by zipster » Mon Jun 21, 2010 1:50 pm
It depends on the hosting company and can vary quite a bit between them. Generally a dedicated server is only going to get you the physical hardware and some bandwidth - it's up to you to manage the server properly and arrange backups.
Managed server hosting will always take the management headache away by providing engineers to monitor and maintain the hardware and operating system. The level to which they do this will depend on how much you pay for the service. A good managed hosting provider will provide server monitoring to anticipate problems with the machine and perform pre-emptive maintenance. Another point is they will look after the backups for you and in the event of a disaster perform a restore onto a new machine.
Some of the better hosting companies will look after your firewall too.
Hope that helps.