It has been widely agreed upon that email is the most important tool for business communication. A King Research survey confirms this, as 96% of their survey of mid-market IT professionals, that deal with their company’s messaging systems, believe that email is important or extremely important to a company. When it is not available, this loss of communication has a significant impact on business operations. Osterman Research shows that one in five businesses believe that a single email outage can cause up to $500,000 in revenue loss. This is confirmed by the claim from Eagle Rock Alliance that a staggering 40% of companies would go out of business if they lost access to their data for 24 hours or more.

Given these statistics, it is not surprising when IT professionals, according to the 2006 Skillsoft survey, report daily stress from user complaints, managers and deadlines. IT professionals are a luxury that smaller businesses do not and usually can not afford to have. Small and medium sized businesses, those with 500 employees or less, are lucky to have even a small in-house IT team. These individuals have many responsibilities such as keep the email up and running, Web and network administration, joining security, databases, and much much more. Managing Microsoft Exchange takes up an IT manager’s time that could better be used in running the business’s core applications and having a more strategic role in IT planning.

For companies that have a strained IT team, or none at all, Microsoft Exchange can be a very smart, cost-efficient option. Gartner thinks that the market for hosted email relative to email seats will grow from its current 1% up to 20% by 2012, which represents 40 million hosted mailboxes within the next couple years.

While the hosted email market is growing fast, there are still some misconceptions that are present that stop companies from considering it as a viable option for an in-house solution. This article will talk about these misconceptions and show why hosted Exchange is the best option for smaller businesses.

Misconception #1: Downtime is less of a risk while using an in-house Exchange solution

TRUTH: Most in-house solutions do not have the resources or the budget to obtain and manage the same precautions as hosted solutions. These in-house solutions are usually in very basic environments with no backup systems, little or no redundancy to the internet and no disaster recovery solution in place. Since these businesses are small and do not have the means, they do not even try for these features. According to Gartner, this results in the average business running an in-house messaging solution to experience 40 hours of unexpected outages a year, on top of the 2 hours of planned outages for maintenance a month. The majority of email outages are caused by unplanned technological failures, Osterman Research states and according to www.DisasterResource.com, 29% of outages last for 4 to 24 hours. When looking at these statistics and comparing them to the above facts, in-house businesses are looking at a huge amount of risk.

The best hosted Exchange providers, however, give their customers their own world-class Exchange infrastructures and provide back up systems, redundancy and disaster recovery. These precautions protect small businesses with no IT team from unplanned downtime which can, as it was explained above, negatively impact the company’s revenue greatly, negatively affect the company’s relationships with its customers and partners, and harm its reputation. A service-level agreement is now in effect where 99.9% up time as the standard for hosted Exchange providers.

Misconception #2: In-house Exchange servers are more secure than hosted solutions

TRUTH: If the business using an in-house solution does not have an in-house IT professional to oversee the security of the network, then the in-house Exchange solutions have less physical security, digital security and backup security than a hosted one. Every month Microsoft releases around 25 patches and updates a month, or more. With all of these patches, it means that someone has to be around to download them, install them, and make sure that they are running smoothly to fix the identified security vulnerabilities. Along with the needed expertise to ensure that these updates are done properly, the server usually needs downtime for the installations. This in itself is a problem for businesses using an in-house solution with no backup plan.

Another issue is n preventing security breaches from email data that falls into the wrong hands. Many people believe that the biggest problem lies in outside people procuring data, but in reality many security breaches occur from within an organization. In-house solutions more easily enable curious employees to read confidential emails of their superiors, something that would not be able to happen with a hosted solution.

Misconception #3: In-house solutions offer more control than hosted solutions

TRUTH: With hosted Exchange today, non-technical administrators can control distribution lists and mobile device connections, add and remove users, keep up with email compliance regulations, and have control over any other functionality of Microsoft Exchange, all in real-time.

