Server Management

Server management is the work nobody notices until it has not been done. Patches, backups, certificate renewals, disk space, log rotation and monitoring: unglamorous, easy to defer, and the reason most small business websites eventually go down at the worst possible moment. We handle it for businesses across Southampton and Hampshire so you never have to think about it.

For a fixed annual price on a straightforward site, our managed hosting plans start at £15 per month and include everything below.

What Server Management Covers

1. Setup and Configuration

• 1

  Provisioned from a known state

  Server configuration kept in version control so a rebuild is a repeatable process, not an afternoon of remembering what was installed.

• 2

  Reverse proxy and TLS

  Caddy or nginx with automatic certificate renewal, HTTP/2 and security headers configured correctly from the start.

• 3

  Containerised applications

  Services run in Docker with resource limits and health checks, so one misbehaving process cannot take the whole host down.

2. Monitoring and Alerting

• 1

  Uptime and error monitoring

  Checks that alert us directly rather than waiting for a customer to tell you the site is down.

• 2

  Resource watching

  Disk, memory and CPU tracked over time, so capacity problems are predicted rather than discovered.

• 3

  Certificate and domain expiry

  Two of the most common causes of avoidable outages, both trivially preventable with a calendar and a script.

3. Security Hardening

• 1

  Locked down by default

  Firewall rules, SSH key-only access, fail2ban and unattended security upgrades. Detail is on our security service page.

• 2

  Least-privilege access

  Applications run as unprivileged users, and human access is per-person and revocable rather than one shared root login.

• 3

  Audit logging

  A record of who changed what and when, which matters both for recovery and for your UK GDPR obligations.

4. Backups and Disaster Recovery

• 1

  Nightly offsite backups

  Databases and files backed up to separate storage, so a compromised or failed server does not take the backups with it.

• 2

  Verified restores

  Scripted and run periodically. See Bash and automation for how we automate this.

• 3

  Documented runbook

  A written plan covering who does what if the server, domain or provider fails.

5. Performance Optimisation

• 1

  Caching and compression

  Sensible cache headers, Brotli compression and static asset handling, which improves both user experience and Core Web Vitals.

• 2

  Database tuning

  Indexing, slow query analysis and connection pooling where response times have crept up over the years.

• 3

  CDN where it helps

  Edge delivery for static assets, which matters more for national and international traffic than for purely local sites.

6. Updates and Patch Management

• 1

  Scheduled maintenance windows

  Operating system, runtime and dependency updates applied on a known schedule, outside your busiest hours.

• 2

  Urgent security patches

  Applied immediately when a serious vulnerability is disclosed, rather than waiting for the next window.

• 3

  Zero-downtime deploys

  Health-checked rolling releases so updates do not put a maintenance page in front of a customer.

7. Scaling and Migration

• 1

  Right-sized infrastructure

  We recommend the smallest setup that comfortably handles your traffic, then scale when the numbers justify the cost.

• 2

  Moving off expensive hosts

  Migration from overpriced shared hosting including DNS, email and certificates, usually with no visible downtime.

• 3

  Cloud architecture

  Load balancing, autoscaling and multi-region setups where genuinely needed. See our cloud services page.

Hosting Plans and Audits

• Simple Site Hosting for brochure and small business sites.
• Business Site Hosting for larger sites with higher traffic and more moving parts.
• Shop Site Hosting for WooCommerce and other online stores.
• Site Health & Security (£495) if you want an independent audit of a server and site somebody else manages.

Not sure what state your current setup is in? Start with our free website health scanner or get in touch for a review.