managed hosting ebook

8/2/2019 Managed Hosting eBook

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MANAGED HOSTINGBuyer’s Guide

THIS eBOOK WILL HELP YOU:

• Learn the benets of a managed hosting solution

• Decide if you are a good t for managed hosting

• Compare the costs of managed hosting vs. doing it yourself

• Discover questions to ask a prospective provider

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Table of

Contents 1. Does This Sound Like You?

2. Drivers and Challenges

3. Top Nine Benets o

Managed Hosting

4. One Size Doesn’t AlwaysFit All

5. Strategic ConsiderationsBeore You Buy

6. Weighing Your Options:Cost Comparison

7. Summing it Up: A Short Listo Questions

8. Why Internap?

3

5

8

11

14

18

20

23

MANAGED HOSTING: Managed

hosting is a type o Internet

hosting in which the provider owns

and manages the equipment,

leasing ull control to the client.

Management o the equipment can

include additional services such as

monitoring, backup, installation o

security patches and various levels

o technical support.

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Does This

Sound Like

YOU?

Although they come in dierent favors, small

businesses and enterprises alike still ace

challenges managing their IT Inrastructure. At

each stage o a company lie cycle, a new hurdle

presents itsel. Do you nd yoursel in any othe ollowing situations?




START-UP

As a start-up, youwork to stretch every

dollar as ar as it

will go. You’ve invested in a couple

servers to handle your growth and

are getting by with your limited IT

knowledge. However, in the long

term, investing in IT Inrastructure

isn’t something you want to

ocus on. Plus the complexity o the

technology continues to advance at

light speed. What’s more, you need

to ocus on developing your product

and don’t have the unds to hire a

dedicated IT manager.

SMB

Business isgrowing, but

technical sta

is spread

thin with

the day-to-

day responsibilities involved in

managing your company’s IT

Inrastructure. The daily burdeno inrastructure management is

becoming distracting, resources are

stretched to a breaking point and your

organization’s ability to ocus on its

core strategic objectives is diminishing.

ENTERPRISE

Your multi-nationalsotware company

has been using

colocation services

or years to house

its IT Inrastructure.

The company has

continually invested

in its own equipment to maintain acertain level o control, but the costs o

a technology upgrade across the entire

ootprint are getting too expensive to

justiy. How do you reduce capital

expenses and still maintain an

advanced inrastructure that is

capable o delivering your solution to

your customers?

If you nd YOURSELF in any of the above scenarios, READ ON.

A MANAGED HOSTING SOLUTION may be right for you.Ì








Managed hosting is clearly taking o. In act,

growth rates in managed hosting or the

North American and European markets are

estimated in the mid-teens to low 20% range

through 2013. Growth in the Asia-Pacic region

is expected to be notably higher and, in the rest

o the world market, Brazil currently leads the

region in terms o Internet inrastructure activity

and growth potential.* With considerable growth

expected over the next ew years, what are the

drivers behind this demand?

Drivers &Challenges

*Tier One Research Group: Global Managed Hosting Market Overview 2011






IT INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS

Most data center equipment has an average liespan

o three to ve years. For instance, batteries should be

replaced every two to three years, servers every our yearsand so on. In addition to simple wear and tear, the rate at

which technology is advancing is also driving equipment

replacements. What this means or companies is a constant

technology reresh, which can add up over time. Managed

hosting eliminates the need or your company to purchase

your own hardware, removing you rom the reresh game

entirely.

*Source: Tier One Research Group Global Managed Hosting Market Overview 2011

Most data center equipment hasan average lifespan of 3-5 years.

LIMITED DATA CENTER SPACE

Demand or data center space has been pretty steady according

to an article rom Data Center Knowledge*, however, the supply

o space has become a problem. Why? Receiving nancing tobuild these new data centers has been a challenge or one thing.

At the national level, the pending demand or data center space

may be three times greater than the available supply o quality

space, according to Jim Kerrigan, the Director o the data center

practice at the real estate rm Grubb & Ellis. Cost-cutting has

resulted in increased IT Inrastructure outsourcing, leading to

more demand or services such as managed hosting. “It eels like

someone closed a door, and things are backing up behind it,”

said David Schirmacher, a Vice President at Goldman Sachs.

“There is a huge disparity between[data center space] demand andsupply, and that disparity is projected

to grow over the next ve years.”