Exchange Servers are, in general, very complex with proper maintenance requiring at least one full-time IT professional. This is very expensive, with their services costing around six figures in an annual salary and including their benefits. With small companies, having a full-time IT professional is not economically feasible; this is where a hosted solution can help. As companies get larger, more and more IT resources and staff are needed to handle outages, vacations and off-hour support issues.

Misconception #4: In-house solutions offer more functionality than hosted solutions

TRUTH: Hosted Exchange does not offer the complex and expensive third party customization that is usually implemented for large companies by consultants or in-house developers. The reality is, however, that small businesses do not need or even want any more functionality than the Exchange box offers. For businesses that do want more functionality, some hosted Exchange solutions do offer an easy integration with an wide range of Microsoft products such as mobility, document management, encryption, anti-spam/anti-virus, backup and recovery, archiving, and others.

An example of this is the Office Communications Server (OCS) which allows office workers to communicate with each other using a whole variety of methods, like instant messaging, video chat and more, in real time. It also unifies communication and is easy to use as it is fully integrated into Microsoft Exchange and Outlook in a secure environment. These features boost employee collaboration and raise productivity, as a result.

Installing and configuring OCS is very complex, and integrating it is long and nerve-wracking for anyone who does not have the technical expertise to do it right. Hosted Exchange providers can enable non-technical administrators to do all this with just a click from a mouse.

Misconception #5: Hosted models are too expensive

TRUTH: Hosted Exchange models today cost about $12 per month per user with start-up fees of about the same amount. An in-house Exchange can cost thousands to hundreds of thousands depending on the type of deployment, and the number of users. As an example, look at Exchange 2010, in addition to five new server roles plus x64-bit hardware the license fees would cost around $60 per user. The Exchange would also need constant tweaking and changes to the various settings. On top of that, there are the system reboots and the corresponding services that need to be started and restarted. As mentioned in misconception #3, this requires IT professionals and would drive up salary costs to more than the monthly cost of a monthly subscription to a hosted solution.

Despite all of the misconceptions out there, the reality today is that hosted Exchange solutions give smaller businesses the same infrastructure, support and functionality as the larger enterprises out there at a price that they can afford. Since no company can keep running without a reliable email, hosted Exchange is the best option in keeping email up and running for businesses that do not have the resources or the budget needed to have a complicated in-house Exchange solution.

How Much Is Hosting Costing You?

The Benefits of Fully- and Semi- Managed Hosting

What Is It?

Managed hosting is a new approach to hosting where hosts offer features such as load balancing, application and database management, and high availability services. Companies that do not have the in-house resources to maintain their server administration will find managed hosting very useful. Depending on the features of the hosts and the cost-savings, companies can either take advantage of semi- or fully- managed hosting. Most managed plans followed a tiered schedule according to the supporting configurations, network and hardware involved.

Benefits:

Managed services offer enhanced support and maintenance to companies to keep their servers working at their best. For some companies, managed hosting can free up time and resources by not using a lot of time to maintain full control over the system and its applications. Managed hosting does cost more that un-managed, but when you look at the costs of security monitoring, personally performing updates, and other tasks, managed (fully- or semi-) service could cost less.

With managed hosting, there are many benefits for a company. For instance, companies can focus on business and not as much on IT. Hosts provide bandwidth and connectivity to the Internet as well as allow SMBs to focus more of their energy on running core processes instead of IT management. Managed hosting also has a more efficient use of resources by freeing IT staff so that they can be deployed in tasks that are more valuable to companies besides troubleshooting and other such routine tasks. Managed hosting can reduce their costs by improving their server efficiency.

Managed services can predict the costs of messaging and hosting more accurately. Managed hosting lets users have a greater amount of flexibility in deploying services, which can help in spam filtering, bandwidth, and other features. This lets the company use the hosting provider’s staff and resources to do these changes instead of hiring their own staff.

Managed hosting has all the high standards of physical security as well as relying on data centres that detect intrusion, redundant power systems, monitoring tools, and tracking tools. With managed hosting, the newest technology upgrades will be available for a monthly fee, there is no need to install high-speed connectivity, invest in an upfront OS, etc. Service providers can access the IT industry’s best practices and obtain the best members for their staff and get the update their hardware, software and network capabilities regularly. Recovery and continuity services for companies usually have an additional charge.

