Introducing Winhost Managed Hosting Services

At Winhost we had three standard shared hosting plans for the past 12 years that I’ve worked for Winhost – the Basic, Max, and Ultimate hosting plans. As time passed, web applications continued to introduce new versions and, with each new version, the server resources they require increased. For example, a popular .NET open source ecommerce application, nopCommerce, required more memory over the years. If I recall correctly, I believe this was particularly noticeable after version 3.8. To address this trend, Winhost added a new Power plan that is perfect for semi-busy nopCommerce sites. The Power plan provides the application pool with 1GB of memory, just right for a decently sized nopCommerce site with moderate traffic. However, what happens when specific applications require more resources than the Power plan?

Managed Hosting Services
For websites that outgrow our Power plan, rather than adding yet another Shared Hosting plan, Winhost decided to introduce Managed Hosting Services. With Managed Services, Winhost provides customers with their own customized hosting servers that is not shared with other customers. The service is fully-managed so customers don’t even need to worry about any server maintenance.

What about VPS or Dedicated Server?
When outgrowing shared hosting, some consider using a VPS server or a dedicated server. However, one of the most daunting tasks is setting up a server for your site, especially an e-commerce site. Most site owners that I’ve talked to would prefer to just worry about their application. However, an unmanaged VPS or dedicated server requires the site owner to take on the server setup and administration and maintenance – something that many site owners have little experience with. You can ask the host for help, but I’ve been shocked by how little support some even “premium hosting service providers” actually give their clients, while others will charge an arm and a leg for their support.

Winhost Fully-Managed Hosting with Technical Support Included
This is where Winhost’s managed services comes into play and shines. With Winhost Managed Services, you truly only need to worry about your application. Our system admins will handle any customization or special requirements for the servers. And, they will also keep the server up-to-date with the updates and security patches. The service also includes standard technical support and we also offer an additional 2 hours of free hands-on system administrator support per month. For the sysadmin support, maybe you need help optimizing your MS SQL Database or you discovered a problem with one of your SQL queries and need our DBA’s assistance to help resolve your issue. Most e-commerce site owners probably don’t have their own database administrator but by using Winhost’s Managed Hosting Services you practically do. This is the type of support services that makes Winhost’s Managed Services stand out.

Backups
In addition, nightly site and database backups come standard with our Managed Hosting service. You can change the retention of the nightly backups to whatever suits your needs. The backups are stored in a data center entirely outside of Winhost’s data center for added security. So, in a worst case scenario, even if Winhost’s data center went down, you still can get to your backups. As long as you have enough disk space on the cloud backup service, we can keep your site backups as long as you require them.

Advanced Monitoring
Another highlight of Winhost’s Managed Services is our Advanced Monitoring service that helps reveal issues that occur on your site that you may never see without the monitoring service. The advanced monitoring service is a low-resource service that attaches itself to the process on the server. This helps monitor any errors your e-commerce site might encounter, like a slow-running query or a random error your customer experienced at checkout. How would you ever know there was an issue with your order form if your potential customer never contacted you about it? Chances are they moved on to your competitor, and you’re left wondering why an item was left in the shopping cart. The Advanced Monitoring service can alert you of any issues your site visitors may have encountered.

Let’s Meet
We’d love to chat if you want to learn more about how Winhost Managed Hosting Services can help your site. Let’s meet to discuss your needs and explore how we can help you take your business to the next level. Contact us today to get started.

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