What Is Fully Managed Dedicated Hosting?

Digital agencies need IT infrastructures that may sustain with rapid growth while providing consistent uptime, optimal performance, and high reliability.

Fully managed dedicated hosting addresses that demand and enables you to manage money flow efficiently to fuel your small business growth.

But what’s fully managed dedicated hosting? And the way exactly does it solve the IT infrastructure challenges of your growing online business?

Discover those answers and more on this guide.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Dedicated hosting is an isolated hosting environment where a number of applications are hosted on a server dedicated to a single client. It’s also generally known as a single-tenancy architecture for the reason that server resources are dedicated to a single tenant or client.

Dedicated servers provide complete control over the server resources and allow you to optimize server performance and security to fit your unique business needs. Due to this fact, they’re best suited to large organizations and high-traffic web sites.

Dedicated servers are typically hosted in data centers and offered with different levels of administrative and engineering support options. The three commonest forms of dedicated hosting are: 

• Fully managed dedicated hosting.
• Managed dedicated hosting.
• Unmanaged dedicated hosting.

Here’s a fast introduction to every dedicated hosting type.

Fully managed dedicated hosting is an isolated hosting environment where the service provider handles the setup, administration, management, and support of the physical server and application environment. All server resources are dedicated to running your application, and your small business data is hosted in isolation.

In a totally managed dedicated hosting environment, the service provider leases out a bare metal server and handles security patches, software updates, and operating systems. In consequence, you enjoy a wholly hands-off hosting experience.

Fully managed dedicated hosting servers are perfect for businesses that need reliable hosting but don’t have the technical knowledge to administer their very own servers.

Managed dedicated hosting is a hosting environment where the service provider handles the setup and maintenance of the physical server but offers a limited variety of services related to the upkeep and support of the software environment. Thus, you’re more involved within the server management process.

Managed dedicated hosting service providers generally limit their support for the software environment to the operating system (OS). Thus, you’re accountable for configuring, maintaining, and securing the software.

Managed dedicated hosting solutions are perfect for businesses with small technical teams that wish to be involved within the server management process and want more control over the software environment.

Providers of unmanaged hosting services handle every little thing related to the hosting setup, resembling network and cable management. Nonetheless, you might be chargeable for installing, maintaining, and securing software on the server.

Unmanaged servers are perfect for businesses that depend on mission-critical applications, resembling software businesses catering to banks and hospitals. Chiefly, unmanaged solutions allow them to retain control over their application without worrying about latency or uptime problems.

Fully managed dedicated hosting offers all the advantages of dedicated server hosting without the technicalities of hardware and software maintenance. Particularly, listed here are eight ways fully managed dedicated hosting advantages your online business:

Organising a dedicated server is an advanced task. To that end, you have to invest time and capital in every little thing from cupboard space and networking equipment to hiring and training IT staff for server management.

Fully managed dedicated hosting provides easy access to fast and secure hosting environments. In consequence, you don’t have to spend months planning, budgeting, and organising servers. As an alternative, you may deploy your application on purpose-built enterprise-grade servers in hours.

Downtime is pricey. Due to this fact, server reliability is very crucial for contemporary corporations. A 2021 survey of over 1,200 organizations by ITIC revealed the common hourly cost of downtime was upwards of $300,000, excluding legal fees, fines, and penalties.

Fully managed dedicated servers offer high reliability as in comparison with self-managed solutions. Furthermore, most reliable hosting providers offer SLAs with guaranteed uptime and financial compensation in the event that they fail to satisfy uptime commitments.

Unlike shared hosting, where resources are divided between multiple clients, selecting a totally managed dedicated server ensures all server resources are dedicated to your application. You don’t have to worry about performance or latency issues.

Sunglass Fix, a number one global eCommerce website, turned to Liquid Web to handle its growing concerns about performance issues and downtimes. Here’s what founder Craig Anderson has to say about their partnership with Liquid Web:

“Our site is around 4 times faster than it was, and we’ve unparalleled support. I like to recommend Liquid Web to all my business associates. I remind them that you simply need support and speed if you happen to’re serious about having a powerful site—things that Liquid Web absolutely provides.”

The largest good thing about selecting a totally managed dedicated hosting provider is round the clock customer support from a team of experts. So if there’s an outage in the course of the night, it’ll be quickly handled by a dedicated IT support team.

For instance, at Liquid Web, we’ve Level 3 Technicians at our data centers. And that’s not all. We guarantee a 59-second initial response for phone and chat support requests from the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting™. 

Like downtimes, data breaches will be expensive as well. A 2021 IBM report found that the common data breach costs businesses globally $4.24 million. It also found that automated security measures helped mitigate those costs by as much as $3.81 million.