Michael Siteman

Real Estate Broker

Jones Lang LaSalle

*Strong Data Center Demand Seen or 2010, Data Center Knowledge

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LIMITED POWER AND COOLING CAPACITY The need or additional power and cooling has become a

key driver or companies looking or data center services.

The average data center in the U.S. is 11 years old and

companies are having a harder time nding acilities with

adequate capabilities to support demand. Under this

circumstance, ease o scalability comes into question

because a majority o data centers simply weren’t designed

or the increased usage o power and cooling. Managed

hosting mitigates scalability challenges, including power and

cooling consumption, because the provider now bears the

burden to expand based on the customer's needs.

LACK OF QUALIFIED PERSONNEL As data center demand remains steady, many companies are

having trouble nding skilled IT sta. In a recent presentation at

Data Center World, Richard Sawyer, a principal o HP's Critical

Facilities, noted that despite huge job losses, more than two million

jobs remain unlled in the United States. “These positions are

valuable, and there’s no unnel to get trained workers into the data

center industry,” says Sawyer. Training is a major issue because

o the specialized nature o data centers and the range o skills

required to operate them. In a managed hosting environment, the

stang o personnel is let to the provider.

Total spending on data centerstafng works out to about 38 %of the utility bill.“The Data Center Skills Gap”

Data Center Knowledge

The average data center in the U.S.is 11 years old.

HELP WANTED



Top Nine Benets of Managed Hosting

Managed hosting oers a variety o advantages

to IT organizations and companies. To help you

understand some o the advantages associated with

managed hosting, here is a list o the benets most

valued by customers.

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1. REDUCED CAPITAL COSTSInstead o investing in equipment every

three to ve years, your IT Inrastructure

becomes an operating expense,

reducing your up-rontcapital investment. Plus, when

the equipment breaks, needs repairs or

maintenance, you don’t incur additional charges.

2. PREDICTABLE COST MODELManaged hosting ees are billed as a

monthly fat ee so you can easilypredict costs, making budgeting or IT

expenses simple.

3. TIME SAVINGS The learning curve or new enterprise-

level equipment is eased. You nolonger need to spend time and

energy to understand and manage newhardware that would typically be placed on

your own network.

4. CUSTOMIZED OPTIONSManaged hosting solutions aren’t“one-size-ts-all.” You customize a solution

to meet the particular needs o your company. For

a company with signicant IT sta, many dierent

business units and diverse technologies to support,

a more customized managed hosting solution

makes everyone’s lives that much easier.

5. SCALABILITYManaged hosting allows you to easily scale your

inrastructure as your businessgrows. Scalability can help accelerate

global expansion through a managed

hosting provider with a global ootprint

rather than building data centers in-house,

managing employees and coordinating

third-party providers.



6. TECHNICAL SUPPORTLeading managed hosting providers

have a sta o skilled engineers

delivering customer support. Make

sure there is always a live person on

the phone when you need support.

Check i you will receive alerts or a prompt phone call when

something comes up. Knowing the provider is really keeping

an eye on things rees your sta to ocus on

business critical issues.

7. SINGLE PARTNER

With managed hosting, youdon’t have to worryabout managing vendorrelationships or standard

hardware and sotware. The provider

handles this, and you never have to

be bothered. In addition, by selecting

a hosting provider that oers other

services you can "uture-proo" your inrastructure with theoption to leverage other solutions such as colocation or cloud

rom a single partner.

8. NETWORK AVAILABILITY A managed hosting provider should be able to oer you an

advanced network connection that dynamically routes your

trac over the Internet. Availability is usually expressed as

a percentage o uptime in a given

year. Many providers will state their

availability in their Service Level

Agreement (SLA) as a percentage

such as 99.999 or 99.9. The

dierence? Two ewer nines

means an average o 86 seconds more

downtime every day, or 43 minutes more

downtime every month. An SLA with ve 9's will

ensure your network is up and running when you need it.

9. CONTROLLED ACCESS A managed hosting environment oers

top-notch security with limited physical

access to the acility where your data and

applications are housed. Some important

eatures include 24/7 on-site guards, biometric

nger print and retina scanners and, o

course, key card and padlocked doors. Providers should

be accessing your equipment through Secure Shell(SSH) or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). This ensures that the interaction with your data is secure.

