Fully Managed
Basic Technical Support or Managed Server?
There's a big difference between technical support, and server management. If your server only includes technical support, it puts a significant responsibility on you to keep the server protected against the latest security vulnerabilities and troubleshoot any software issues that arise. This takes up a lot of your valuable time, and you don't want to be up in the middle of the night dealing with these issues
When our competitors offer a "fully managed" server they invariably mean an unmanaged server with a very limited amount of technical support - often any system administration such as software installation, upgrade, or troubleshooting is a chargeable extra!
Layershift's full server management provides a complete solution to server administration so that you can focus on your business and leave all of the "server stuff" to our experienced server experts.
Beware DIY Servers!
Why buy a fully managed server and then attempt the server administration yourself? Get the full benefit of your provider's expert knowledge and skill, so that you can focus on growing your business instead of wasting time on your servers.
If your "managed" hosting provider is offering super-user (root) level access to your servers, what exactly do they expect you to use it for? Your provider should handle all of this for you - it's what you pay them for! Consider how effective their management can be troubleshooting problems and maintaining overall system security without knowing what you've installed / how you've configured it. A real managed hosting provider needs this deep insight into your server to provide an exceptional service.
All of Layershift's servers are genuinely fully managed. We retain root access so there is absolutely no doubt who has the server management responsibility, and no conflicts or security problems for software installed or (re)configured without our knowledge. This way, we provide the best service possible.
Even though we retain root access, our service is very flexible - user level SSH is optionally available should you wish to use it, and our team are adept at providing solutions to facilitate almost any service requirement. Please discuss your needs with our sales team.
If your "managed" hosting provider offers root access, it implies the server is managed by you, not by them!
Managed Care Pack
Each of our fully managed servers includes a managed care pack defining the service level, and provide an optional upgrade suitable for customers with more demanding requirements.
| Care Packs | Essential | Enhanced | Enterprise | ||
| Cloud VPS |  |
£15/month | $25/month | US$25/month | - |
| Cloud VPS Extreme | - | |
£75/month | $120/month | US$120/month |
| Dedicated | - |
| £75/month | $120/month | US$120/month |
Service Level Agreement
Layershift provide an SLA appropriate to each service, enforcing far more rigorous uptime and service standards than our competitors, and fully incorporating every aspect of the service - important aspects our competitors deliberately omit!
Most competitors only guarantee network access within their own network; your customers are across the Internet, so this is a massively significant limitation which renders their "network uptime guarantee" effectively worthless!
Layershift are a service-led hosting provider, with a genuine 24/7 in-house support team, so we stand by our technical support provision 100%. Apparently not many providers are confident in their support teams' ability to deliver consistently great service!
| Compare | Typical Competitor | Layershift Managed Care Pack | ||
| SLA | Essential | Enhanced | Enterprise | |
| Included | Varies | |
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| Provider Network | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Internet / External Network | - | 99.95% | 99.99% | 99.999% |
| Hardware / Platform MaxTTR | 1 - 4 Hours | 4 Hours | 2 Hours | 1 Hour |
| Support ticket response time (max) | - | 4 hours | 2 hours | 1 hour |
We Never Switch Off
Although most providers now advertise 24 hour technical support, there's still a large service gap between what they claim and the actual provide. Many providers only have "on call" staff for nights and weekends, or only handle "urgent" issues during these times - what's urgent to your business may not be urgent to them.
Even if you finally find a human to handle your "out of hours" problem (as if the Internet actually sleeps!), there are often delays for several hours before an "on call" senior engineer becomes available to action your request.
Layershift's technical support team is fully staffed around the clock, so there are no untimely delays - prompt, effective assistance, day or night!
But many providers limit server management requests to "office hours" only (despite their 24/7 technical support claims). Not only does this emphasize their true lack of 24/7 capability, but it also means you have to schedule critical server administration tasks during peak operating hours! Downtime at the worst time!
