Managed hosting and servers
A UK server, set up properly, with somebody responsible for it.
Specified, built, secured, patched and watched — on Linode or Microsoft Azure, hosted in the UK. For applications I've written, applications you already have, or a server you simply need somebody to own.
Who this is for
Three situations, one answer.
Something is running where it shouldn't
A machine under a desk, a PC in a cupboard, or a server somebody set up years ago and nobody has logged into since. It is doing something the business needs, and that is precisely the problem.
You're having something built
An application needs somewhere to live, and you would rather not take on a second supplier and a second contract to make that happen. The build and the hosting come from the same place.
You have a server and no server person
It exists, it mostly works, and the person who understood it has left. You need somebody to take it over, find out what is on it, and be accountable for it from now on.
Where it runs
Linode or Microsoft Azure, in the UK.
Both are serious providers with UK regions, and the choice between them is made on your situation rather than on habit. Azure is usually the answer where you are already invested in Microsoft 365 and want identity, access and billing to sit in one place. Linode is usually the answer where you want straightforward, predictable compute without the surrounding complexity — and it is generally the cheaper of the two.
Either way the server sits in a UK data centre. That matters more than it used to: it keeps your data in the jurisdiction your customers assume it is in, and it removes a question you would otherwise have to answer in every security questionnaire and tender you fill in.
Who buys the infrastructure is up to you. It can come through me, or it can sit in your own Microsoft tenant and be billed to you directly by Microsoft while I manage it. Either way the specification, the build, the security and the responsibility are mine.
What managed actually means
The word is used loosely. Here is what I mean by it.
A great many "managed" arrangements amount to someone renting you a server and sending an invoice. These are the parts that make the difference between that and a server somebody is genuinely looking after:
- Specified for the job, not oversized to be safe and not undersized to look cheap
- Built hardened — firewalled, access restricted, no default credentials, encrypted in transit
- Patched on a schedule, rather than when something forces the issue — managed through the same NinjaOne platform I use across supported clients
- Monitored around the clock, with uptime alerting and performance monitoring, so a disk filling up or a service stopping is something I deal with rather than something you discover
- Backed up, and the restore proven — an untested backup is a hope, not a backup
- Documented as part of the build, not at some later point when there is time, and not only in my head
That last one is deliberate. If you ever move this to another supplier, they should be able to pick it up from the documentation without reverse-engineering anything.
The security side
A server is the thing on your network facing the internet all day.
It is also the thing most likely to be ignored until it becomes a problem, because it does not have a user sitting at it complaining. Hosting sits next to the rest of what I do rather than apart from it, which means the same standards apply to it as to everything else.
This business holds Cyber Essentials certification and I have delivered ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus and PCI DSS work across a number of sectors. If your customers send you security questionnaires, a UK-hosted server with a named person responsible for it is a considerably easier thing to describe than a PC in a cupboard.
How it's charged
What a server costs.
The server and its backups are charged at the rates below. Building and configuring it is quoted as a fixed price before anything starts, and looking after it afterwards draws from the same monthly pool of hours as everything else I do — it does not carry its own retainer or its own annual fee.
| RAM | CPU | Storage | Transfer | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB | 1 TB | £6.50 |
| 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB | 2 TB | £13 |
| 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB | £26 |
| 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB | 5 TB | £52 |
Per month, excluding VAT. Backups included at every size. These are the Linode rates; larger specifications are available on the same basis.
Monitoring is £4.50 per server per month on top of the server itself, and is itemised separately so you can see what it costs. It covers uptime alerting, patch monitoring and performance monitoring through NinjaOne — the same platform behind the security monitoring and remote support I provide to supported clients, rather than a second tool bolted on for hosting.
It is worth having on anything the business genuinely depends on. An unmonitored server is one you find out about from a customer, usually on a Monday morning.
The price doubles as the specification doubles, which is deliberate — there is no tier where you are quietly paying for something you cannot see. Most small businesses running a single application land on the first or second line. If you outgrow one, moving up a size is a resize rather than a rebuild, and it does not mean starting again.
Azure is quoted at the time of setup rather than listed here, because the figure depends on the specification and on what commitment you are willing to make. It can also run in your own Microsoft tenant and be billed to you directly by Microsoft, with me managing it — so the infrastructure relationship is yours rather than rented through me.
That flexibility is the point. The server can be mine to provide, yours to own, or already sitting somewhere else entirely and simply in need of somebody to look after it. The arrangement follows your situation rather than the other way round, and nothing here depends on you buying the hosting from me.
The practical effect is that you get one arrangement and one monthly statement covering support, leadership, security and hosting, rather than four suppliers and four renewal dates.
What's currently running somewhere nobody owns?
If the honest answer involves a machine under a desk, or a server whose password is in one person's head, that is worth half an hour of conversation. No charge for the first one.