Whether you run a multinational corporation, or you have just launched a flourishing start-up, selecting a hosting service that will incorporate all of your company’s software and hardware is a crucial aspect of any business. Fundamentally, your choices can be resolved into two options; managed servers and unmanaged servers. To help you decide which service will best benefit your business, here is our guide to managed servers vs. unmanaged servers:
What’s the difference?
The fundamental difference between managed and unmanaged servers is that, whereas both options will equip you with hardware that your business requires, only a managed server will provide you with support regarding software installations, data back-ups, migration from existing servers, security updates and data recovery, among other services. Consequently, there are three important questions that you should ask yourself when deciding between managed and unmanaged servers.
What is your IT administration budget?
This is due to the fact that, although there are many companies offering managed server services at competitive rates, unmanaged servers are the cheaper option. However, if you have the expendable IT administration budget in order to invest in a managed server then it may prove more cost-effective for your business in the long term, due to increased productivity levels and heightened business efficiency that is facilitated by professional server support.
How proficient are you or your IT team at server configuration and maintenance issues?
Unmanaged servers suit businesses that already possess an 24/7 IT team with an adept knowledge of server configuration and maintenance practices. However, if do not feel that your business currently possesses the administrative experience to manage a server of your own volition then a managed server service will offer vital and dependable 24/7 software support.
To what extent do you expect your company’s IT operations to expand and evolve in the next few years?
As your company expands and evolves so will your server needs. Subsequently, you should select a hosting service which will be able to rapidly and efficiently install new applications and update your administrative operations in accordance with the changing needs of your business. Whereas a managed server will carry out these operations for you, an unmanaged server will require you to make these changes yourself, so you need to feel confident in your company’s capability of doing so before committing to a long term hosting service.
If you have any further questions regarding managed and unmanaged servers please feel free to contact us today. A member of the team will be more than happy to resolve any queries you may have.