Key Features:
Some of the primary elements of managed hosting are managed email and messaging, DNS hosting, managed security, managed data backup, server and services monitoring, software updating and OS patching, and other optional services. Managed email is built so that there are measures to keep a high availability and redundancy so that it can lessen server loads, decrease spam and reduce the need for in-house IT administration and churn. With managed email, some features you get are spam filtration, calender functionality, groupware/collaboration productivity, and high availability and redundancy.

With DNS hosting, companies get domain name management, DNS-based buffer overflow attack protection, round robin DNS and “heartbeat” DNS, and simplified configuration. All these features helps to create proper DNS records that optimize mail exchange and help with the load distribution and basic fail over functionality.

Managed security will help with unwanted intruders that may cause damage with security audits, third party audits, customized firewalls and updating, monitoring check sums of binaries and removal of known vulnerabilities, and log reviews to block internet traffic.

Managed data backups secure and protect the websites, servers, and data. Features that are included are validating backup and restoration, data encryption within the backup environment, incremental backups of content, and reliable and fast restore processes.

Monitoring includes services like intervention of requested daemons and services, service reports, showing monthly loads, events, trends and results with recommended courses of action in case of service failure of expansion requirements, and monitoring of the network connectivity with troubleshooting and rebooting.

Managed software updates and OS patching is built so that it can maintain repositories of data and allows for stable and controlled software updates. Features included are verifying and correcting updates, minimizing vulnerabilities by closing security gaps, re-visioning and application of security and software patches, and repositories for the operating systems that are maintained by the host.

Other services that can be added are of a list of optional and extended services and could include load balancing, enterprise storage solutions, managed hardware firewalls, custom software and application installs and more.

What You Should Know Before You Buy

Before buying managed hosting services, there are five things that all companies should consider:

The company’s technical expertise, which abilities and skill sets are available in the in-house IT staff to manage the server and hosting needs. In-house staff usually do not have as much experience with server management as managed server providers who are always responding to hosting-related problems. Web hosts usually have expert system administrators and specialists for these areas.

Time constraints should also be considered when allocating in-house server management and all associated tasks and finding out how much time this takes away from the internal network, application updates and installs, and other critical aspects of running the company. Set up time constraints must also be considered when buying managed hosting.

Also take into account the costs of managed service. Semi-or fully managed service cost different sums, depending on the level of support and expertise required for each task. Costs will also vary from provider to provider. Potential costs of improperly managed servers are also important. Consider the time and costs of managing or even learning how to manage web hosting servers versus outsourcing these tasks.

Selecting the right provider and plan is also critical when considering managed service. This requires a careful assessment of the business’s server management needs and which providers best meet these needs. Areas like the hosting and security tasks the need to be managed, what the ongoing costs will be, the initial setup costs (in-office server vs. Co-location), what tech support is required, which tasks need regular attention, and if the servers can be customized further should be well thought out.

The next thing to consider would be the site hosting requirements. Evaluate the technical and infrastructure of the your websites and the host. This help to give parameters for server management that is quick and effective. It is useful to think about the connectivity, the network security, physical security, data backups, and the network and software basics that are needed.

Conclusion

Managed hosting can be beneficial for SMBs who need the technology and expertise that are not usually economically practical for smaller businesses to have. Fully- and semi- managed hosting can make your business improved scalability, deployment and scalability. For the right SMBs managed hosting can prove to be one of the best investments, saving money and adding experience to your company.

About the Author

Domenic is Founder of www.RebelNetworks.com Rebel Networks is a leading provider of outsourced Internet infrastructure and related managed web solutions. Rebel Networks was voted the 3rd fastest growing hosting company in the world in October 2007 by Hostingreview. Domenic is an expert in web and internet technology and has numerous positions in senior management. He is a market leader and knows how to build sales and marketing plans with little budget.

