Managed Hosting Saved Me
December 18, 2010 – Japanese and Korean clients have been renewing their contract with me. I have been running an online English tutorial center for 3 years and the business is expanding. Clients usually renew their contracts before Christmas so that the tutors I employ will be ready with their syllabi after Christmas break. This date could’ve been the end of my business. One of my encoders noticed that she keeps on getting a pop-up on her computer screen telling her that she needs to run an .exe file. Fearing that the file may harm the computer, she unplugged her pc from the network and reported the incident to me. I called my server host and they worked on the issue. They found out that a malware has gotten into the system.
I had an unmanaged server before. I employed a full-time technician who did all the troubleshooting and maintenance of the network. We had virus and malware attacks. One computer has been hacked. The technician cannot handle it all and he quit the job. I’m left with my employees. We didn’t know what to do when a computer doesn’t work so we ended up not using it. Working computers went down to 13. Business was slow then, and I thought I’m spending more than my overhead expenses. It was almost over then.
So on it went, I chose a dedicated server provider that provides managed servers for online pet shops and did business with them for three months without any trouble. Until that day, I lost connection to the internet. Being a self-proclaimed tech savvy, I did all that I can before calling my ISP, who just informed me that it isn’t their problem and it must be my router that has gone bad. My phone was flooded with follow-ups on delivery then, but we cannot get to the website to see all the orders.
They did all of that remotely and even informed me that if my encoder did not unplug her computer’s network cable from the network right away, all computers would’ve been infected, or worse-hacked! I cannot lose my clients’ information because online English teaching is all over the Internet and the competition is tight. I will lose a lot of money, and my clients’ security will also be at risk!
They saved me a lot of money: Hey, that business router costs a lot, and all I have is a 10-computer network which worked perfectly for more than a year. They saved me from those calls: Just imagine irate pet lovers calling the business line, the fax line and my personal cell. Getting a managed server is worth the cost. If I hadn’t switched server hosts, I wouldn’t be in this business anymore!
About the Author Kevin Abrahams, a writer in the hosting industry, is also a server administrator for Dedicatednow.com, a leading web server provider.
Popularity: unranked [?]
