Importance of server management companies for Dedi server owners

E

engineerroy2008

New member
Hi,

I am seeing that lot of server management companies and individuals working on Dedicated server setup and management, i would like to know really what is their importance in this area and how many customers really need a server management company for their Dedi and VPS?

In that i would like to know it is required for Linux based servers or Windows based Servers.

Give your experience and comments on this topic so that our forum users can understand their importance, if any
 
A server management company can essentially act as your own outsourced network techs. *THAT'S* the primary importance (to me). Having your servers managed, to some level, lets the individual or two-person company have an actual life outside of running and maintaining their business.

When you manage your own servers (you the individual, or you the two- or three-person team) you are responsible for hardware procurement (researching, buying), hardware maintenance (checking on wear, upgrading / replacing as needed), software installation/configuration/maintenance (...just what it says on the tin), server security, and any other issues related to server maintenance and management. That's you, 100% of the time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a week. There's some automation that can be done - server monitoring and alerts being the most common. But still...that can be a lot of work, on top of all the business tasks that need to be done. Additionally, if anything goes wrong or something needs a little extra TLC, there's just you. The load may not be too great if you have one server and a double-handful of clients...but once you pass that point, you could find yourself swamped pretty quickly.

A good solid server management company can take some or most of these tasks, freeing your time to do things like advertising, support, eating, and sleeping. You will still need a plan, you'll still need to know what features you want to offer and what tasks you have the server management company handle. You might also have to shop around for a server management company that allows you flexibility in tailoring your server management plan (you can always contact them with your plan and ask them for a custom quote, and see if they're willing to offer you a unique plan.) But your day-to-day operations can go a bit smoother if you and your partner (or two partners) aren't essentially chained to the servers.
 
Pretty much nailed it on the head Lesli. Server management is much more than just someone checking to see if the server is online. Often they are the ones you turn to so that your software is up to date, the security patches you have in place are working, the firewalls are secure and your machine is not being hacked or spammed (inbound and outbound).

Depending who you are paying, and what they are doing, pricing can range from $35 to $200 per month for general management of a single machine. Often these are companies that wait for YOU to tell them to do something. Proactive management can cost more (sometimes).

Anyone with a dedicated server should have their server at a minimum secured and reviewed monthly. Just buying a dedicated server is not enough.
 
Yes i do agree with handonhosting, what is the difference between pro active and reactive, when it comes to work ? Most server management companies will never see your server unless u raise a ticket this is common,
 
I think we should go for managed server hosting or hire a technician to manage our servers if we don't have technical knowledge of either Linux or Windows server. There are real time server monitoring tools which sends email to you if there is any issue with your server.
 
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This days even if we know something in server management its preferred by many to go for server management companies to save time and working in the server,they just see their business and leave this to them, am i right
 
MOST management companies are REACTIVE - so you pay a minimal fee, they get notices of server issues such as things offline, and then they log in and attempt to fix.

The PROACTIVE are usually more expensive, but sometimes worth the money. They'll upgrade the kernel when it needs to be. They'll keep all the software up to date on a regular schedule. They do EVERYTHING on the server (optimize, adjust, review logs, etc etc), and all you have to do is worry about your clients, support, or selling products.

If I was to have a server myself, I'd go with ProActive all the way. Sure it costs a few dollars more, but I get freedom to do everything else. Not having to think about something is a great luxury.

If you have server experience, you can probably get away with the reactive, but remember, this means being on call 24/7. That includes weekends! And if you have a few servers, know that things do not happen one at a time :)
 
Are you sure that the proactive is only few dollars more or more than expectation?

If the price range between proactive and reactive is very low any one can easily select proactive.

Other than kernel upgrade what else they do ?
 
It all depends on who you go through what they charge and what they do. We run both reactive and proactive management for our dedicated customers and the price difference I believe is only like $20-30.

