How Do I Select A Dedicated Server Management Company?
Posted in Web Master by DB
The next step in the hosting ladder after a reseller account is running a dedicated server. As a reseller you can only do and offer so much to your customers. An increasing customer base or increase in resource demand from existing customers will push you to start shopping around for a dedicated server.
Now assuming you/your company are not completely hands on at dedicated server administration and management, a managed dedicated server would seem the ideal next step. Well actually you have two options. You can either buy a fully managed server from your dedicated server provider or you can only lease the dedicated server and outsource your server management to a third party. From my experience the latter option will save you a few bucks every month and more importantly will give you the flexibility of changing your server support team if you find them lacking for any reason.
If you have quite a few servers I would urge you to think of using more than one server management companies. Again it’s all about spreading your risks. Having a single company manage all your servers is putting all your eggs in one basket. By having separate companies manage your hardware you can always get two different perspectives for any unforeseen problem that may arise and you will always have the option of bringing in the SWAT team if you, God forbid!! have a disaster on your hands.
Irrespective of the path you choose, what is important is that you check and select your third party server management company or your managed dedicated server provider only if they provide the following services.
- Server Migration
- Ongoing Operating System hardening and updates
- Ongoing Application updates
- Ongoing Server and Hardware monitoring
- Ongoing Application monitoring
- Ongoing Antivirus updates
- Ongoing Security audits with full report every month.
- 24/7 Technical support via phone.
- Disaster recovery
- Backups and restoration
- Intrusion detection
- Database administration
- Performance tuning
Again if I were you I would go for a unmanaged dedicated server, completely outsource my server management and sign up or a monthly plan both for the server and for the server management. Yes it will cost me a few dollars more but folks it’s all about risk and mitigation.
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March 26th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Good Layout and design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
Jason Rakowski
July 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Why would you run an unmanaged server and then outsource your server support? That would be like owning a car in kansas and having it fixed in Mexico. I have a fully managed dedicated server box at Server Intellect. No need to worry about contacting a 3 party company to work on my server. Plus I don’t have to worry if I don’t want them to work on it. I can ask them not update my server and or touch it but still have the support there if I need it.
September 19th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
There are pro’s and con’s to having a single vendor handle your servers. The decision really depends upon your needs.
Some server management companies may provide services that on-demand IT infrastructure providers do not. The needs of a small web design firm that hosts brochure sites for their clients is very different than that of a social networking site or E-commerce site. So while one may get what they need from a single vendor another may have to leverage multiple vendors.
A good server management provider will help you with this decision. In some cases, it may make financial sense to consolidate into a single vendor while in other cases the level of support you need can only be provided by a managed service provider.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Take all services provided by managed service provider which will affect your billing.. best way is to choose fixed amount billing for managed servers.