Financial Freedom

The recent disbandment of the LulzSec hacker group serves as a wake-up call for companies regarding their possible data security vulnerabilities and highlights the need to invest in more robust IT security systems. As businesses move their data and applications to the cloud, managed hosting services provide a cost-effective way option to gain access to expert security and server management without having to allocate additional resources for an internal information security team, whether the company uses a shared or dedicated server hosting package.

The best managed services providers will have a number of tiered plans available for clients, geared to complement their existing levels of expertise and requirements for regulatory compliance.

At its most basic level, the managed services plan may simply provide server or site monitoring functionality. In the event of emergencies that the administrators cannot handle alone, the plan may also allow clients to contact the managed hosting provider’s own technical team for consultation, although at an additional charge.

If clients require rudimentary security or system, network or database administration in addition to monitoring, entry-level tiers of service should be considered. This type of plan assumes that a company already has a trained team of in-house administration at its disposal, that they require only minimal support as they perform their duties. Aside from lowering costs, this arrangement helps to ensure that there are fewer outside factors that may interfere with whatever security setup the server’s administrators already have in place.

For clients that have complex systems or high-performance production environments, hosting service providers offer more comprehensive managed hosting packages. A middle-tier plan may include essential functions such as custom issue remediation procedures, regular environment reviews, custom patch approval/deployment processes and support for complex, high-availability configurations.

Following this is a top-tier security plan where the management of the server is no longer conducted by a client company, but rather by the security provider’s own team. Packages that follow this arrangement feature the most complete set of security solutions, and may include file integrity monitoring, change management, server log analysis, managed code rollouts, security scanning and other security solutions. However, because server management is no longer conducted by the client, they also lose their root/administrator access. While it may seem strict, access and auditable change management procedures are often factors for meeting regulatory compliance. This is an important detail to take into account for any company that may be planning to hire a managed hosting provider to handle their servers.

As businesses become more aware of the risks they face online, finding the right security solution can help companies stay fully protected, without interfering with their existing data infrastructure and processes.