Is outsourcing server administration a good option?

That's a common confusion among server owners.

Server administration is a 24×7 task that ensures the proper working of your server and services.

Here at Ibmi Media, we do give the best user experience by managing customer servers as part of our Server Management Services.

In this context, we'll see the pros and cons of outsourcing server administration.

More insight on server administration ?

In today's digital world, every service, be it an app or website, requires a server. It is the server that handles all the operations at the backend.

When the server and its services work properly, the app works fine. Or else, it will simply drive away your customers.

That's where the role of server administrator kicks in. An efficient server administration team monitors the server closely. They take up proactive steps to avoid service failures, avoid server capacity problems, and so on. This includes timely changes to server infrastructure as your business expands.

On the whole, it keeps the downtime or service errors minimal.

Outsourcing server administration or hiring inhouse?

Now that we know the importance of server administration, let’s check the options available.

A server owner can either outsource admin work to a server management company or hire an in-house server administrator.

For instance, when outsourcing server administration, our Support Experts work as an extended office of your business. They follow the set of instructions and take care of the servers 24×7.

Whereas, an inhouse administrator works at your premises and manages the server.

The final decision depends on major factors like the scope of the work, coverage required, budget, and so on.

How does outsourcing server administration help?

A decision to outsource server administration can be helpful in many ways.

It ensures 24×7 availability, expert assistance, cheaper price, offload employee management, and so on.

Now let us take a look at some advantages of outsourcing ?

1. Focus on expanding business

The biggest benefit of outsourcing is that it helps to keep your focus on expanding the business. The support team will handle all the server management tasks. As a result, it helps to invest all your time in finding new customers, new campaigns, product add-ons, etc.

Whereas when you do server management on your own, that takes considerable time.

2. Round the clock availability

Server problems can peep in even at the wee hours. Also, it may require immediate fixes to avoid service downtime.

When you are in charge of server management, that requires hands-on involvement.

Again, there is always a limitation in the number of hours a person can spend in managing servers. But outsourcing server administration gives 24×7 monitoring. Thus, an Expert Engineer can resolve problems straight away. Moreover, when you have a team of Experts, there will always be a human managing your servers.

In that way, it will not hinder your sleep timings.

3. Expert assistance

Likewise, outsourcing server administration gives expert assistance. These server administrators will always be updated about the latest technologies, best industry practices, etc. Additionally, they will have first-hand information on the latest vulnerabilities too. This helps to apply timely security patches and prevent server hacks.

However, when managing servers on your own, you have to be updated about all the changes in the technology industry. That’s another reason why many server owners choose to outsource.

4. Affordable cost

Yet another benefit of outsourcing server administration is an affordable cost.

It allows investing in a support team for the approximate cost of hiring an in-house server administrator. Here, you can select any expertise. Like, the cost can be further optimized by hiring an experienced Expert. In all the cases, you get the collective knowledge of the team too.

Also, server owners can choose shared server management plans to keep the cost even lower.

5. Avoid employee management overhead

Lastly, outsourcing also helps to avoid the overhead of managing the server administration employees. The server management company will take care of all the work schedules, payroll, daily management of the employees.

When the team is a dedicated one, there will be a Team lead who will be your contact point. Also, this Team lead ensures the smooth functioning of the team as per your requirements.

Does outsourcing server administration have any cons?

So far we have been seeing all the benefits of outsourcing.

While we are at it, it's good to check the cons of outsourcing server administration too.

The major cons come when you choose a wrong outsourcing company.

There can be many fly by night support companies that may offer cheaper plans. However, it matters in signing up with a company that has industry-standard quality certifications.

Thus, there will be a well-defined set of procedures for processes like signup, employee engagement, payment, and so on.

In outsourcing, the work is done from a remote location. So that demands clear instructions about the specific requirements of your business.

Clear-cut documentation about the processes eases out the onboarding of the outsourced team. It can also help in the training process too.

[Are you still confused about outsourcing server administration? We are here to help.]