Simplifying Server Management Packages

There are so many different hosting solutions on the market these days it can be difficult to know what’s included with each. Many hosting companies lure in their customers with attractive low prices, seemingly much cheaper than their competitors. But with these, it tends to be the case that very little management or support is included, often leaving their customers at a loss when something goes wrong. If you already have a dedicated IT team in house complete with server management specialists, it may be the case that you require very little support from your web host anyway, in which case, the cheaper options may work for you. For most companies however, they are going to need a degree of support from their web host and so will need to think about purchasing a management package that complements their hosting solution and business needs.

Generally, companies will add a server management package to their hosting solution to give them the peace of mind that their server is being looked after, and if they do have their own in house IT team, they are able to use their time to focus on their own projects, meaning companies are getting the most out of their staff time without them having to spend it on day to day server admin.

But, server management isn’t just about the day to day, it’s also having the right people there 24/7/365 for if the worst does happen and your server goes down, or is compromised in any way. Employing your own staff to be on premises with your servers 24 hours a day would be very costly, and that’s a big part of why server management is so useful. You essentially have a fully trained specialist on site with your server at all times so that problems can be identified and addressed by an expert immediately.        

As well as the more obvious features of a server management package, many will offer a blend of helpful extras to help you get the most out of your hosting. These may include things like:

Offering test restores. Many management packages will include a certain monthly or yearly quota of test restores to your server so that you can test it’s restoration abilities, which will help you to plan more effectively for a disaster recovery situation.

A monthly SysAdmin allowance, which can be used for anything from your hosts sysadmin team performing tasks on your server that you’re not comfortable with doing yourself, such as control panel upgrades or service upgrades for example. It may also be used for the team to assist you in investigating the root cause of any issues you’ve experienced.

Having a server management package usually means you can enjoy faster response times too, as managed customers will normally have a much shorter SLA on ticket response times and issue resolutions.    

You may also be offered a certain number of server security scans. This is a great feature to use because it means that not only can you rest assured that your server security is strong and robust, but you can demonstrate to your clients and potential clients that you take the security of your server seriously and therefore the integrity of any data of theirs on your server is much more likely to remain intact.

It is also normal practice with a server management package for your hosting provider to perform proactive monitoring of your server, meaning they are able to instantly identify any potential issues with CPU, RAM, HDD and other server services. Often because of this proactive monitoring your host will be able to tackle issues on your server as they arise, often before you’ve even noticed anything has happened! (Though any good host will still fully inform you of any problems that occurred, even if they’re fixed immediately) You can read more about the management packages that CWCS offer and what’s included by taking a look at our datasheet here. Or, if you wish to speak to a specialist, get in touch with us today.