A new trend, appearing in the Web Hosting industry, is the concept of Managed Web Hosting. Web hosts have been offering dedicated servers for a while now, however, because dedicated servers can be difficult to operate technically, there has been a demand for web hosts to provide extra services such as: reporting and monitoring; managed load balancing; managed security; managed storage; and, managed databases. These extra services are referred to as 'managed hosting'.
Do you need it?
Before you think about managed hosting you will first need to decide whether or not you need a dedicated server. You will need a dedicated server if you have a high-traffic web site. If you only have a small web site with low traffic levels then a shared hosting arrangement should be fine. A dedicated server is more expensive to rent and more difficult to operate than a shared hosting solution but if your business depends on a steady service then you should seriously consider renting a dedicated server.
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