Key Difference Between Managed and Unmanaged Servers

The two most common types of servers these days are managed and unmanaged servers. Both are different in their own rights. The key difference between managed and unmanaged servers:

Unmanaged Servers

With an unmanaged server, there are a lot of things that you have to put into consideration. For starters, you have to set up the hardware, install the OS and a control panel and then maintain both the hardware and network.

There are other important things that have to be done as well such as installing scripts and software, troubleshooting configuration issues and others that the client himself will have to do.

However, people who use unmanaged servers usually do not have a problem with this and are happy to carry out these necessary requirements. Sometimes unmanaged servers also have to be rebooted, which is commonly done once or twice a year. Typically the organizations that prefer unmanaged servers do so because it gives them complete control and freedom whereas managed servers require less work and expertise in general.

For all the things that you need to do in an unmanaged server, it is important to realize that for clients, it is better to go for monitoring services in order to ensure smooth functioning of the server but other than that, there isn’t much that you will need.

Managed Servers

On the other hand, managed servers are a completely different league. Managed servers come with many different options that make operation easy.

Managed or dedicated servers are servers that include the hardware and software. The dedicated server industry usually bundles the extra services and products with the servers that provide a greater and deeper level of management. There are software updates involved, operating systems involves, firewall services, amongst others.

Managed hosting is best and ideal for companies that do not have an internal IT staff or want to free up their IT staff so that they can focus on the other tasks. The idea behind managed servers is that the user does not have to take care of much. For instance, managed dedicated servers work to provide the employees with full-time system administrator that maintain the dedicated servers. The managed dedicated server will allow for greater productivity but it will also ease your mind regarding many different issues. Some of these issues are mostly and commonly overseen by the clients and this is where a dedicated server comes in.

Moreover, security is also a big difference between the two servers. Unmanaged servers do not have a decent security system whereas dedicated servers almost often have well-kept security that improves your overall functioning in general.

Managed servers come with a range of features that are missing in unmanaged servers. There are software updates, technical expertise, premium bandwidth, advanced configurations, server monitoring and recovery amongst others.

Managed and unmanaged servers are both commonly used and the preference relies on the skill set and expertise of the organization’s resources. Both have similarities and differences alike. An unmanaged server comes with a list of features that are generally missing in managed servers. However, the features of managed servers are much better. Users can benefit from greater security, better and improved management amongst others when it comes to managed servers. Therefore there is no right choice and the selection you make is dependent on your business and the resources you have to dedicate towards it.