You will also want to know who has access to your servers

and how passwords are given out and stored. Ask how

oten passwords are changed and make sure the provider

always changes passwords ater churn. All access to your

environment should be logged as well.



One SizeDoesn’t Always

Fit All

Outsourcing the responsibilities around

your IT Inrastructure with a managed

hosting solution can provide the traditional

benets o lowering costs and re-

directing resources; however, like many

organizations, you may be asking, “Is

it a t or me?” To make an inormed

decision, ask yoursel the questions on the

ollowing pages.








CONTROL“Do you require complete control overthe acilities that house your equipmentand/or the assets that dene your ITInrastructure?”

Yes.I your answer is “Yes,” you may want to skip to the cost

comparison chart to see the value a hosted solution can

bring. Your organization must be receptive to the idea and

the potential benets that managed hosting and other

services oer. In order to capitalize on the inherent value o

these solutions, you must be willing to accept the transer o

responsibilities and allow the service provider to execute them.

No.I the answer to the initial question is “no,” the ollowing core

questions can help you determine whether managed hosting

or another service like colocation is best or you. The solution

you choose should match your application requirements.

HARDWARE OWNERSHIP“Do you currently own or have plans toobtain all o the required IT hardware assets

you need to grow your business?”

Yes.Managed hosting could still be a good t down the road i

you change your IT strategy. For now, however, a colocation

option may best suit your needs. You will benet greatly rom

a physical acility that oers space, power, redundancy and

security under a more cost-eective structure. A provider that

can oer both colocation and managed hosting will be yourbest bet.

No.I the answer is “no,” managed hosting may be a viable

option since the provider takes on the capital expenses o

hardware ownership. Proceed to the next question or urther

considerations.






AVAILABILITY OF CAPITAL“I your organization continues to grow andrequires additional or new IT hardware,do you have access to or a willingness todevote capital expenditures to this eort?”

Yes.I the answer is “yes,” managed hosting could be a good t i

you later decide to avoid additional expenditures. For now, a

colocation option may best suit your needs. A provider that

can oer both will be your best bet or added fexibility.

No.With managed hosting, the solution provider is responsible

or acquiring the necessary hardware, the costs become

re-categorized as monthly operating expenses and capital

expenditures are avoided. You may also consider a partner

who can provide a fexible IT platorm which can serve you

today, as well as over the lie o your business.

AVAILABILITY OF PERSONNEL“Do you have the personnel necessary tooperate your IT deployment today?”

Yes.I the answer is “yes,” managed

hosting could work in the uture i

you decide to minimize IT sta. For

now, a colocation option may best

suit your needs. A provider that can

oer both will be your best bet or

added fexibility.

No.I the answer is “no,” then your organization should consider

the advantages o a managed hosting solution. The hosting

service provider will allocate the appropriate level o personnel

– with the requisite skills and certications – who best ts

the needs and demands o your IT Inrastructure. It is their

responsibility to identiy, hire and train (and re-train) thepersonnel needed to manage the inrastructure.

I you answered "No" to two or more

questions, you should consider managed

hosting as your number one solution. Read

on or more about how to choose a provider.

Ì




StrategicConsiderations

Before You Buy

Choosing amanaged hosting provider

is astrategic business decision that evolves rom

thoughtul consideration. It is important to know

what to look or so you can get the best solution

or your business.




FACILITY RELIABILITY The oundation o your hosting service

is the data center acility. Unlike

colocation services, where you access

the acility to maintain the hardware

yoursel, hosting services mean you never

have to visit the data center. In act, the acility

can be located across the country and still provide you with

excellent perormance.

The data center acility in which your services are hosted

must have redundant electrical and cooling inrastructure.

An N+1 rating, where "N" is the primary system or pieceo equipment, means that the acility has what it needs to

operate, plus one ull spare. A well maintained N+1 data

center acility can achieve 99.99% availability or your hosted

services, while a acility designed to a lesser Nstandard can have 14x the downtime.

IP SERVICE QUALITY

You should inquire about the reliability and redundancy o theInternet connections; i you are unable to

send data between the provider's location,

your business or customers due to poor

Internet connectivity, your business will

suer. Ask i your provider uses multiple

carriers or is “carrier neutral.” Carrier

neutral means the provider employs many carriers in the

event that one goes down. In addition, nd out i the provider

oers any Website Perormance Optimization(WPO) technologies such as Intelligent Route Control (IRC),

WAN acceleration or TCP acceleration. These technologies

can speed up your application or website delivery

signicantly.