What else do we do other than kernel? Everything. We do EVERYTHING on a server (just as if the user was in a shared environment) and the user takes care of their business. The advantage is that the user doesn't have to think of anything. We do all the log monitoring, scheduled updates, and everything in between.

I have seen some management companies go from $30 for reactive and up to $130 for proactive, but if you do your shopping, you'll find cheaper rates than this.
 
I worked at a manage service provider and I suggest you never start with the price. Prices vary widely and so do the underlying services, but more importantly:

If you let price dictate everything, you may end up with a solution that does not meet your business objectives.

I encourage all of our clients to ask

"What do we hope to achieve by outsourcing our server management responsibilities? "

This varies for every business. And a good provider will illustrate how their services will help you achieve those goals.


Case 1:
A small business with 50 employees has good in-house development skills and a MSCE on staff, but they've inherited some Linux based web operations. Rather than saddling the MCSE with learning the Linux stuff, they outsource their 4 linux servers to a provider. The provider works with the in-house technical staff to assure that patches are done appropriately, responds to outages, etc. In this case the manged service provider delivers mostly technical services.

Case 2:
A one man shop is running a growing drop-ship business. He wants to be sure that if the server fails at 2AM, he will have someone to take care of it for him. In this case, the management company needs to educate the client about what would happen if certain incidents occurred, recommend product and solutions to mitigate downtime and assure that the IT infrastructure is aligned with the business goals. In this case, the management company delivers mostly consulting services.


Case 3:
A popular web site is suffering growing pains. The in-house staff has become over burdened with routine maintenance of their growing network. They can no longer focus on high value development work. So their CEO decides to engage a server management company so that his staff can focus on high value work. In this case, the management company serves dual roles as they interface with the management to focus on business goals and also deal with the technical staff.


I know this is long winded, but I think it demonstrates the diversity of roles played by server management companies.

Depending on their role and expertise, the pricing will be very different.

I've seen rates as low as $20.00/month for monitoring/reboot and up to $300/month for taking care of complex hosting operation.
 
Great Explanation Heck, i agree with you, i have one small doubt now, at what stage it become necessary to go for a server management company?
 
:) Simple answers to the questions of when to get it would be:

Am I doing as good a job as someone experienced in the field?
Can I spend the money?
What can I be doing with my time if someone else did this work?

For me, if I need time to do other things, then it's money well spent. And not having to chase my tail is always nice. :)

Try keeping 300 servers all patched with the latest software and runing smooth. Not a one man task. Even keeping 20 servers is a tough task. If you have the money, and can be doing something better with your time, I wouldn't give it a second thought.

I've never changed the oil in my car - EVER. I've never changed a flat tire - EVER. My time is worth more than the $20 I pay someone else to do it for me :)
 
so considering the reply it seems time saving will be the top priority but how many companies really perform well in this server management, how to select them
 
For our decisions, it was time saving as to why we ran outsourced management for a while. We were growing too fast and couldn't hire our own employees to handle the sudden growth. So we outsourced to get over the hump and help free up time.

Selecting a reliable management company can be hard. Many times it will come down to a trial and error. Get a server on standby and have them run through the paces of various issues, and/or response times. As your confidence in them grows, give them more access etc. It's no different than hiring an employee.

Price is a secondary issue. Actually, for me, I'd put price at the bottom of my list. If I can't trust a person/company 1000% then paying them $10, $100 or $500 doesn't mean a thing.
 
Server security and server monitoring (combined make up server management). Without someone who knows what they are doing on a server, you're leaving the server open to exploit, hack and eventually failure.

Is it the most important thing in the hosting industry? From a hosting companies perspective, I believe security of machines needs to take a very high priority. Having a support team say "we're working on it" implies that there is someone with knowledge fixing it. So I guess YES, server management/knowledge IS the most important thing in the hosting company (from the backend perspective).
 
Good one. So what you are saying is server security should be the top priority? Mostly managment does not involve server security per month basis server security normally is one time work if done well
 
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