I would like to get people's opinions on getting an inexpensive dedicated server and outsourcing support to one of these hosting support companies versus getting a managed server.
Hi,
Maintaining an in house technical team is an expensive affair and brings in enormous responsibilities. These responsibilities will take lot of time of yours in maintaining these services at an optimum level. That also means having sleepless nights thinking of ways to bring optimum level of balance between support and cost towards maintaining the technical team of expensive system admin(s).
silvermoon
Make sure you're technically well and good in maintaining the servers, If so there must be no problem in buying up a dedicated server and also be careful while outsourcing support.
I would prefer managed. That must be cost effective and mor e reliable. But if you want to install custom software and can not do even the basic stuff yourself, may be better to have someone who will give you a personal care.