Why a managed service works for your LMS

Discover the key benefits of opting for a managed service for your LMS hosting.

When planning a new learning management system, the hosting infrastructure is one of the key factors that will contribute to the platform’s ultimate success. Traditionally, the starting point for the decision-making process was: shall we have a self-hosted LMS or opt for managed hosting?

We’ve worked with customers who are self-hosting their LMS and we also offer a managed hosting service. The managed service has always been the most popular option and, as time goes on, an increasing proportion of our customers are opting for a managed service.

Several key benefits are driving the ever-increasing popularity of managed LMS hosting. Let’s take a look at those now.

You don’t have to run a data centre

Running data centres is hard work. It’s also very expensive. In a time of rising energy costs, remote working, and downsized office space, that’s more true now than ever before. The cost of running servers and maintaining suitable room temperatures was always tricky. Now it’s become a hugely unpredictable overhead.

A data centre also represents a sizeable use of floor space at a time when many organisations are cutting back on square footage. Effective management of a data centre also requires a suitably qualified — and appropriately paid — IT professional to spend a large proportion of their time on-site at a time when many IT workers have a lot of options for remote and flexible working.

Lower capital investment in infrastructure

With a managed service, there is far less expenditure required to get your LMS hosting infrastructure up and running. This is true at the outset of your project and remains equally true when servers and other equipment need to be replaced. 

Prompt updated and security responses

When you’re self-hosting an LMS, updates and security patches naturally join the queue of tasks for your IT team to work through. With a managed service, any update or bug fix can be quickly applied to your LMS. These things are part of the regular rhythm of hosting a learning platform, so a specialist LMS host can quickly take care of all of these things to keep your site secure and up-to-date.

Free up IT resources

Most IT departments don’t have specialist LMS hosting knowledge. As a result, self-hosting an LMS can become a drain on time, money and resources for your IT department and the organisation as a whole. This can artificially inflate the cost of an LMS for your organisation or, even worse, result in the LMS being neglected. Far better to take those problems away from your IT people and have the rapid response of a dedicated resource under a managed service that’s governed by contracts and service-level agreements.

No in-house LMS hosting experience is required

Even in the most experienced IT departments, knowledge of LMS hosting is very rare. LMS hosting is different from regular web hosting. It has its own quirks and best practices, which are hard to master if you’re new to LMS hosting and doing various other IT tasks at the same time. With a managed service, your LMS is hosted by people with the expertise to deliver the performance and availability levels you expect.

Interested in learning more about a managed service for your LMS?

You can find out more about a managed service on our managing hosting page, or feel free to fill out the form below to discuss your Moodle or Totara hosting needs.

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