Don’t want to be stressed out by website problems in the middle of the night?
We’ve all been there. You’re doing great, running a tight ship, everything’s humming along and then… BUZZ-CLICK-KAPOW! Your website has decided to go belly up on you. Customers want refunds and your phone is ringing off the hook.
The fun part? You get to play detective and track down what went wrong.
Here’s the breakdown:
Downtime costs businesses an average of $137 and $427 a minute for small businesses. That’s not a lot of minutes. And as your business grows? Say hi to over $300,000 per hour.
Enter, managed hosting services.
Managed hosting services take care of all the things (trust us… there are a lot) so you don’t have to. This frees you up to focus on what’s actually important in running your business.
Here’s what you’ll find in this article:
- Why managed hosting services are better than traditional web hosting services
- A few of the cost differences
- Why you should care
- The actual features that you should care about
The Differences Between Managed Hosting and Traditional Hosting
Traditional hosting services are like that one friend who always wants to play football.
With traditional hosting, you do it all. Want to update server software? That’s on you. Did a security patch come out last night? Better hope your night owls did it. Server going crazy at 3am on a Sunday? You’ll see them again later.
Managed hosting turns that ship on its head.
With managed hosting, it’s like you just got a whole IT team without any of the added payrolls or headaches. When you invest in CLDY’s web hosting plans, you’re paying for services like continuous server monitoring, security updates, performance optimization and automated incident management. They handle everything. You sit back and take a deep breath.
Why Businesses Are Switching to Managed Hosting
You know what most web hosting services will never tell you? Yeah, we’re about to spill it…
This market is hot, my friend. Like ouch-on-the-nose hot. Recent figures have it that the managed hosting market will be worth $329.1 billion by 2025.
It’s not a typo. It’s the market doing its math.
Businesses are growing tired of:
- Paying IT employees to babysit servers
- Sleeping next to a hairbrush due to all the security vulnerabilities
- Watching revenue poof away during site outages
- Spending all of their precious weekend doing server maintenance
…and looking for managed services that just WORK.
Managed hosting saves the day time and time again. And businesses know it. That’s why businesses are switching.
The Actual Costs of DIY Hosting
We’re about to drop some truth bombs here…
DIY shared hosting costs more than just your monthly fee. Let’s run through it:
Your website goes down. A ton of bells go off. Your team scrambles to triage and solve server issues. The minute that your site is up and running? You breathe a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, with every minute of server downtime, you’re paying:
- Downtime service costs
- Lost revenue
- Lost customers
Even large organizations are expected to experience site outages. Data shows that over 90% of businesses require a 99.99% uptime SLA now. It’s a business necessity.
Managed hosting vs Traditional. Do the math. Simple math. Spend a little bit more now or a lot more later.
The Efficiency Benefits of Managed Hosting Services
Managed hosting isn’t just about fixing the headache of server issues…
Managed hosting services improve business efficiency in tangible ways, including:
Performance and Speed
Optimized server configurations thanks to expert teams make your site load faster. Faster site performance means happier customers. Which means increased sales. The number of repeat customers willing to spend more is through the roof.
Security that Works
Automatic updates and constant monitoring mean your hosting provider is dealing with security threats and installing security patches for you. So when a bad guy tries to break in? They’re already too late.
Automated Backups
Server data is automatically backed up and available to you at the click of a button. You’re setup with time stamps and recovery points based on what you need. Backups are painless and quick.
Scalable Resources
You get notified when there are available resources. When your traffic needs more juice, managed hosting services will scale automatically. You’re not stuck overpaying for capacity just to play it safe.
The Features to Look Out For In Managed Hosting Providers
Managed hosting providers are far from the same. Managed hosting providers come in different shapes and sizes and quality levels. When you’re out looking for managed hosting providers services you should look out for certain things. Here’s what you’ll need to watch for:
Expert 24/7 Support – When things do go sideways, real humans need to be at the other end of the line. Humans that know what they’re doing. Humans who can jump on your site and help you fix your issue quickly.
Proactive Monitoring – On to the next part… Great managed hosting providers look for issues before your site breaks. They have tools and processes in place to monitor and catch issues before they become a problem for your business.
Performance Optimization – The hosting provider should be optimizing your environment without you needing to lift a finger. Server caching, CDN integration, database optimization, load balancing, and other technical stuff should be a thing of the past. Your team should only care about how it looks and not how it works.
Regular Software Updates – Server software needs updating, applications need patching. You should not have to do a damn thing. Your managed hosting services provider should be doing all of this work without your interference.
Clear SLA Metrics – This one is more transparency 101 than features, but you need to have guarantees for what you’re paying for. Uptime percentage guaranteed? Data recovery? You need to know the answers to these questions in writing.
The Cost of NOT Using Managed Hosting Services
We’re about to get a little high level here on money stuff.
Remember that ecommerce site we mentioned earlier? Doing like $10k in daily revenue. How much would it cost if you’re offline for just an hour?
Roughly $417. It’s that simple. Forget the small, local, mom-and-pop shops. The big boys are doing this math as well.
Over 90% of businesses now require at least 99.99% uptime. This is business as usual. So businesses get their $300k bill when outages happen, and you know what they do?
They become more efficient with their IT dollars and embrace managed hosting services. That means you. The competition will not be kind if you’re losing business to site outages and downtime. Plus, more peace of mind and actual sleep at night!
Transitioning To Managed Hosting Services
You’re probably thinking:
“But what about migrating over? That sounds like a pain.”
Managed hosting providers know this. They want to ease the pain. If they do it right, they should be able to handle the actual migration process for you.
This would be how the process would flow:
- Sign up for a managed hosting plan.
- Your provider backs up your current site.
- They handle all the migration work to get your site on their servers.
- You test out everything to make sure it works.
- They flip a DNS switch and you’re live with your new hosting plan.
Your whole migration should take 24-48 hours, max, with zero downtime.
Wrapping Up
Managed hosting services aren’t just a firewall against major disasters…
Managed hosting providers give your business a foundation to excel on.
Managed hosting means you can run your business and not worry about website uptime. You can focus on customers, revenue, and the most important part of your business.
Managed hosting providers work hand-in-glove to help your business run like a well-oiled machine. When you’re not having to deal with server issues and fires constantly, you’re able to really focus on your business.
Managed hosting has evolved. No more is it just your digital storage space. Managed hosting solutions today offer performance, reliability, and security that your modern business requires.
It’s really not as technical as it used to be. That’s the point, right? The experts are there to take the technical burden off your hands so you don’t have to think about it.
Time is money and managed hosting helps your business work on time. Managed hosting allows your business to operate at a much higher, more efficient level.
How do you value that?
