Managed hosting describes the level of service that is provided to a business that is renting or leasing a server from a remote location
. The actual server that is being maintained can be a virtual private server (VPS) that shares some hardware with other clients, or more commonly the server is a dedicated machine that is only used by the business that is leasing it. The traditional way that renting a server has worked in the past is that the provider maintains the hardware while all software and operating system tasks are performed by the client. Managed hosting changes this arrangement.
A provider that offers managed hosting will maintain the server hardware and will also perform many administrative and software-based tasks independently of the client renting the server. This means that a business that is using a managed hosting plan does not need to have an extensive information technology (IT) department available. New applications and plug-ins can be installed by the provider as needed. Tasks such as daily data backups, security monitoring and update patching for the operating system are all performed by the remote staff that is maintaining the server. This places a high level of technical expertise within the reach of small and medium sized businesses.
There is really no standardized definition for what managed hosting entails. There are some providers that offer a specific selection of services as managed hosting. This can be restricted to automatic backups, updates and installation of selected pieces of software on the server. Other providers offer fully managed hosting. This type of service puts all administrative tasks in the hands of the professionals working for the provider so that the business that is paying for the server is only required to have minor technical knowledge. There are even some managed hosting providers for e-commerce sites that offer turnkey services so that an entire website can be deployed and maintained by the provider with only a small amount of input from the client.
Small and medium sized businesses often use managed hosting because it is less expensive than most internal server setups. A new business does not need to purchase expensive workstations, a complete network infrastructure and long-term backup storage devices when using managed hosting. Additionally, there is very little need to maintain a large IT staff. New cloud-based services are often run through managed hosting providers because of the experience, convenience and security that is available. This can make using software as a service (SaaS) and remote storage very cost-effective.