Since there are no industry standards for server management, each provider tends to define Managed Hosting differently. Thus, price alone is a poor indicator of the quality of technical support, customer service and included services.

Before comparing prices, investigate both the tangible aspects of the offering: bandwidth, storage, server processing power, server fitness for intended use - and the intangible: provider credibility, infrastructure quality, network stability, speed of response to server or network failure.

Only when you know what is included in the Managed Hosting package and how reliable the provider is, will you be able to make a meaningful comparison of prices.

You’ll find that potential providers will perform more or less convincingly in these key areas: 

• Updates and Upgrades - to the operating system and/or applications
• Administration - software installation and configuration, user management, database administration, reseller billing
• Monitoring – of the network, server hardware, specific ports or applications
• Security - firewall, security audits, vulnerability scans, antivirus updates, DDoS protection and mitigation, intrusion detection, security patching
• Digital Security - backup and restoration, disaster recovery
• Speed and Responsiveness - performance tuning, DNS hosting, load balancing, content delivery network
• Professional Services - web site marketing, SEO optimization, contact scripting, extending and customizing software

Remember:

Managed Hosting is a particular type of Dedicated Hosting in which the provider undertakes the additional responsibilities of system administration and application support. This leaves you free to focus on using the applications, adding and managing content, marketing, sales and customer service, while the datacenter does the patching, monitoring, backups, security, maintenance and troubleshooting. 

PEER 1 Hosting offers a whole range of Managed Hosting solutions, including a variety of customised server plans and bundles backed up with unlimited support and troubleshooting, proactive security patching, a technical account manager, hardware replacement, network uptime SLA and a large selection of professional services.