The Business Case for Moving to Fully Managed Dedicated Servers

Although you may salivate at the thought of a fine-dining experience and indulging in a perfectly seared, dry-aged steak, chances are you’re not about to purchase a tract of land and some cattle.
The same can be said for dedicated servers — even though your business requires high-end hosting, you might not want to take on the expenses and headaches of maintaining your own architecture.
That’s where managed services (and five-star restaurants) come in: marrying tantalizing, decadent ingredients with the careful touch of experts well-versed in delivering superb experiences to patrons. When catered by top-notch hosting experts, fully managed dedicated servers present top-notch computing power, performance, and server administration backed by the industry’s best practices.
The high-touch service may seem overly indulgent, but investing in fully managed dedicated servers can greatly streamline your company’s operations and reduce operating expenses. As hosting becomes more complex — and pivotal to an organization’s success — managed services empower companies to focus on mission-critical objectives without spending financial or human resources on tedious daily tasks.

1. Enjoy More Predictable, Lower Costs

The benefits to managed services loosely resemble all the perks and add-ons that new website owners encounter when signing up for a shared hosting plan: standard system management and updates, security protection, 24/7 support, and guaranteed uptime rates. The differences between shared and dedicated servers are certainly numerous, but the inexpensive hosting tier introduces a lot of the same concepts found with managed servers — including a standard monthly rate.
Sure, there may be a little sticker shock when comparing fully managed dedicated server packages, but be sure to take a holistic view of what you’re getting: modern hardware tailored to your specific needs, datacenter space, a professionally built and maintained network, and a team of experts invested in your company’s security and success. In most cases, you can customize your managed services plan to cover the aspects and systems that will have the greatest impact on your bottom line, while staying within your budget. Even if unforeseen issues arise, you’re locked in to a standard monthly payment your company can build around.

2. Maximize Employee Productivity

Because your company will no longer have to spend time and money replacing outdated equipment, purchasing software licenses, hiring consultants, or cross-training employees, the business will also shed several expenses by moving to a fully managed infrastructure. Recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining top-level systems administrators can be expensive; However, with the right service provider managing your dedicated server, you can rely on its support and engineering teams, datacenters, network, and infrastructure instead.
Interestingly, increased productivity typically represents the most significant financial benefit of managed server hosting. According to an IBM white paper, surveyed companies optimized their IT staff resources by 42% when using managed services for mundane day-to-day infrastructure maintenance tasks. Freeing up developers, engineers, and IT administrators from tedious chores enables them to concentrate on projects and objectives that drive business forward.
More importantly, the improved employee output extends beyond the server room and IT offices. Upgraded infrastructure and maintenance will typically speed up various business processes and reduce unplanned downtime or outages — boosting momentum in all corners of the office.

3. Rely on Modern Expertise and Hardware

Budgetary constraints often lead to companies operating with legacy systems and old hardware that’s more likely to fail. Switching to fully managed dedicated servers hosted in a service provider’s datacenter reduces the amount of infrastructure your business needs in-house, as well as the energy consumption and office space required to operate the machines.
Instead of spending staff time and resources researching and procuring high-performance hardware, you can consult with hosting infrastructure experts as part of your onboarding process with managed hosting. The account managers and technicians will help you determine exactly what customizations and configurations will optimize your company’s specific hosting needs, then build and deploy the infrastructure in their datacenter.
Because managed service providers are responsible for powering the online success of several businesses, their employees are always plugged in to industry best practices, new technologies, and the day-to-day operations of maintaining healthy hardware. They know how to best design dedicated servers for the host’s special blend of proprietary solutions and network optimizations built for maximizing speed, security, and scalability.

4. Protect Your Data With Cutting-Edge Security

It may be comforting to be able to walk directly up to the server housing your data and applications and know the exact people responsible for keeping things running smoothly — but wouldn’t you rather know your server is one of hundreds being maintained in a state-of-the-art facility run by specialists who have seen it all? On-prem servers are typically more prone to outages, inefficient operations, and security risks; trusting a managed hosting expert with your dedicated server ensures the equipment is located in a leading datacenter that frequently includes redundant power and cooling systems, along with 24/7 security personnel and multi-factor authentication for server access.
Beyond physical security measures, managed hosting providers are responsible for monitoring server health and performance, running frequent backups, implementing disaster recovery and business continuity solutions, and shielding your infrastructure from attacks. Additionally, GigeNET includes a one-of-a-kind automated system for DDoS protection with most managed server plans.

5. Rest Easy With Around-the-Clock, Customized Support

Upgrading to managed hosting means you’re no longer just an account number — you have entire teams of people who care about your business and its online success. On-site support teams are on standby 24/7 to respond to any alerts or issues that arise with your infrastructure. In addition to handling your equipment and backend systems, managed service providers help oversee your company’s capacity for growth and enable you to focus on your business passions instead of daily chores.
At GigeNET, that includes periodic, casual conversations that help us learn how we can continue to improve our services to you. To learn more about the cost, performance, and security optimizations your company can achieve with fully managed dedicated servers from GigeNET, feel free to  chat with our specialists or read more about our managed hosting options.