Managed Vs. Unmanaged Dedicated Servers
Part of your dedicated server options is whether you would like to have it managed or unamanaged. The difference is simple: with the managed option, you let the hosting company perform the admin tasks on the server while with the unmanaged option you take responsibility for being the administrator.
Best Dedicated Server Plans to Choose
The first question is, which one should you choose? The answer would depend on your technical skills, time, needs, and budget. The choice between managed and unmanaged servers would eventually depend on cost and time. If you don’t have enough room for your budget and have time to spend on server maintenance, the unmanaged option is better for you. But if you would rather spend that time managing your business, then investing on a managed server would be more advisable.
Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting
If you have the technical knowledge and experience with server operation and maintenance, you may opt for an unmanaged server. This option gives you more room for customization regarding the software that you want to use on the server. If you know your way around web servers and would like a hands-on approach, then you would prefer an unmanaged server. Unmanaged options are also less expensive than managed dedicated servers. This is where your budget comes into play. And since server maintenance is time-consuming, unmanaged dedicated servers are only for those who have enough time on their schedules to spend on server maintenance.
The unmanaged option provides you with just the basics of server hosting. These would include the hardware, network connection, and backup system. With this option, the hosting company would just provide the location, server, network connection, and basic hardware maintenance. The operating system and software to be installed would be dependent on you. Decisions such as what scripts to run, antivirus program to install, plug-ins to get, and admin control panel to use would be left to you. So would their installation, maintenance, tracking, development, and troubleshooting.
Managed Dedicated Hosting
This includes downloading and installing software security and stability patches, dealing with security holes, application errors, database maintenance, and resource management. With the managed option, these things would be taken cared of by the hosting company for you. The final appearance of your server would depend the software package that you would choose. Aside from those, managed servers also provide round-the-clock technical support that can provide assistance on matters related to your site and server. Managed servers also include data recovery among its services. This simply means all you would have to worry about is website maintenance.
Regarding time and resources, you would now look at your business situation and organization. Do you have enough time and resources to manage your own server? Won’t it be cheaper to let the hosting company take care of the admin tasks for you? As your organization and sites grow, you would have less time on managing your server and more time spent on managing your business and websites. But it would still depend on what makes most business sense contingent on your situation.