Managed hosting
Managed hosting carefully balances the customers' need to interact directly with the operating system without compromising application environment security, uptime and scalability. The provider owns, installs, maintains and monitors the data center, the network and devices like servers, firewalls, operating systems and application infrastructure components, while the customer retains full control of their operating system. This frees customers to work on their business, rather than dedicating their time and resources to building and constantly maintaining an infrastructure.

Although a seemingly expensive hosting alternative, managed hosting is a smart investment for those needing 100% uptime, responsiveness and a high-end infrastructure.

Dedicated hosting
This form of hosting allows customers to lease pre-configured, high-end equipment and connectivity from the provider. Offering greater flexibility than shared hosting and less responsibility than colocated hosting, the customer generally retains control over their hosting environment. They choose their operating system and software and tailor it to their needs. The provider, however, remains responsible for administration.

Customers using a dedicated hosting solution require an overall competency in IT and server administration issues. It also requires a more significant investment of finances, time and human resources than shared hosting.