Over the years, web hosting transformed into cloud hosting solutions, offering businesses and individuals better reliability, performance, scalability, and pricing when it comes to hosting plans.
However, recently, cloud hosting has evolved into managed cloud hosting services, which brings businesses an even more practical and affordable solution to web hosting.
Managed cloud hosting refers to cloud servers that are acquired partially by several different businesses. These servers include databases, hardware tools, and software that is shared by businesses. The IT infrastructure required for the servers is situated in a completely different location, providing access to businesses using a remote network.
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What Does Managed Cloud Hosting Offer?
Since the concept is managed cloud hosting services, the original server may be owned by a completely different company. Here, a third-party company will intercept the server, share it with other businesses in slices, and offer managed services in addition to hosting, to form the initial cloud hosting server into managed cloud hosting servers.
With the help of cloud computing, the sharability of servers, and managed services, managed cloud hosting is relatively among the most affordable and safe web hosting options.
Cloud Hosting vs. Managed Cloud Hosting
The difference between cloud hosting and managed cloud hosting is just the management of the cloud server.
In cloud hosting (unmanaged), the cloud hosting process is the same (a third-party cloud hosting service that is shared with your business remotely), where your business manages the whole cloud server apportioned to you.
This option is mostly acquired by larger businesses that have the personnel expertise to manage a server.
On the other hand, with managed cloud hosting, you not only get a cloud server from a third-party cloud server provider but also get it managed and supervised by the provider.
In addition to web hosting, the managed cloud hosting provider can assist your business with the following services for your cloud server:
- Server setup
- Maintenance
- Remote monitoring
- Customer support
- Performance management
- Disaster recovery
Businesses that opt for unmanaged cloud hosting plans do the above-mentioned tasks themselves, while businesses that go for managed cloud hosting shift their focus to the primary objectives of the business while their provider manages their server on their behalf.
Pros And Cons Of Managed Cloud Hosting
Since there are many types of web hosting services available for businesses, here’s an insightful pros and cons list for managed cloud hosting servers that should help you make the best web hosting decision for your business.
Pros Of Managed Cloud Hosting
Reliable
Getting a cloud hosting solution already provides you the benefit of your website’s data being shared across multiple servers. This means, in the unfortunate case of a server crash or cyber attack, your data will still be safe and operating through different servers.
What does this ultimately mean? Little to no downtime of your website.
Additionally, with professionals managing your servers, it adds an extra layer of reliability for your hosting plan.
Customer Support
If all else fails, you’re not lost. Even if everything is working optimally, you’re still surrounded by experts that can make everything better and more suitable for you.
All managed cloud hosting services come with customer support, readily available for your business needs a single click away.
Backup and Recovery
Managed cloud hosting providers will back up your data regularly (mostly weekly), which provides you with the assurance that in the worst-case scenarios, you can easily recover everything.
Recovery can be a great option in many cases. Servers can crash, cyber threats can steal your data, or maybe some changes you made on your website caused your website to bug.
In any case, your cloud hosting provider can simply recover your website with the latest backup and solve all problems.
Security
Proper and regular security is key to a website’s health. This is why, managed cloud hosting services are backed by IT professionals providing an extra layer of security to the already secure cloud server environment with the following services:
- Malware Scanners
- DDoS Prevention
- Antiviruses
- Regular Security Audits
- Firewall Management
Server Monitoring
Cloud applications or websites always stay vulnerable, no matter how secure they may be. This is why, managed cloud hosting providers monitor your server 24/7, regularly checking any cyberattack vulnerabilities or abnormalities in the server.
Affordability
Even though managed cloud services cost more than unmanaged cloud servers, practically, going for unmanaged cloud servers and managing them yourself could actually cost you more in most cases.
In any case, your business will need to spend time, labor, and money on server reliability, security, monitoring, and backups.
If you do that yourself, that requires an expensive team of IT individuals, who may still not be as skilled as the one offered by cloud hosting providers.
On the other hand, managed cloud hosting only requires a few more dollars per month than unmanaged.
Helping You Focus On Your Business
If your business is not a cloud hosting provider, why waste all that time, money, and labor in managing a server that could be managed by professionals dedicated and specialized in this task?
With managed cloud hosting servers, you leave the management of servers in the hands of professionals, while you focus on your business’ success and growth.
Cons Of Managed Cloud Hosting
Pricing
Mostly for large-scale businesses that already have IT experts, managed cloud hosting is the more expensive option since it includes the price of managed services.
Moreover, unmanaged cloud-hosting servers are offered at practical pricing models like the pay-as-you-go method, which makes the price even more affordable comparatively for some businesses.
Less Control
Compared to unmanaged cloud hosting servers managed by your own IT team, you have less room for control and freedom in your hosting server supervision.
This means very little to most businesses, but may be a deal-breaker for larger businesses wanting complete control. This is desired by many businesses for better security and room for experimentation.
Best Managed Cloud Hosting Providers
Convinced that managed cloud hosting is the best solution for your business website? Let’s choose a provider now.
There are hundreds of managed cloud hosting providers on the internet, but since you want your data to be in reliable hands, it’s best to choose from reputable providers like the ones I have listed below to stay safe and secure, even if it comes at a greater price.
When comparing different cloud hosting providers, remember to also compare their features and terms to transparently see what you’re getting at the price. Pay extra care at renewal policies.
Conclusion
That is all there is to managed cloud hosting services. I hope this guide helped you make the right decision fit for your business. Interested in more? Check out the 3 Cheapest Cloud Hosting Providers For GPU Servers.