Why get a managed dedicated server!

If you are looking to start a website, then the first thing you need, after a quality site, is a good server. On the Internet, your server is one of the most important things that you can have because it determines the quality of your users experience. An ultra-slow server will wear thin on a visitor’s patience, as will one that is constantly at odds with making your page available. What is the point of running a blog or website, when it is down half the time? There is no surer way to kill your online life before it even begins than hooking up with a disreputable server. It is for this reason that many people don’t mind paying a little bit more for all managed dedicated server hosting. Yes, it is more expensive, and you may not have root (or admin) access, but it has many quality advantages that make it the premier choice for web hosting on the ‘Net.

4 Main points of a Managed Dedicated Server

1. Security: Typically, a managed hosting vendor will take charge of security updates, so your site will always be protected. Virus, hacks, phising, etc everything that you don’t deal with on a day by day basis, your hosting vendor does and will secure your server for you. Why would you trust your limited knowledge of technology up against the best virus and hackers on the net? These hackers use their extensive skills to create new hazards everyday. Its much better to let the people who know protect you.? There is a great deal of peace that comes with knowing a professionally managed server is there to aid you in making sure your site is living up to the latest and greatest security protections.

2. Operational updates: Every now and then your operating system will need updates, security patches, updated modules, etc - some are small, some are large, all important of course. If you have a product to sell or content to produce, this is one of those technical requirements that can bog down your progress. But with a managed dedicated server you don not another inconvenience to deal with, really for the small amount a vendor will make updates for you, so your site’s behind the scenes needs will not grow into front-and-center mishaps. Also to note, this goes beyond just the operating system (Linux or Windows) but also the control panel. Automatic control panel updates are another great way of maintaining the functionality of your site. The upkeep of your content should not require any guesswork. As technologies change, your managed server vendor will make sure to keep you current.

3. Troubleshooting: How do you fix problems if you don’t know they exist? And do you have the knowledge to fix them, even when you are aware of them? Technical issues that arise take time away from your main goals. Running your business! Managed dedicated server hosting takes control of these issues for you so you do not need to worry.

4. Support: While most of the 3 other points is around security, firewalls, updates, fixing issues, etc. In the end your managed dedicated server vendor needs to be there 24 | 7 | 375. A solid and reliable managed hosting provider will make sure your system is monitored all the time, and in times of an issue are there any day or night. Support takes no holidays.

In the end the main reason you want to have a partner managed your dedicated server is that is why the vendor does, and you run your business. Let them protect you, so you can grow your business.

Domenic is President and CEO of Rebel Networks. Rebel Networks is a Leading Provider of Outsourced Internet Infrastructure and Managed Website Hosting Solutions. Rebel Networks provides Managed Dedicated Servers, Collocation Services, Shared Website Hosting, E-Commerce Solutions, and Domain Name Services. Rebel Networks is also an enabler of web 2.0 application. With strong and passionate commitment to customer service, and deployment across multiple secure data centers, Rebel Networks is revolutionizing the way hosting is being delivered to the small and medium enterprise.

Anyone who is uses computers today will be familiar with Windows and Linux as operating systems. Some prefer Windows because it is extremely easy to use – both hardware and software – and some prefer Linux because it is much more flexible is use; above all it is open source ware and hence it is free. Those who enjoy Linux are totally baffled as to why people would want to pay for something that you can get absolutely free.

Actually there is a simple and logical answer to this question. When the Windows was launched some 20 plus years ago, it caught like wild fire because it was all of a sudden so easy to use and so convenient to install. The best things that it maintained a constant identity – as the product of Windows, while on the other hand Linux went along under many names, such as Knoppix, Mandrake, SuSe and so on. With each name (different companies) Linux as an operating system had slight variations. Hence, it was bothersome for people to keep track, and sometime use Linux due to this aspect.

