Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
What does "fully managed server" mean exactly?
I'm told I need to run only "fully managed servers" to maximize their value to my business. But what does that mean? Is monitoring their performance and reacting to problems enough? Does this vary depending on the applications being run or the nature of my business? And if I use hosted servers, do I hold the hosting companies to the same or different standards? How do I fully manage my servers without making them too expensive or challenging to operate at all?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
5 Answers
Derek,
In regards to only running "fully managed servers", you can utilize a variety of hosting environments. For instance, you may want to run your web servers in the cloud, but your data base in a dedicated environment. Fully managed means to my company, you are only responsible for your applications, which we will help with support as well. We are then responsible for all hardware, updates, patches, back up's and restores. All hosting companies should offer this, if not, move on to another that does. You should always hold your hosting companies to the same standards, otherwise when you have an issue; you are left holding the "bag". Cost is will be based on the type of environment you choose to deploy and can vary greatly from a company that "tries 24x7x365" or a company that actually provides a dedicated support team, available to you whenever your business needs them. If you would like to know more, or have more questions, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help!
Shannon
Hi Derek, hope I can help out.
"Is monitoring their performance and reacting to problems enough?"
No, there's a lot more to it. The majority of the work should be in pro-active activities from both a data centre and a server stand-point. Response quality (time, competence, effectiveness, etc.) is very important as well as issues do and will always occur. You just don't want them to occur very often :) Nowadays, managed providers should (and will tell you) they do it all. Just be careful and ask for decent references if you can. Marketing and sales pitches don't always line up with actual service levels.
"Does this vary depending on the applications being run or the nature of my business?"
In theory it shouldn't, in practice it does :). This will mostly depend on what applications you're running. Standard apps will usually be well supported and managed on your behalf. Non-standard apps less so. Custom/proprietary apps...well, if the service provider's system and application administrators have never seen the application, they may have difficulty taking care of it. As for the nature of your business, that should have less of an impact as long as your business' requirements have been clearly identified from the start (remember, make sure your business requirements drive your IT requirements and required service levels, not the other way around). For example, if your business has a critical peak period at a time when no one else does, you may need to inquire about a prospective provider's ability to make that period a freeze period or have sufficient staffing levels for the best turn around times or readiness to add more capacity prior to the peak period if needed, etc.
"And if I use hosted servers, do I hold the hosting companies to the same or different standards?"
They should be your standards and they should be the same for every provider hoping to win your business.
The most important things to remember are:
1) Your business requirements drive your IT and service level requirements.
2) Just like when you interview an employee, you should get references from your prospective managed providers. Marketing and sales documentation and pretty graphs are fine but you just won't know about the service level of a provider unless you ask around. Yes, the references will be slightly skewed as no service provider would use an upset customer as a reference but it's still a good exercise that shouldn't be omitted.
3) Like most industries and services, you typically get what you pay for. However, that said, your business requirements may not necessarily need the best of the best. See point 1 :)
Hope that helps and good luck.
- Guillaume
It's important to note that there are "shades of gray" in defining this. For instance the tech support issue. Suppose you provide email service to customers. Who is responsible for providing support directly to those customers even though the server is fully managed. More often than not, it will be you with support from the hosting company only directly related to server issues.
So there needs to be some thought into that. It can be a great relief being the middle man with hardware and software upkeep left to someone else. By the same token, is the service you are going to offer able to pay for that fully managed solution.
Most webhosting service provider offers you Fully Managed Dedicated Servers as a default service which will help their clients to concentrate more on their business rather then tweaking with server setting and playing with it ;)
it's always better to go with the webhost who assure you Fully manged hosting services for no extra cost !!!
"fully manged server" can mean a lot of different things to different people. It's one thing with web hosts, but with app servers it can be different.
To my customers, a fully managed server is one we take care of EVERYHING on, proactive or reactive. We do this for a flat monthly fee. We do this whether the server is hosted in a colo or at the customer's site.
And yes, pricing does depend on the apps being run, and the nature of your business. A file server with a business day response time is much less than an Exchange server with a one hour response time.
Whether or not monitoring and reacting to problems is enough is entirely up to you. If you are only in reactive mode, you take on a lot more risk, but that level of risk may be acceptable to you.
Answer This Question