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One of the biggest problems of those who sell managed hosting services is that of see the expectations of customers who are accustomed to traditional hosting management unfulfilled they think they can do in a few minutes what they did independently with a cPanel control panel with a simple click of the mouse.
What should be highlighted is that what in normal hosting is delegated to control panels such as Plesk or cPanel, in a managed service these operations are managed independently in a manual and tailored way.
It is obvious that the autonomy is less in a managed hosting as well as the processing times of ticket management increase because obviously no system administrator will answer you and process the ticket in 5 minutes if the request does not need to be carried out quickly or even very short.
The reasoning and the choices made by the hosting provider tends to satisfy all customers with the appropriate timing for the customer's request and problem.
A DDOS attack or a hardware failure that makes your site unreachable is managed with the highest priority within a few minutes, the addition of an SSL certificate within a few days, the activation of a new server and the migration of content from old to new even 3 or 4 days.
The underlying principle used in care and ticket management is similar to the famous Triage in use in all civilian emergency rooms worldwide, or give the right priority to the problem so that everyone is protected.
The method of triage it is used first of all on the arrival of patients in the emergency room, where access to treatment is not based on the order of arrival but on the priority of their conditions. In this context it allows to establish an order among the subjects who arrive, giving the appropriate care first to cases with a higher priority and then those with lower priority. The degree of urgency of each patient is represented by a color code assigned on arrival, after an initial assessment carried out by a nurse in charge of this task.
In this regard, we felt obliged to clarify the timing of intervention and the cost of the related additional services that require the intervention of an operator to This Page.
Although a similar service can be perceived as slow and ineffective, it is also true that such a service has considerable advantages, which is first and foremost that of shift all technical competence from the user to the service provider and also all possible risks and liabilities.
This approach is absolutely functional when a company must necessarily shift the risk externally and not onto some internal employee given that especially in Italy the internal employee would not be liable, consequently, to any civil or criminal level and above all legal practice. to obtain any compensation would be more expensive than the compensation itself.
What happens if in making a few clicks on the very comfortable cPanel something goes wrong and cPanel itself stops responding and even worse the site becomes invisible? If you do not have assistance and support, nothing will simply happen, you will have to try technical virtuosity to try to restore an optimal situation, lose an afternoon, a night or several days and then in the end delegate to a systems technical service that will migrate everything to a solution managed.
Conversely, with a managed service if you carry out some operation on your site and commit a foolish thing that leads to serious consequences, just call the hosting provider and ask for a repair or in the worst case scenario a restore of the backup.
Backup the latter which is subject to greater safeguards than those of an unmanaged hosting, i.e. the direct responsibility of the managed hosting provider (or managed hosting) which provides contractual guarantees on both the execution of backups and the successful restoration of the same.
In an unmanaged (unmanaged) server service the provider simply gives you a physical or virtualized server and a control panel, everything else ranging from management, security, patching and updating, backup management, backup restore, disaster recovery and DDOS mitigation procedures at network or application level is the sole responsibility of the customer.
It's clear that if the customer has systems skills, the unmanaged solution could ultimately be even better than a managed management, but this scenario is extremely rare especially where a customer with systems experience stoops to install a control panel.
Pros and cons of unmanaged hosting
With an unmanaged hosting option, you have full control: unlimited access and absolute freedom, almost as if you were managing your own server. Unmanaged services are significantly less expensive than managed ones, so if you are comfortable with operating systems, this can be a significant advantage.
However, if you already have difficulty installing a control panel yourself, you may encounter obstacles right from the start. And then, do you really have the time to administer a server on top of all your other responsibilities? Are you ready to face every possible problem in complete autonomy?
On the other hand, managed hosting significantly reduces the workload and relies on a minimum of technical skills on the part of the user, while requiring more commitment on the part of the service provider.
If something goes wrong and you are stuck, you can call your hosting to help you out.
How to choose the right hosting solution?
When it's time to decide which hosting solution is best suited to your needs, consider that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. However, if your business is serious and the goal is excellence, using a managed hosting service is crucial. Strengthened by know-how gained over decades of experience at the highest levels in the web performance sector, we are able to guarantee that a hosting service offered by us can help you get the best out of your website, translating into tangible benefits and measurable.
With deep expertise in web optimization and performance management, our managed hosting is not simply a service, but a strategic partnership that ensures your business optimal performance, strengthened security and scalability tailored to your needs.
As you ponder potential hosting liabilities, consider the following questions and their hypothetical answers depending on whether you lean toward a managed or unmanaged solution:
- “Could you take care of the downtime if there was a software problem?”
- Yes: Yes, I have the technical skills necessary to promptly intervene and resolve software issues that could cause downtime.
- Negative Answer: No, I would prefer to rely on a team of professionals who can quickly handle such disruptions to minimize any impact on my business.