Then comes the inherent difference between these operation systems.
Technically speaking, you will find the Graphical User Interface (GUI) is optional in the Linux operations system while it is part and parcel of the Windows. The separation of the GUI directly affects the reliability and speed – not to mention efficiency – of a web server and hence here Linux server scores over the Windows server.Another major difference is in the way these operating systems handle their command prompts. While Windows uses similar command interpreters for its Windows 9x versions, the NT series have a different style but common to each other. Linux on the other hand, being a UNIX version has the capability of handling multiple command interpreters, which can be a boon, though it mostly favors Bourne Again Shell (BASH). The other interpreters that you will find in Linux are C Shell, ash, Korn shell and so on.

The best and most highlighted difference is the price tag attached to the operating systems. Windows web server is an expensive to say the least, operating system which comes with a copyrighted license, while Linux Web Server is cheap for all, as Linux OS is free and easily downloadable anytime you want it. The downside here is that Linux has instruction which will tell you what to do – which may be why people are indeed reluctant to move away from Windows; though there are a few low cost Linux versions which come with automation and manuals.

Another plus in favor of Linux is the lack of any security requirement. The viruses, spy wares, malawares and what not you have it are all a product of Microsoft, for Windows. Hence, while you have to use high security firewalls with Windows, you are free from any such headaches with Linux.

Lastly, you have the difference of availability of software. The majority of the software that you find on the market are for Windows and they will not run on Linux unless Windows is somewhere configured as a subsystem which actually goes against the reason of using Linux in the first place.

Hence, till a suitable interface is found where Linux can be compatible with Windows without using Windows itself, have a few clear-cut instructions for first time users and sufficient information on its technicalities, people will prefer Windows to Linux, even if they have to pay to use it.

A Website hosted with a “dedicated IP” never changes location. The advantages of having a dedicated IP number is that dedicated IP’s tend to lend themselves much better to advanced web development, they are much easier to work with and they are more compatible with server side applications. So why don’t all hosting companies offer all their customers a dedicated IP? There are numerous reasons ranging from cost to the availability of IP addresses. In reality this is a hotly debated topic that no one can prove which is better, or in reality; the battle is are dedicated IP’s per website better for the owner of that domain and his web presence then a shared IP environment. This in my opinion is the real question.

Shared IP’s is like an apartment building where you can have one address i.e. first Avenue but then have 1000 apartment numbers. The mail and people show up to the front door and the gatekeeper lets them in and points them in the right direction. The people usually find the right apartment. A Dedicated IP per website is like living in a single detached house and your address is 3 First Avenue – The people knock on the door you answer – faster and less chance of something going wrong. The search engines “BOTS” as they are called come and knock on doors, read and examine you site, determine how many people want your website, look at certain content etc and then leave and compile the information for their search engines. Do they penalize a website for being in an apartment building? More than likely NO! Now do you want to be in that apartment building if you neighbour is a spam artist, or do you want to be in that apartment if the people above you a running a high volume mail order business? Sometime you need to wait for the elevator to come get down to leave or your customers waiting at the front door because of you neighbour high use of the front entrance.

So the above paragraph does not really say which is better, even though I would prefer my own dedicated IP for my Website. Other advantages to having a unique IP for your site is if you change web servers, you can point your users to a new IP, so they don’t have to wait for the domain name change to propagate. With a dedicated static IP, it can also be simpler to upload and test your site before transferring the domain name to a new server. Setting up Secure sockets (SSL) is also much simpler. You may also not want to share your IP with some sites that could lead to your site being banned by search engines or spam lists. It’s more stable having your own dedicated IP for your Website.

Now the debate is always about search engines optimization (SEO) but here is my belief; if you get added benefits of search engine optimization that would be great as well. Don’t be fooled by hosting providers that do not want to provide you a static IP for your site, or charge extra for it. Don’t listen to excuses about the shortage of IP’s and that they are not needed.

Rebel Networks offers dedicated static IP for every website, and dedicated server we host. The reality is it costs them more money to provide this type of service with a static dedicated IP’s per web site and thus they most hosting companies don’t provide them. When you’re ready to host you business, or if you already have a business on line but want extra benefits ask for a dedicated IP address for your website.