Managed Hosting and its variations — i.e., fanatical support, fully-managed hosting, enablement services, advanced hosting, etc. — are complete services.
Actually, managed hosting can leave much to be desired. There are
two basic types of managed hosting.
The first involves a datacenter:
you build your own infrastructure
(or the datacenter will be responsible your infrastructure, but
only
up to a
certain level
).
In most cases, datacenters have different expertise sets that are up-sold as add-on services. Clients, like yourself, will easily surpass these levels of "gaps" or "needs," and are charged additional fees. Unfortunately, each service is an
additional
tack-on to your monthly bill.
On top of this, many times you will find out that the service
doesn't really work
when you need it. This is often the case of failures when backups or failovers simply don't work how they are supposed to. Datacenters will be covered with their SLAs: it is your responsibility to utilize their services optimally; but with IT departments' resources and time already stretched thin, this is often impossible.
The second type has datacenters that
guarantee hardware availability;
but typically
only
up to the OS level. If the datacenter breaks, they guarantee to replace the hardware in 5 minutes...but what about all your data and configuration? If you haven’t backed up your data, you are in huge trouble. Even if you did use a full backup scenario, your full restore may not work for a variety of reasons. (For example, new hardware requires newer drivers, and these may not always be provided). Likewise, what if data is restored but the application still doesn't work?
We have found that this happens much more often than most companies expect...
In each case, you will be facing these problems alone—despite the fact that your datacenter claims "full management" capabilities.
Digital Edge surpasses all managed hosting options: we cover you from end-to-end. Astoundingly, our SLAs go beyond the services we provide
to include all the services your IT department provides to your customers.
99.999 availability (sort of)
Often, 99.999 availability is “anything but” when it comes to your services (and especially) your clients' services.
a.
Those availability numbers are for
"unscheduled" downtimes.
But what about scheduled outages? Of course, this doesn't count the weekly "down for 1-hour maintenance." 99.999 availability conveniently forgets this.
b.
99.999 often refers to the datacenter's core infrastructure—NOT your availability. So when there is a bad handoff cable-or one of a hundred other issues-the datacenter is still claiming that they are up; while you, unfortunately, are very much down.
Digital Edge lets our competitors boast about '99.999 availability.' Instead, we cover clients from end-to-end. Our SLAs go beyond the services we provide,
to include all the services your IT department provides to your customers.
Ordering private lines, point-to-point, cross-connects and other telco services is easy.
In fact, this has many hidden hurdles. Don't compare telco prices solely by price: you may save a few dollars now, only to cripple your business later. Consider this:
a.
Always check if the vendor has the technical capabilities to deliver connectivity without a "swap." A swap happens when a vendor cannot deliver connectivity without 3rd-party help. For example, your vendor has equipment in point A and point Y and communication facilities in between these two points only. However, you need service in point Z. So, your vendor will negotiate a deal with someone who can cover that Y-to-Z gap. But if something goes wrong, you don't have any leverage on those 3rd-party swapping partners. You will have to open a ticket with your vendors: and since there will typically be 3 to 4 other partners in the chain, many long conversations and lots of finger-pointing is the norm before your problem gets solved.
b.
Regarding cross-connects, some datacenters charge setup fees only, and some charge monthly recurring fees for cross-connects in the building. Often, those cross-connect charges might be bigger than the private line cost. There is no way around this as the telco company brings connectivity to their POP in the building. Remember, cross-connect charges have to be discussed as part of the whole deal-or else they have the habit of popping up post-installation as an additional charge. We never charge monthly for cross-connects within a given building.
c. Bandwidth does have quality:
cheap bandwidth will have worse quality. Remember, you get what you pay for.
d.
"Diversified routes" may not be so diversified. They can easily use the same equipment somewhere in the telco's route. You must learn about your cabling infrastructure to see if the routes are truly diversified.
Other companies will make telco sound very complex, hide the truth, and generally speak in a language that normal person can’t understand.
Digital Edge knows the entire telco game plan of interconnections. Talk to us: we'll explain what you really get and what you can expect for your proposed point-to-point solution — in clear, plain terms