I have been in the hosting industry since 2002 and I have worked for some really large companies that provide commodity hosting for virtually nothing and people, especially novices are rarely happy with what they get.

I am wondering what everyone feels they need provided when searching for a truly managed services provider.

Something I dedicate my time to is providing absolutely everything including a fully secure control panel free of bugs and security issues and having great engineers and technical staff of deck around the clock to provide support for absolutely everything, this taking all of the work and potential risks out of the customers hands.

I know that Rackspace claims to provide such a service but there are inherent drawbacks to working with such a huge company, namely price and great support.

My organization has been in business for around 10 years and has never experienced network downtime or a single security breech and we can attribute that to our staff handling everything, every step of the way.

I' not sure I understand what is the point here, especially when you say "fully secure control panel free of bugs and security issues"... cPanel, Plesk, Direct Admin, etc are secure... although I have seen some folks to complain of security wholes in Plesk...

As far as for the fully managed service I would compare what a few of the leaders on this market provide and would including into a draft managed service framework. However the best approach is to ask businesses owners!

Clarity, simplicity, and honesty.

Pretend I'm an English major grandmother, and all I know is how to type in to my blog CMS.

I'd want an iron clad no fine print no complications guarantee that if something technical breaks, the provider will fix it.

If something breaks, you fix it. Simple.

I'd like to know that if something happens that is outside of the support I get for the monthly price, there is some way I can buy extra help from you.

In other words, I'm covered, safe, in good hands, no matter what happens.

I write, you do the rest. That's what fully managed would mean to me.

In short, a fully managed service should be able to cover even a newbie in web hosting. We can't expect every customer and client to have experience with every web hosting environment.

In a fully managed service, you shouldn't notice any difference from shared hosting.

A fully managed virtual hosting should be able to help in each and every thing you want.

Right from module installation to installing application.

Well said. When deciding between managed hosting providers, both package sizes and response times should be taken into consideration

Fully managed usually means that they ensure the server is running, secure, backed up and updated regulary.

Well said

100 % Fully Managed Solutions is for those who do not wish to worry about the technical side of their solution, and have hosting company manage it for customers. They will do all sorts of installation and server administration tasks. Inother words, they don't have to worry about the technical side of things.

Right point!

This solutions will be perfect for those who don't want to manage their own servers.

Yes, fully managed services are for people who don't want to (or don't know how to) handle the technical functions of their server

its always good to go for a fully managed hosting specially if you are not much sure about your abilities with technical stuff.

A fully managed virtual hosting should be able to help in each and every thing you want.

i agree witj vheeds