Site Maintenance & Updates is an optional service which you can order either during the initial ordering of your hosting or you can add-on later at any time.
With Site Maintenance & Updates, you can relax knowing that your site is getting an extra level of attention to keep it running efficiently & securely.
Some website frameworks support their own automatic update features and some do not. Whilst automatic updates seem like a good idea and can certainly be useful, they can also be dangerous because they can cause your site to stop working unexpectedly.
If your site is very important to you, it is much safer to have updates managed for you rather than have them happen manually, or at least to know that if updates do happen automatically then someone is going to specifically make the effort to reliably notice that and ensure the website is working correctly.
With our managed update service:
- Automatic updates for your site will be disabled where possible and appropriate. If not possible, our site monitoring will detect updates have occurred and we will check your site for issues soon after those updates are installed.
- Your site will be checked at least every 2 weeks for outstanding updates. If we become aware of your site needing an urgent security related update, we will review that immediately.
- If we have a development or other off-line copy of your site, then where possible & reasonable to do so, the updates will be installed & tested on there first, before release to your live site. If an update is very large, we may not be able to fully test every aspect.
- A special pre-update backup of all files & data will be taken, even if you do not have an extended backup plan. This special backup will be retained for at least 30 days.
- If you do not have a development site and updates have to be released direct to your live site, if there is a subsequent problem we will either fix or restore to the backup as appropriate. We do have the ability to debug & fix/work-around complex issues that may not even yet be fixed by the developers.
- Where possible, we will register for automatic vendor notifications relating to the site framework.
- Includes framework updates only and this service may not be available for some website frameworks or where unusual complexity is involved.
- At our discretion updates may include some third-party plugins & extensions if possible, but that may not always be possible depending on site complexity and whether updates for plugins/extensions are accessible.
- We will send you a manual notification of updates that are installed. Where implementing an update has possible site down time or requires special testing, it will be done either at a site quiet time or an agreed time.
- Major upgrades between significant versions should be considered excluded, but may still be included if implementing them fits within allowed times.
If a site is already somewhat out of date at the time of taking up this service, it may not be possible to utilise this service. Our team will review the site and see what needs doing to get it to up to date.
Please bear in mind that this service includes a time commitment from us for checking your site and seeing if anything can be updated, so that time will get used even if no updates are currently available.
*Monthly cost allows for one set of updates a month with a total maximum of 4 hours over a 3 month period. Additional required time is chargeable at a reduced hourly rate and will be discussed with you before commencement. If a site commences this service when it is already significantly out of date with updates, there may be an additional cost to first get the site fully updated.
