If you are taking a step toward a digital presence for your business, you may lack the resources to do every task independently. That’s where managed hosting providers come into play. A managed hosting provider can help you with half of the work you need to run your business website. They can provide you with the resources and support that may have previously needed to be attainable.
Of Course, you need to make sure you’re making the best decision when you sign up with a managed hosting provider in the UAE. In this post, we’ll focus on managed hosting — including its features, some hosting factors important to small businesses, and what you need to consider when choosing a managed hosting provider.
Simply put, managed hosting is a type of hosting where a service provider is responsible for a server’s management, administration, setup, and overall support. When choosing a managed web hosting service, the service provider ensures your website is up and running all the time efficiently, and they also fix things that go wrong along the way.
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There are various features of managed hosting vary slightly by the service provider, but here are some key features every host should provide:
If you are an IT person, you can tell this is a painstaking full-time job. Having a managed hosting provider for your server maintenance frees up your IT staff for more on-site functionality. Also, the main point of managed hosting service is that the host will handle all of the routine maintenance of the server, including updates, security monitoring, and repairs.
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Some hosts fail to anticipate the threats of a crippling disaster. According to research, 30% of businesses still need a disaster recovery strategy in place. Hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and other natural disasters happen every year. A managed host should also have protocols in place for regularly backing up your website and a recovery plan in the event the server crashes or is damaged so that your business continues to run smoothly, no matter what happens.
Another vital feature of managed hosting is guaranteed uptime. This affects how reliable a hosting service can be. Naturally, it would be best if you wanted your site to be live as much as possible, so the uptime of a website should be as close to 100%.
Of Course, not all web hosting providers define uptime the same way. Therefore, you can confirm their claims by checking with a third-party auditor.
This can be the most comforting feature of a managed hosting service. Users with managed hosting plans get premium support. The reputable providers guarantee 24/7 customer support via phone, emails, tickets, or live chat.
A service level agreement (SLA) clearly outlines all the features of a managed hosting plan. A managed hosting should provide SLA so that everything will be evident between a user and a web host.
What to Look for When Choosing a Managed Hosting Provider
Before signing on with a managed hosting provider in UAE, be sure to check the following:
Even if you come up with the best website and products to sell, you can only succeed if supported by a professional team. An experienced team behind a web hosting service can help you with any questions and confusion.
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if the managed hosting company doesn’t have its own hardware, it means they either resell servers or rent them from another company. This can be a problem because the quality of the original web hosting company will determine the success of your business. And if their server frequently goes down or there are a lot of technical issues, your business will be affected.
Generally, if the company rents servers, it means they cannot provide you with custom solutions. If you need extra features or want to customize the setup, you’ll have to search for those elsewhere.
If the company doesn’t use quality hardware, it can go down anytime, and they’ll need a whole new server. That means your website will be offline until they relocate it, which may last for hours or days.
If the service provider does not have data centers, they will use a third party to provide you with the support team. This can be poor quality and less efficient for finding solutions to your problems.
the company you choose should be experienced with aspects crucial for your business. They should be able to deal with the niche you are targeting and all your specific business needs. Specify your goals and the software platforms you want to use. Ask about all the things you want to know to ensure you are collaborating with a company that knows what they are doing.
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We also evaluated managed hosting providers based on the most important factors to small businesses. It includes the following:
Different types of servers provided by a managed host give you more options to scale as your website grows. When you are starting your web presence, a small server would be fine, but as your website grows, you will need more powerful options like dedicated servers to handle a significant amount of traffic. Switching hosting packages within the current provider is more manageable than migrating your website to a new hosting provider.
The loading speed of your website affects how users interact with it. Most visitors won’t wait more than 4 seconds on a site that does not load. Additionally, a website’s page load speed is one of the ranking factors, which means a slow site could affect your ranking in SERP.
Uptime is another factor for small businesses and also for Ecommerce. The uptime defines how reliable the web host’s servers are. Many web hosts boost their speed and uptime numbers, so we used a third-party website to get accurate figures.
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Most small business owners and startups are beginners. That is why customer support is the biggest reason for them to choose managed hosting in the first place. You want a web host that offers you fast access to the support team that can help you when you face any issue with your website.
Generally managed hosting is associated with WordPress because it provides the flexibility to shape your website the way you prefer. Since WordPress is the leading website-building platform, almost every hosting provider in UAE offers managed WordPress hosting. But many other managed hosting solutions are also available, i.e., managed Magento, Managed WooCommerce, etc.
At AEserver, we provide sophisticated support, proactive maintenance, and security that most companies can’t afford to provide in-house. So whether you need ongoing managed hosting services or full-fledged IT support, AEserver is here to help.