What is a Managed Server?

Thanks to in­creas­ing di­git­isa­tion, servers are playing an ever-greater role in everyday business. In most cases, servers are main­tained and ad­min­istered by the company itself. But for some companies, managed servers, where these tasks are handed over to pro­fes­sion­als, are the better choice.

Managed servers briefly explained

Normally, a company’s servers are ad­min­istered and main­tained by the company’s IT team. Servers like these are referred to as ‘root servers’. Managing the servers yourself does have some benefits, but also comes with a sig­ni­fic­ant ad­min­is­trat­ive overhead. For some companies/ap­plic­a­tion areas, a managed server (MServer, for short) is therefore more suitable. These differ from classic root servers in one big way, which is that an external company takes over the servers’ main­ten­ance and ad­min­is­tra­tion. Among other things, the service provider takes over the following tasks:

• Main­tain­ing the operating system and physical com­pon­ents
• Updating the operating system and other software
• Security, mon­it­or­ing and con­tinu­ous su­per­vi­sion (ensuring constant avail­ab­il­ity)
• Pro­fes­sion­al support and customer service

Managed servers also have other special features that you should know about. For one thing, an MServer is usually a dedicated server. This means that the server’s resources are reserved ex­clus­ively for the customer. The opposite of this would be a virtual server (short for Virtual Private Server, or VPS), where the hardware is shared by multiple parties. The physical server’s resources are then divided among customers ac­cord­ingly. Vir­tu­al­isa­tion ensures that the various customers’ data and processes remain separate from one another.

Secondly, with a managed server, main­tain­ing the operating system is entirely the provider’s re­spons­ib­il­ity. This means that the customer does not have to worry about security or upgrades or anything else like that. At the same time, it also means that the customer has less say when it comes to some decisions. In addition, the system is sometimes only allowed to have one ad­min­is­trat­or for security reasons. In cases like this, the customer is excluded from any decisions that have to be made.

Ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages of a managed server

One thing is clear, managed servers relieve a company of a lot of its server work and are therefore favoured by many busi­nesses. However, MServers also have their dis­ad­vant­ages. The main ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages are listed below.

Who are managed servers suitable for?

With a managed server, companies can sim­ul­tan­eously save time and ensure that their servers are secure and always ac­cess­ible. This can be par­tic­u­larly at­tract­ive for startups and small to medium-sized companies, as they usually don’t have the time or capacity to manage one or more servers. It is also often the case with small companies that they don’t even have the required IT expertise. The scalab­il­ity of an MServer is also an advantage for fast-growing companies.

For larger companies that need a lot of server power, root servers usually make more sense and are more cost-effective overall. These companies usually have more resources available with which they can hire pro­fes­sion­als and invest in their own server hardware. This means that companies like this are also able to customise their servers to their exact needs.

However, since smaller companies generally have much less capital available than large cor­por­a­tions, the price of a managed server can sometimes be the deciding factor. As an al­tern­at­ive, smaller companies could switch to a virtual managed server. A virtual server offers almost all the ad­vant­ages of a dedicated MServer, except that the computer resources have to be shared with other customers. This is the cheaper option, but the downside is that the ap­plic­a­tion’s per­form­ance depends on the server’s general capacity.