| Managed services hosting is essentially where another | | | | avoid down the road, the painful task of having to |
| company other than your own handles various parts | | | | move the entire site to another hosting provider when |
| of your business applications. This form of | | | | you realise you can't handle the complexities of |
| co-operation works for businesses large and small and | | | | dedicated server management. |
| has surprisingly been around for a quite a while. If you | | | | Managed services and outsource services are |
| have been running an online business for any length of | | | | essentially the same thing except that the managed |
| time you will probably be familiar with the different | | | | services provider is usually just one company that |
| forms of managed applications and managed services | | | | hires its own professionals to work together and |
| available. | | | | achieve their objectives for larger scale businesses |
| A lot of the bigger companies almost always use | | | | where as outsource services can relate to an open |
| managed services hosting to some degree or another | | | | marketplace of professionals that may run a company |
| in areas like data back up, data storage, system | | | | with as few as one individual working from home |
| management, help desk management and technical | | | | providing a similar service but on a smaller scale. |
| application support to name but a few. | | | | In essence anyone can set up their own outsource |
| Managed services on the other hand can encompass | | | | company, go to an outsource marketplace like Elance, |
| a whole array of assisted business development in all | | | | Odesk or Rentacoder and offer their talent to |
| areas of your company online and off. The biggest | | | | businesses or individuals wanting tasks completed |
| benefit for any company using managed services is | | | | within an agreed price and deadline. |
| the freedom it gives them to concentrate on the most | | | | These sites have become very popular in recent times |
| important aspects of the business which will further | | | | and have given you, the individual the power to set up |
| their progress and profitability into the future. This is all | | | | a virtual workforce to assist in many areas of your |
| too easy to see if you take a step back to look at | | | | online business. |
| your own business and add up the time wasted on | | | | Whether you choose to use a managed services |
| menial tasks that all too often take more time than | | | | provider or go to an outsource marketplace to employ |
| they need to. | | | | individuals for projects there is one point which is very |
| On a smaller but much wider scale your typical hosting | | | | clear. |
| provider offers managed services hosting for your | | | | There is nothing more important than implementing |
| website and millions of other sites so they can be | | | | these services into your overall business plan and |
| seen on the world wide web. | | | | making the most of experts that can do those |
| Many web hosts will run managed services for you | | | | laborious tasks much quicker and much better than |
| when you upgrade to a server of your own. By having | | | | you ever will. You will need managed services hosting |
| your server managed you avoid the hassle of having | | | | in one form or another if you plan to build an online |
| to install programs, implement various measures and | | | | business and the smart people cotton onto this idea |
| govern the general maintenance of your server which | | | | very quickly. |
| can be a serious headache if you don't know what | | | | So you can see that it makes sense to use other |
| you're doing. | | | | companies to your advantage rather than trying to do |
| A quick tip: Something I learned the hard way but you | | | | everything yourself otherwise you could end up as the |
| don't have to. | | | | saying goes "jack of all trades, master of none" or is |
| When choosing web hosting for your business ask | | | | that you already. |
| customer support if they offer managed services on | | | | Food for thought as they say. |
| their dedicated server plans. By doing this now, you will | | | | |