- “Are you comfortable applying security patches remotely?”
- Yes: Absolutely, I am aware of best security practices and can implement the necessary security patches on my own.
- Negative answer: I'm not sure what security procedures to take and I would feel more comfortable if an experienced hosting provider handled these aspects for me.
- “Do you really need unlimited access?”
- Yes, I require unlimited access to customize and configure the server to meet the specific needs of my site or application.
- Negative response: I don't need full access; I am satisfied with the standard configurations and technical support provided by a managed hosting service.
- “Is the price difference worth the extra work?”
- Yes: The cost savings are significant and I am willing to invest time and effort in managing the server to reduce costs.
- Negative answer: My time is precious and I prefer to invest in a managed service that allows me to focus on my core business.
- “Do you really need a control panel, like cPanel or Plesk?”
- Affirmative answer: Yes, using a control panel allows me to manage server settings in a more intuitive and autonomous way.
- Negative answer: I don't need a specific control panel; I rely on the technical expertise of my hosting provider to manage the underlying infrastructure.
These questions and their answers should help you evaluate whether unmanaged hosting aligns with your capabilities and desires or whether a managed option might be more beneficial to you instead.
In addition to fully managed and unmanaged solutions, there are some companies, like us, that provide hybrid solutions upon request. These settings will give you root access to your server, but will still provide a limited amount of support, usually in the form of a limited number of hours with a technical support agent. If you're not sure what to do, look into a hybrid plan - it might give you the best of both worlds.
It's about setting your priorities
What is the decisive factor for your choice: economic savings or reduction of management interventions?
If the idea of having to directly manage the server causes you apprehension, it would be advisable to look towards a managed hosting option. If your current hosting provider does not provide this service, you may want to investigate the possibility of entering into a maintenance agreement or evaluating a hybrid hosting plan. Additionally, you should avoid committing to long-term contracts for unmanaged hosting if there is uncertainty about your ability to handle the management burden yourself.
Cost evaluation and economic comparison
The cost of a professional management service may seem high, but it is essential to consider that companies offering such services operate on a large scale, achieving significant economies of scale. This means that, for example, by managing 100 customers with a monthly subscription of 100 euros, you generate a turnover of 10.000 euros. This volume of business allows you to provide efficient services at much lower costs than hiring an internal systems engineer, which could cost your company at least 3.000 euros per month.
The number of hours of assistance needed per month must then be considered. Our customers typically require an initial commitment to start up and set up servers, followed by regular monitoring, backup and patching service included in the subscription. Rarer events are the need to restore a backup, clean an infected website or set up new services.
To compare the convenience between hiring an employee or relying on outsourcing, we can do this calculation:
Monthly cost of an employee / Hourly cost of outsourced managed care.
With a competitive hourly rate of €80/hour, the calculation would be €3.000/€80 = 37,5 hours per month.
So, for up to 37 hours of support per month, outsourcing is the cost-effective choice compared to hiring in-house staff. And if we consider that many of our customers only need 1 or 2 hours of intervention per year, the economic advantage of the managed service is even more evident.
We also take into consideration the cost of a cPanel license, which amounts to €45 per month. With an increase of just €50, it is possible to opt for a complete management service, guaranteeing you the assistance not of a simple software, but of an expert ready to constantly support you, even while you are on holiday, on a plane trip or during rest night.
Advantages on the costs of the experience of a systems engineer
In many cases we are able to save you important costs thanks to a superfine tuning of the system.
We have cases in portfolios like THIS in which, faced with a budget with a range from 6 thousand to 12 thousand dollars per month, we were able to provide a better and more efficient service for less than 1000 euros per month with an annual saving of at least 60 thousand euros.
The convenience of managed management is indisputable when you consider the possibility of running into excessive expenses for the purchase of over-sized servers. Investing 500 euros per month in non-optimized servers is an unwise choice when, by relying on a quality managed service, you could benefit from hardware for 100 euros per month, perfectly configured to guarantee superior performance.
The value of experience and expertise is not limited to mere cost; it is an investment that translates into quality, efficiency and, ultimately, a tangible economic return. This is why many customers prefer our offer, recognizing the importance of a professional managed hosting service.
On the other hand, if the perception is that there is no significant difference between one server with cPanel and another, and impatience reigns supreme to the point of not tolerating waiting for the resolution of a non-urgent ticket, then perhaps our proposal is not suitable for you. In some contexts, the choice of less sophisticated solutions may be adequate for those with less critical needs.
Our corporate vision is clear: we prefer selected customers who appreciate the quality and dedication we employ in our work. The business model based on numbers and not on the quality of service is something we willingly leave to others; we choose to focus on a small number of customers, ensuring impeccable attention and service. This way, we maintain a satisfied and loyal customer base that knows the value of a top-notch managed hosting service.
