Managed and unmanaged private clouds

The past few years have seen unprecedented changes in the way business data is processed around the world. COVID-19 has certainly been a disruptive factor. This has led to rapid changes in data architecture and facilitated hybrid and remote working situations. But that wasn’t the only cause of this change. If anything, the pandemic and resulting lockdown have made changes that were already coming even more urgent. Almost everyone knew that eventually they would need more flexible and secure servers.The pandemic simply changed direction. Finally into the right now.

Learn the differences between managed and unmanaged (or traditional) private clouds, learn the pros and cons of each, and consider some of the factors to consider when choosing the right type of server infrastructure for your organization To do.

A managed private cloud is a clustered server environment where the hosting company provides the supporting facilities as well as the physical hardware. The benefits here are clear. Our dedicated team of well-trained hardware and software engineers is available 24/7 to implement, modify, maintain, and upgrade your cloud solutions (subject to SLAs). We have the best possible people on hand to manage your server issues, and you don’t have to pay them a full-time salary. Providers can spread costs across all managed server customers and send predictable, agreed-upon monthly bills.

An unmanaged or traditional private cloud is a hosting environment that is managed by the owner. Service providers make private cloud environments available to users, who can use them almost out of the box. Their responsibility is to keep physical servers operational and power and data lines connected. Software updates, backups, and anything else you put on your server must be handled by your team.

The only real advantage of this kind of hosting environment is that it’s usually cheaper than a managed private server…unless you consider the cost of paying your own system administrator and his team. In some cases, it can even be more expensive.

When comparing managed and unmanaged private cloud solutions, money shouldn’t be the only consideration. Rather, you should also consider reliability and the benefits of having quick (essentially instant) access to true expert support. If all goes well throughout the year, unmanaged cloud solutions can cost less than managed cloud solutions. But when was the last time in the last year that you remember nothing going wrong with your servers?

At the end of the day, what you’ll notice most about using a managed private cloud solution is that you get incredible reliability. After all, server administrators know that it’s much easier to prevent problems from occurring on your server than to clean up the mess after it happens. Add in the cost management aspect of SLAs, reduced risk to business operations, and access to near-instant expansion of server resources, and you’ll never go back to an unmanaged solution.

From a boot-in-the-field perspective, the managed private cloud vs. unmanaged cloud debate becomes even simpler. Unmanaged remote servers mean having your own IT team on hand. It also means there’s always the administrative stress of keeping teams lean to keep costs down, yet robust enough to deal with issues quickly and thoroughly before they hurt profits.

Too much waste causes downtime and hurts profitability. So are payroll and management concerns because they are too robust.

Ultimately, managed service providers can afford to keep large, highly skilled, and modern teams up and running because they have enough servers to keep top-tier teams running productively. .

First and foremost, you need to consider scale. How many servers do you need? The lower your data usage, the less cost effective it is to keep an in-house system administrator and his IT team online for that server.

Next, consider how much control you actually need. If you’re not comfortable having an external provider install apps on your server, you may not need a managed solution.

Customer support is also an issue. With an unmanaged server, everything is in your hands. Managed solutions can handle both technical and customer support.

Deciding between managed and unmanaged private cloud solutions isn’t always easy. While most companies can make a clear case for one solution or the other, there are some who are left on the fence. If so, contact Liquid Web today to get a custom solution for all your needs.