What are the Benefits?
"Hosting without management is only raw connectivity. It's not redundant or secure and it's only a matter of time before it goes down or is compromised, either maliciously or by a worm," says Lorenzo Modesto, sales and marketing director of MSP Bulletproof Networks.
The management that an MSP specialises in can add layers of:
- Security: The MSP can invest in security and firewall equipment that would be prohibitively expensive to a single company. In addition, the technical staff can ensure that OS, antivirus, and application patches are always up to date.
- Redundancy: This again is assisted by the MSP's economies of scale, and might otherwise not be affordable.
- Monitoring: The MSP actively monitors the performance of the machines. If anything goes wrong, or looks like it might, the MSP's specialist engineers can be paged quickly.
- Reporting: The MSP can provide detailed reports of the systems' performance, which can be used for forward planning of requirements.
"All of which turns raw connectivity into a platform for mission critical applications including e-commerce applications," says Modesto.
Most importantly, managed hosting can save money. "Cost comparisons are very clear cut when you add up staff costs, stress, lost revenue, and lost customer satisfaction if a site is not hosted on a managed platform."
"Managed Hosting eliminates or greatly reduces all of these so that SMEs that rely on Web Hosting can get on with using it as the business tool it should be."
