Is it better to hire somebody to do server management or get somebody that you know to do it?

Knowing someone is good (if they know the job too). Some companies are good to hire out to, but at the end of the day you get what you pay for. If you're paying $35/month for a "Server Management" company, you're not getting the same service as if you were paying $180/month or more.

Remember, if your server goes offline, you are potentially losing customers for every minute it's down.

Also depends on the person you are bringing on to do the job. Are they a friend or just somebody you have done business with in the past?

The reason I bring that up is for accountability. If they are a friend and they are doing it as a favor, can you hold them accountable for your downtime? With management companies, most of them have guarantees that you can hold them accountable for.

I would check out some reviews and see who has the most consistency with regards to good reviews. There are plenty floating around out there that can meet your requirements and budgets.

Have you thought about going with a host that offers managed services?

Hope you find what you're looking for.

I have thought about going to managed servers but platinum management sounds really nice since its $30/month for the first server and then $20 per a server after that. My friend says they do everything quite responsive and good.

I suggest learning how to do it instead of wasting money. It is fairly easy once you get to know the linux environment

Learning is nice (if you have the time), but there's much to be learned in a Linux environment that will take much longer than a week to learn and be proficient with. There's a reason that system managers exist and that IT departments get a lot of funding.

PSM is nice to help get the ball rolling while you learn things I'm sure, but many people don't want to learn that aspect of the computer and just want to focus on business and success. In those cases, a management company is an ideal solution.

As business owners, people need to learn to delegate the tasks that they do not know 1000% - server management is one of those things. If you don't know everything about it, and have secured the holes, you bring in someone else that does know those things.

Personally, as a manager (and owner), I delegate a LOT of things during the day in order to remain focused on the things that I'm good at and contribute to the business success. I have people that are better equipped to handle system configurations, customer service, marketing and SEO and from each (and to each) I contribute, but for the most part they are in the driving seat.

It is nice to learn all aspects of things, but sometimes it's safer to spend the money and let someone else do the task that you may not quite be up to dealing with. Security is a HUGE task, and an incorrect system setup can cause havoc to a business in seconds, and last for days, weeks or even years!

I'd never consider management as a waste, even if they were a backup to the employed staff. More eyes checking usually means increased security/management.

On the surface, I completely agree with Conor. What we don't know here is your level of server expertise, or the person you know - level of expertise. We also don't know your business plan or finances. For sure, mismanaged servers will expose your business to catastropic consequences.

Yes!!

It is definitely the best option if you really care for your server. Server management is not an easy task. it would be good if it is taken care of the people well adversed with it.Outsourcing the Server management is a clever way to deal with your server

Hi!
Agreed. Clearly..the best plan is for the near term..if you do not have the skills to manage the server..pay someone to do it. However..you should be active in learning what they do.

If I was going to pay someone..I would insist on knowing what changes were made..and how they might affect the end user. Many don't do this..but that's the only way I would do it.

Bryon

If you go with a company with good reviews you shouldn't have problems.

There are plenty of servers and server management, the two most common would have to be linux and windows servers, and as for management, you have options such as Plesk, or cPanel etc, it depends which hosting company you go with and what they have available.In terms of procedure if you are looking at someone else hosting for you,need to decide what you are going to host and what you need for example if you are going to building your site in ASP you will need a Windows based host, and if you are doing it in PHP or just plain HTML a more cost effective linux based provider is adequate. You will need to register a domain, delegate to the DNS servers the provider supplies you (most of them take care of all of this for you) and then upload your content.

better take a server from company which has managed support .

Well if you have enough time, then I suggest you learn how to do it yourself. It's best if you experience it first hand yourself. But if you don't have the time, then I suggest you hire somebody professional.

Get a small cheap unmanaged VPS to play around with. Don't learn on a dedicated server which hosts your clients.

Hello,

Rather than having any one to support you I will suggest you to study it yourself if you have enough time for that.