NETWORK POPULATIONWhen looking at the network and

security o potential providers, you

should also consider the population

o the network devices. Network

population density can bedened as the number o

dierent customers who

have trac passing through the same

inrastructure. While this can be hard to determine and

many times companies are hesitant to reveal this inormation,

you can listen out or key words that oten describe this

situation. Multi-tenant, shared or aggregate are just a ew

terms that reveal there is a layer o inrastructure shared by

multiple customers. Inrastructure shared in this way can have

a negative impact to the overall perormance o any solutions

attached to that inrastructure.




SECURITY There are two types o security

considerations – physical and logical.

Physical security ocuseson the data center where

the actual environment is

housed. There should be 24/7

security sta on-site, electronic or

biometric scanners and video cameras. In a dedicated

managed hosting environment, only the provider will have

physical access to your equipment, and all access should

be logged. Logical security ocuses on loginand access to your environment. Your provider

should access your equipment through SSH or RDP, ensuring

a secure interaction with your data. Avoid providers that use

Telnet or direct connections, as these indicate a less secure

operating environment. Find out who will have access to your

servers, how passwords are distributed and stored, how oten

passwords are changed and i passwords are changed ateremployee churn. Request a copy o a SAS 70 or SOC 3 audit

report rom the data center provider, which

provides a third-party validation.

QUALITY OF EQUIPMENTWhat type o hardware will be used to host

your business?

Ask questions about the specic equipment, including why this equipment is right or your business and

the number o spares that are generally stocked. It is also

important that your provider oers reasonably new, name-

brand hardware. Name-brand equipment is supported by

the manuacturer, which thoroughly tests products prior

to release. Getting repairs and replacement parts is easier

with name-brand equipment than a “white box” solution.

It is comorting to have technical support rom both the

manuacturer and your hosting provider in case o a

catastrophic event.

MONITORINGOnce you are satised with the physical

aspects o the hosting environment, you

should investigate equipment monitoring.

Ask exactly what the hosting

provider will monitor. Look or

providers who monitor CPU usage, memory

and disk usage and who allow you to checkyour log les, processes running and ports responding. These

eatures help determine i your applications are unctioning

properly and can oten prevent or minimize downtime. The

provider should deliver historical data trends rather than

snapshots so you can view the health o your environment

over time and be able to predict your growth.




TECHNICAL SUPPORTMake sure that your provider has the

data center and the support centers

staed 24/7. Technicians should

be reachable by e-mail and phone

in the event o any problem. Avoid

automated e-mail attendants, and

make sure your tickets are immediately sent to a human being

who is physically looking at your equipment to determine the

nature o your problem. Talk to the Tier II engineers,

and raise some hypothetical questions aboutwhat you might experience to see how they respond. Finally,

contact reerences that can attest to how the provider

responded in a ailure situation.

ACCOUNT TEAMSWhile you are investigating

your technical support team,

get to know the people whowill be on both your sales and

your account support teams.

Look or redundancy

o roles. I one person should leave, can someone else on

the team easily pick-up where they let o? I a key team player

leaves the vendor’s employment, a database o customer

details or knowledge base will guarantee there is little, i any,

transition period.

FINANCIAL HEALTH ANDREFERENCESMake sure you understand the company’s

nancial condition, how it's audited,

the number o years it has been in

business and its overall perormance

track record. Ask the provider or

reerences, and then call them

all.

COSTS There are many ways to save money

when going with one provider over

another, but the lowest bottom

line isn’t necessarily the best

or your business. It’s important

to understand the trade-os you are

making when saving money. Lack o support, insucient

product lines or unreliable data center acilities can result in

much greater cost or your business in the long run. Some

providers will give you a very low initial price. However, non-

covered items can quickly add up to an amount equal to or

above what another vendor may have oered as a part o the

solution package, so make sure you careully examine each

line item to know exactly what is included.




WeighingYour Options:

CostComparison

So you may be asking yoursel, "how much will this

cost me?" or "are there any real savings or my

business?" Let us spell it out or you in dollars and

cents. The ollowing page presents a two-year cost

comparison or managing your own IT in-houseversus going with a managed hosting provider. See

the savings or yoursel!




