goal is having a solid backup system to minimize downtime in the event of an issue with either the server or network. In the case of a server issue, a backup of data and pertinent software configurations is necessary to be able to quickly (if not instantly) replace the physical hardware or corrupt software of the machine as required. With higher end managed server implantations, the network itself can also be backed up by instantly routing traffic to a mirror server (located on another network in the same data center or on another network in another data center) somewhere else in the world. Either way with proper back up systems in place when there is an issue, it has minimal effect on uptime.
The third goal is security. Unfortunately there are many threats to the security of data housed on any PC, server or mobile device. From ‘Bot nets designed to break in and steal sensitive data, to denial of service attacks that overwhelm a server with dummy requests resulting in valid requests not able to get through, to viruses meant to do nothing more then disrupt the operations of the equipment for sometimes no end beyond inconveniencing the user(s) of the equipment. It takes both a proactive security approach to prevent security issues before they happen (i.e. proper configuring of software and issuing security patches to software when they come available, etc.) as well as a quick and effective response during a security event.
If a company is operating its own server as a secondary operation in support of its core business they are unlikely to have the resources to and/or willingness/ability to spend the money needed to provide the same level of service (with all three goals in mind) that comes with a managed server solution.
Aside from the basic functions of a server that are simplified and maximized through a managed server solution there are also a few key fringe benefits that are worth mentioning.
- Scalability. If a company is running their own server and they want to permanently or temporarily upgrade their bandwidth requirements, CPU capacity, etc., this is a costly and time-consuming process which in some cases may not even be possible (especially in the case of temporary requirements). With a managed server in a top of the line data center, a user has access to excess capacity that with a phone call can be made (nearly) immediately available on a permanent or temporary basis.
- Customer Service. When working with a high quality managed server company there are rarely any issues and your server is up and operating without ever giving it a thought. But when an issue does come up there is always some one to call for help: e.g. – if one of your users deletes a key file and you need to have it recovered from backup or in the face of some major outage on a holiday weekend the user is not the person who has to slug away trying to solve the issue or pay tech employees double/triple overtime to work long hours on a holiday, etc.
- Choice. As with any free market system, choice of the customer drives innovation and quality. If you find yourself with a managed server provider that you are not happy with, you can always change. When you are running an in-house server solution you are pretty much stuck with what you have because you could not simultaneous upgrade all your equipment and replace your IT team in a few hours as you can when switching between managed server providers.
I have been involved in many businesses in many different industries. Very early on in my career I was involved with an in-house server implementation and witnessed firsthand all the headaches that came along with it. Once I used a managed solution and saw the relatively inexpensive cost (generally a entry level server solution costs less than $200 per month) for the level of service provided, I never looked back – it’s managed servers all the way.