A dedicated server is probably going to be the most expensive form of web hosting that you will ever purchase and so as well as making sure that you purchase the right dedicated server for your requirements, you need to be sure that your server will be managed properly. Whilst most users of dedicated servers will have the experience that will allow them to manage their dedicated servers properly, for more inexperienced users there are managed dedicated server hosting services available from certain web hosting providers. A managed dedicated server hosting package will allow you to focus in more important tasks as the management of your server will be taken care of by a professional support team that is likely to have a wide range of experience in more or less every issue that could arise with your dedicated server. It is recommended that you choose a larger web hosting company if you are going to use a managed dedicated server as this will provide you with the benefit of having access to a highly knowledgeable support team that can be contacted 24×7; although smaller web hosting providers may be able to offer you a more personal level of service, in the case of server hosting you want to be sure that any issues can be sorted quickly.

There are many different issues that could affect the reliability of your dedicated server which you may not be able to see to yourself and by using a managed dedicated server you won’t have to worry about these issues being a problem as you can simply contact your web hosting provider’s support team and have them sort out any issues for you. Most dedicated support teams have the benefit of being able to physically access the servers that they are maintaining which bodes well in your favor since it means that if there is a problem with the hardware of your server, this can be swapped out and replaced as necessary.

When choosing a managed dedicated server hosting service for your requirements, it is important to evaluate the features of the web hosting company that you may be looking at as well as those of the dedicated server that you are reviewing. It is important for any web hosting provider that is offering managed dedicated servers to be able to provide 24×7 support to all customers as if there are any server issues, it means that they will be dealt with promptly regardless of what day it is and what time of day it is. Furthermore it is important for your chosen web hosting company to employ knowledgeable support staff who will be able to deal with any issues that face them; if a support team contains staff members that aren’t able to answer even the most basic of technical questions then such a support team is going to be useless in providing helpful and reliable web hosting support. Well established web hosting companies are the best to consider in such a situation since they are likely to have a large number of happy, past customers whom you can rely on to provide an honest account of their web hosting provider’s level of service and performance.

A fully managed dedicated server hosting service is likely to provide you with a service that will offer a higher level of uptime rather than if you were to manage your dedicated server yourself. A support team will be able to professionally optimize any applications that you have installed on your server to use less system resources which will free more up to be used by the applications that you are using mainly on your server as these are the ones that are going to be important to you. If your server does happen to crash for whatever reason then the support team will be alerted and will response as they see fit to help minimize the level of downtime that could be incurred and therefore minimizing the overall impact of the situation – if you were to manage your dedicated server yourself then you would need to employ your own monitoring services and would need to notify your web hosting company yourself if your server was unavailable.

The specifications of your dedicated server are also important, as they will dictate the overall performance of your server. A high specification dedicated server is going to be the most expensive option and is only recommended for businesses that have a distinct need for performance. A medium specification dedicated server is probably more than suitable for most users if it is managed properly as a majority of server applications can be optimized to make more conservative use of system resources. For those on a restricted budget there is nothing wrong with using a low specification dedicated server, although depending on what your requirements are you may find that it isn’t powerful enough for your needs.

Making the most of managed dedicated server hosting is an easy task – all you need to do is leave everything related to the management of your dedicated server to the support team that your web hosting provider offers. If you are making the most of your web hosting service then you can be sure that you are getting good value for money and because of this it isn’t worth considering managed dedicated server hosting if you feel that you have the skills that will allow you to do a good job of managing your server on your own.

In conclusion, a managed dedicated server is the best route to go if you don’t have any previous experience of using either VPS server hosting or dedicated server hosting. Any major web hosting company should be able to provide managed dedicated servers, although you need to realize that you are going to be paying an added premium for the right to have access to a support team when you require it. There should be no difference in the level of support available for Linux servers and Windows servers, although if a web hosting provider specializes in one over the other then there may be slight differences.