Fully managed dedicated hosting providers employ each manual and automatic security measures to make sure your application is protected against known threats in any respect times.

For example, at Liquid Web, we offer advanced host and network protection and even offer custom solutions for host vulnerability management with our Server Secure™ service.

Capital expenditure (CapEx) is the cash your organization spends on fixed assets resembling hardware, networking equipment, and cupboard space. These are one-time expenses that supply advantages for several years. However the downside is that those long-term advantages aren’t guaranteed.

Once you go for fully managed dedicated hosting, you don’t have to worry about tying up capital in hardware or storage. You don’t risk over- or underestimating your small business requirements since you’ve the flexibleness to upgrade or downgrade your hosting plan on demand.

Operating expenditure (OpEx) is the cash your organization spends on each day business consumables resembling electricity, printer ink, or software subscriptions. These are short-term expenses essential for your small business’s success.

Although fully managed dedicated hosting is an operational expense, it’s significantly lower than the expenses you’d incur to support an on-premises dedicated infrastructure. It eliminates ongoing electricity, maintenance, and compliance investments.

With fully managed dedicated hosting, you pay a predictable monthly fee without worrying about unknown costs arising from hardware failures. Lowering your OpEx, in consequence, gives your small business the agility to remain relevant in a competitive environment.

Upgrading an on-premises hosting setup can require weeks of planning, forecasting, and budgeting. However, upgrading a totally managed dedicated hosting setup might only need just a few hours.

Selecting fully managed dedicated hosting enables you to customize individual server components to satisfy the demands of your small business. 

Need more RAM or disk space? Reach out to your service provider, and so they’ll assist you upgrade your server resources very quickly.

Comparing the prices of on-premises hosting with a totally managed solution is like comparing apples to oranges. That’s because each offer unique advantages for various use cases.

But let’s assume we’ve an apples-to-apples comparison. In that scenario, what — if any — is the cost-benefit of using one over the opposite? Let’s discover.

Organising on-premises hosting infrastructure requires investments into:

• Server hardware.
• Software licenses.
• Network infrastructure.
• Backup infrastructure.
• Utilities resembling power and cooling.
• Security, compliance, and risk mitigation.
• System administrator hiring, training, and turnover.

Even without entering into the precise numbers, it’s clear that the fee of organising an on-premises server is significantly higher than that of fully managed dedicated hosting.

Furthermore, it might take several years before you break even in your investment in on-premises server infrastructure. It’s more likely that you simply’ll need an infrastructure upgrade before then.

Compare that with Liquid Web’s Intel Xeon Gold 6226R – Dual Value Bundle, and you’ve a transparent winner. Liquid Web’s managed dedicated hosting plan gives you access to Intel’s Xeon Gold 6226R processor, 128GB of RAM, 4 x 480 GB SSD storage, and 15 TB bandwidth beside security and backup add-ons for $549/month.

Fully managed dedicated hosting offers a cheap alternative to organising on-premises infrastructure. For this reason, you don’t have to worry about IT staff turnover, software license costs, or compliance issues. As an alternative, you pay a predictable monthly fee and luxuriate in the convenience of dedicated hosting.

It’s no surprise then that Statista predicts the worldwide managed IT services market will grow from $161.37 billion in 2021 to greater than $300 billion by 2027.

When migrating to a totally managed dedicated hosting service, it’s necessary to keep in mind that not all providers offer the identical level of service. Listed here are ten aspects it is best to consider when selecting a totally managed dedicated website hosting service.

Server hardware is a vital a part of your hosting setup. Without proper hardware, you’ll experience system errors, latency issues, and server downtimes. With this in mind, listed here are five questions you may answer to find out the sort of dedicated hardware your small business needs:

1. What applications do you have to run?
2. How much processing power do you would like?
3. How much memory do you would like?
4. What’s more necessary, CPU speed or the variety of cores?
5. How much cupboard space do you would like?

The answers to those questions will assist you discover the physical hardware resources needed to support your online business.

Service level agreements (SLAs) establish the service standards the hosting provider will offer your small business. It also defines consequences for unmet service obligations, including monetary compensation in case of losses.

Particularly, listed here are just a few guarantees it is best to search for in your hosting provider’s SLA:

• Network uptime.
• Support response times.
• Power uptime.
• Hardware alternative.
• Compensation credit.

For instance, at Liquid Web, our SLA guarantees a 59-minute initial response time for help desk support requests, 30-minute hardware alternative, and 100% network and power uptime. And if you happen to experience downtime, we’ll credit you 10x the quantity of downtime.

