What is Managed Hosting?

The model

Servers and hardware

While hosting only involves renting storage space and computing power for websites on external servers, managed hosting goes one step further. The provider of managed hosting services, also referred to as provider in the following, not only provides IT resources in the data centre and rents servers and the associated hardware to the customer. In addition, the provider also manages the hardware, including the necessary operating system and system software. He is responsible for the configuration of hardware and software and replaces defective hardware if necessary. Via a web interface, the customer has administration access to "his" server at any time and can observe and analyse the performance of his website. The provider offers technical support for the customer's questions.

Availability

In order to guarantee the constant availability of the infrastructure, the systems are continuously maintained by the provider and updates are installed if necessary. Patch management, which the customer would have to carry out himself with normal hosting, is also carried out by the provider. In addition, there is 24/7 monitoring of all servers and applications in order to counteract possible problems immediately. Often, the provider also offers further solutions and services, such as backups of customer data and load balancing for effective load distribution across several servers to improve the performance and availability of the hosted websites.

Security functions

Since managed hosting is often used for applications with high security requirements, for example online shops, where non-availability immediately results in a financial disadvantage, providers also place a special focus on functions that increase security. Whether applications that constantly check for possible vulnerabilities, firewalls, intrusion detection systems that independently recognise attacks on networks and computer systems as well as software to defuse or defend against DDoS attacks are usually in the repertoire of managed hosting providers. Should a malfunction nevertheless occur, the negative effects for the customer are kept as low as possible within the framework of the provider's disaster recovery. The SLA, the Service Level Agreement, defines what the provider must guarantee and be liable for in the event of an emergency.

The advantages

Avoiding business-critical problems is often at the forefront of the argumentation in favour of managed hosting. The constant availability of the infrastructure is essential, especially for high-load websites, and individual solutions tailored to the customer guarantee this. High demands on fail-safety, flexibility and performance are further reasons in favour of managed hosting. But what are the actual advantages for the customer?

Costs

Companies neither need to own cost-intensive servers nor employ specialised IT staff. In addition, in many cases only the resources that are actually needed are charged for. All this leads to significant cost savings compared to conventional hosting models. In addition, budgeting becomes more predictable, as fixed monthly fees are usually charged and expenses for maintenance or hardware replacement that are difficult to plan are always charged to the provider.

Time

Time is also saved: it is unnecessary to acquire the expertise needed over a period of time to set up and maintain your hosting efficiently and performantly. Time-consuming measures for hardware maintenance, updates and data backups are eliminated, as is the search for solutions to technical problems.

Scalability

With managed hosting, the solutions can often be scaled according to the respective requirements in consultation with the provider. Changes in demand are accommodated, as is the desire for additional services.

Availability

As already mentioned at the beginning, availability is crucial for the business of online shop operators. With managed hosting, this availability is guaranteed by the provider. Many providers also offer a powerful network connection that enables higher data transfer speeds.

Security

Security is a top priority for managed hosting providers. This starts with the security measures in the respective data centre, such as access restrictions and visual monitoring, through firewalls to ward off hacker attacks, to data protection measures that are in line with the GDPR.

Managed Hosting at maxcluster

Managed hosting at maxcluster is specially tailored to the needs of eCommerce shops and offers a well thought-out concept to provide online shop operators with the best possible support. The infrastructure can be individually configured from the server to the firewall to the storage and thus adapts to the customer's individual requirements. Redundant storages with local cache as well as high-quality server hardware guarantee high performance and the stability necessary for an online shop. Of course, customer data is optimally protected by firewalls. Storage on servers in a German data centre additionally guarantees security in accordance with GDPR.

But maxcluster goes one step further with managed hosting. We offer a unique eCommerce stack consisting of many server services, tools, functions and an optimised hosting architecture for online shops. Whether the choice is between NGINX or Apache web servers, services such as Varnish, Redis or Elasticsearch or the right profiling tools, such as Blackfire.io, New Relic and Tideways - everything can be put together by the customer with just a few clicks to fit exactly. Our self-developed and clear interface "Managed Center" offers customers and developers access to these parameters and configurations and the possibility to independently make adjustments and manage them. You can get a first overview of the performance of the Managed Center on our demo page.

In addition to the uncomplicated set-up of shops, our focus is on accessibility and security: our service staff support our customers around the clock 365/24/7 with questions and problems, take over monitoring and proactively point out bottlenecks and sources of errors. Constant maintenance and updates of all services offered through us are just as much a matter of course as active-passive redundancy and security in our TÜV-certified Tier III+ data centre in Frankfurt a.M. With our use of Voxility, our entire network is automatically protected against DDoS attacks for all customers. Through our measures, we can thus guarantee an availability of 99.99% on an annual average, so that our customers can concentrate on their core business with peace of mind.

If you have any questions about our managed hosting, please e-mail us at beratung@maxcluster.de or call us at 05251/ 41 41 30.