Year One

6 Person Headcount @ $70,000 $420,0006 Base Level Servers @ $10,000 $60,0001 Load Balancer $10,000

1 Firewall $1,5001 Switch $6,000

Space/Power/Bandwidth $12,000Subtotal Year One $509,500

Year Two

6 Person Headcount @ $70,000 $420,000Maintenance & Hardware Replacements $10,000Space/Power/Bandwidth $12,000

Subtotal Year Two $442,000

Total Two Year Cost $951,500

Year One

Headcount $06 Base Level Servers @ $9,000 $54,0001 Load Balancer $21,900

1 Firewall $2,6401 Switch $0

Space/Power/Bandwidth $12,000Subtotal Year One $90,540

Year Two

Headcount $0Maintenance & Hardware Replacements $0Space/Power/Bandwidth $12,000

6 Base Level Servers $54,0001 Load Balancer $21,900

1 Firewall $2,6401 Switch $0

Subtotal Year Two $90,540

Total Two Year Cost $181,080

IN-HOUSE MANAGEMENT* MANAGED HOSTING*

The Bottom Line?Managed Hosting Cost Savings = $770,420

*Costs are approximate industry averages

Over Two Years




Summing it Up: A Short List of

Questions

Now that you have chosen to work with amanaged hosting provider, you have an even

more important decision to make: which one?

The ollowing questions summarize the key

considerations outlined earlier in this eBook so you

can get started with your search.




RELIABILITY• What systems in the acility are N+1?

• How many outages has the provider experienced over

the last year and what were the durations?

IP SERVICE QUALITY• Which carriers are available?

• Is this a carrier neutral acility?

• Does the provider oer any WPO technologies?

SECURITY• Who has access to my data, and is that inormation

logged?

• How does the provider access my equipment? RDP?SSH?

NETWORK POPULATION• Are there multiple customers on the same equipment?

• How dense is the network population?

QUALITY OF EQUIPMENT• What equipment will my data be hosted on?

• Is it a name-brand manuacturer?

• How many spares are kept on-site?

MONITORING• What exactly is monitored and/or managed?

• Will I have access to the monitoring interace?

• Can the provider train my employees to use the

interace?

NOTES




SUPPORT• What does the SLA cover?

• What types o SLAs are there? Network Availability SLA?

Hardware Replacement SLA?

• What are the support hours?

• What level engineer will I have access to?

• Are engineers available by phone and email?

ACCOUNT TEAM• Who will be my account representative?

• Can I meet my account representative ace-to-ace?

• Will there be a knowledge base in place so transitioning

to another account representative is easy?COSTS• How much does the provider charge or space

and bandwidth?

• Does the provider oer multi-homed bandwidth and

“meet-me rooms” where I can purchase extra bandwidth

i necessary?

FINANCIAL HEALTH AND REFERENCES• Is the company publicly traded or private?

• Do they have any debt, and are they in good standing?

• What do reerences have to say?

NOTES



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Why Internap?TRANSFORM YOUR IT INFRASTRUCTURE

into a competitive advantage with IT IQ rom

Internap, intelligent IT Inrastructure

solutions that enable our customers to ocus

on their core business, improve servicelevels and lower the cost o IT operations.

Our enterprise IP, Content Delivery Network

(CDN), colocation, managed hosting and cloud

solutions are dierentiated by unparalleled levels

o perormance, fexibility and support. Only

Internap combines the superior perormance

o our Managed Internet Route Optimizer™ –

which leverages multiple network connections or

perormance – with the rock-solid reliability o

our 100% network uptime guarantee. Since

1996, thousands o enterprises have entrusted

Internap with the delivery and protection o their

online applications.

INTERNAP MANAGED HOSTING

Our managed hosting services enable enterprises

to optimize their business-critical IT Inrastructure

with lower latency, lower packet loss and high

availability. Built on the oundation o Internap’s

Perormance IP,™ global availability and premium

support, our managed hosting services increase

enterprise operating fexibility while eliminating

the need or the specialized resources required

to provision and manage equipment and

applications or operate an enterprise-grade data

center.

Click Here to FIND OUT How YOUSENDIT uses

Internap's MANAGED HOSTING SOLUTION

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