What differentiates fully managed dedicated hosting from other forms of hosting is the hands-off service experience. When things go improper with a totally managed web server, you’ve access to a support agent to discover and resolve server issues.

But gaining access to a support agent is the bare minimum it is best to expect. A reliable hosting provider will allow you to reach their support team across multiple channels, resembling:

• Live chat.
• Helpdesk ticket.
• Phone.
• Email.

Moreover, it is best to only consider providers that supply managed support 24/7/365. Predicting downtime accurately is virtually unattainable. Due to this fact, it’s crucial to have help available round the clock.

When pet-sitting SaaS Time To Pet needed a reliable dedicated hosting provider to grow their business, they turned to Liquid Web. Here’s what co-founder Mike Grenier needed to say about his support experience:

“We rely on Liquid Web for twenty-four/7/365 support … Liquid Web’s support team can easily translate a non-technical query right into a technical solution and fix the difficulty. We are able to at all times count on Liquid Web for any infrastructure needs.”

One other necessary factor to think about when selecting a totally managed dedicated hosting provider is the safety measures they provide with their service. That’s necessary because Positive Technologies’ research found that cybercriminals can attack users in 98% of all web applications.

Due to this fact, it’s necessary to decide on a hosting option that gives security measures resembling:

• Proactive threat monitoring.
• Web-based firewalls and DDoS protection.
• Malware and virus protection.
• Timely system patch deployment.
• Dedicated IP addresses.

At Liquid Web, we provide all that and more. You’ll be able to select additional services in your hosting plan, resembling SSL certificates, web application protection, advanced threat monitoring, and intrusion detection to fit your core business needs.

When you consider performance, you regularly give attention to memory and processing power. But the reality is that irrespective of how powerful your server resources are, in case your network isn’t configured to support it, you won’t experience its true potential.

Be certain that the dedicated hosting provider you select offers high-bandwidth servers. Furthermore, select a provider that gives at the very least 5 TB of bandwidth with its hosting plan. That way, you don’t should worry about unexpected additional charges or network issues.

When selecting a totally managed dedicated service, it’s also necessary to think about the physical location of the info center. A server removed from its users will suffer from performance and latency issues.

Other reasons to think about the info center location include contractual obligations and compliance requirements. For example, GDPR rules mandate storing data collected from EU residents within the EU or one other jurisdiction with similar levels of information protection.

Reputable fully managed hosting providers offer smart defaults which you can pick from to launch a server quickly. Nonetheless, as your small business grows, your server demands might likely grow beyond what your service provider offers.

Due to this fact, selecting a hosting provider that gives customizable solutions besides standard plans is significant. That way, you’ve the flexibleness to upgrade your hosting infrastructure to adapt to your unique business needs.

One other necessary consideration when selecting a totally managed dedicated hosting provider is the flexibleness of selecting an operating system. Otherwise, you’ll encounter compatibility issues if the OS doesn’t support your small business applications.

Most hosting providers will support the newest stable releases of Linux and Windows — the highest two operating systems utilized by 57.5% of internet sites on the web, in response to W3Techs. But if you happen to need a particular version, reach out to your provider’s sales team and discuss your options.

Consider creating an inventory of your top 5 decisions and compare their prices, including setup fees and lock-in terms, before selecting a service provider. Obviously, you don’t want to join an affordable server only to comprehend you’re locked into it for a yr or have to pay additional fees for basic features.

Reliable hosting providers will outline all operating costs and lock-in terms upfront to make sure you understand what you’re signing up for. So, read their service offerings fastidiously and confirm all costs to avoid any last-minute surprises.

Add-on services make it easier to adapt your dedicated hosting setup to suit your small business needs. While standard security measures or backup solutions might work for many businesses, some businesses might profit from advanced server protection or backup solutions.

Listed here are some common add-on options you may consider in your server:

• Backup and storage add-ons.
• Security and compliance add-ons.
• Performance add-ons.
• Software add-ons.
• Email add-ons.

Jump on a call along with your hosting provider’s sales team and discuss the provision and costs of optional add-ons. The flexibility to fine-tune server performance and security with add-ons goes a great distance in improving the efficiency of your small business. 

Fully managed dedicated hosting offers all the advantages of an on-premises hosting infrastructure without the overheads. And with the proper hosting provider, you’ll have the flexibleness to decide on and optimize your hosting infrastructure to suit your small business needs.

Liquid Web’s Fully Managed Dedicated Server Hosting solution provides the best levels of performance and security. You don’t have to worry about server security, performance, or support. The Most Helpful Humans in Hosting™ are at all times around to help you 24/7/365.