Layershift provide full server administration around the clock, 24/7/365. Our server management teams are at your service throughout the day, night, and weekend; we're here whenever you need us, keeping everything in top condition and at optimum performance.
| Compare | Typical Competitor | Layershift Managed Care Pack | ||
| Support | Essential | Enhanced | Enterprise | |
| Technical Support | Core office hours (8x5) "emergency only" out of hours sold as 24x7 service |
Genuine 24x7 around the clock expert care | Priority genuine 24x7 around the clock expert care | Priority genuine 24x7 around the clock expert care + technical account manager |
| Server Management | Core office hours (8x5) | |||
| Support ticket response time (typical) | 1 - 24 hours | 15 minutes | 15 minutes | 15 minutes |
| Support ticket resolve time (typical) | 24 - 72 hours | 30 minutes | 30 minutes | 30 minutes |
| Support ticket resolve time (max) | - | Every support case is unique, so an excellent resolve time for one incident could be a poor resolve time for a different case. The 'typical support resolve times' above are representative but cannot be guaranteed for every single support case due to variable complexity. Layershift engineers work diligently around the clock on every issue until completely resolved. |
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Managed Service Features
Backups are essential, not an optional extra! Layershift's backup service is included as a standard component of our fully managed hosting services. We provide more than double the number of restore points than our typical competitors so data loss between backup points and failure is minimized.
| Compare | Typical Competitor | Layershift Managed Care Pack | |||
| Backup | Unmanaged | Managed | Essential | Enhanced | Enterprise |
| Managed Backup | Not Available | Optional Extra | |
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| Backup Frequency | - | Daily or Weekly (where available) |
Every 6 hours | Every 6 hours | Up to Hourly (bespoke options for dedicated servers) |
| Full Backup Restore Points | - | 1 - 14 (where available) |
28 | 56 | 56 - 336 (bespoke options for dedicated servers) |
| Backup Retention | - | 7 days (where available) |
7 days | 14 days | 14 days (bespoke options for dedicated servers) |
Pro-Active Monitoring
Our definition of pro-active: our engineers take the initiative and fix a problem as soon as detected; often long before even noticeable to your visitors. Many other providers have found a different definition, relying on customers to notify them before they even begin troubleshooting! Which definition does your provider use?
| Compare | Typical Competitor | Layershift Managed Care Pack | |||
| Platform | Unmanaged | Managed | Essential | Enhanced | Enterprise |
| Network | |
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| Power | |
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| Physical Environment (temperature, water, fire, intrusion) | |
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| Hardware / Platform Health | - | Varies | |
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| System | |||||
| System Services | - | Varies |
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Tailored intensive monitoring |
| System Health | - | - |
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Tailored intensive monitoring |
| Dynamic System Resource Monitor | - | - | |
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| Rapid incident response and resolution | - | Usually only reactive, or customer notification! | pro-active |
pro-active |
pro-active |
Maintenance, Troubleshooting, Security Updates & Software Upgrades
Layershift's server management goes a lot further than our competitors. Our experienced engineers handle all of the underlying server administration so that you can simply use the service. You don't want unexpected charges, and unneeded technical headaches, interrupting your business.
| Compare | Typical Competitor | Layershift Managed Care Pack | |||
| Pro-Active | Unmanaged | Managed | Essential | Enhanced | Enterprise |
| Non-stop kernel security updates | - | - | in 72 hours |
in 24 hours |
in 12 hours |
| O/S security updates | - |
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| Pre-installed software / panel security updates | - |
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| On-Demand | |||||
| Pre-installed server software upgrades | Chargeable (where available) |
Often chargeable | |
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| Extra server software install | Chargeable (where available) |
Often chargeable | Subject to feasibility |
Subject to feasibility |
Subject to feasibility |
| System admin / management limit | - | 1 - 2 hours | Not Limited | Not Limited | Not Limited |
| Troubleshooting | |||||
| Pre-installed server software | Usually chargeable |
Usually included |
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| User software / script malfunction | Not available, or chargeable | Not available, or chargeable |
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| Performance | |||||
| Regular service tuning and optimization | - | - |
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| Analysis and architecture consultancy | - | - | - |
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