This blog post is co-authored with Joel Wigley, Systems Operations Team Lead at Link Digital
Running a CKAN – Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network – portal comes with responsibilities, for the data you host and for your users and the trust they place in your platform. But while your focus is on publishing datasets, improving metadata, or enabling collaboration across departments, the day-to-day demands of infrastructure management often slip under the radar.
Behind every high-performing CKAN site is something less visible but equally important: reliable, secure, and well-managed hosting.
Hosting is strategy; not just storage
It’s easy to think of hosting as just storage. But for teams managing open data portals, especially in government, research, or NGO settings, uptime, security, and performance aren’t optional. They’re mission-critical.
That’s where managed hosting enters the picture.
Imagine not having to worry about server downtime, failed security patches, or sluggish performance when thousands of users hit your portal at once. With the right hosting partner, you don’t have to.
Why managed hosting is your behind-the-scenes power tool
Managing a CKAN power data portal requires attentiveness to more than just publishing datasets. Security patches, performance tuning, daily backups, and uptime monitoring are tasks that can quietly eat into your team’s workload or fall through the cracks altogether.
A managed hosting partner handles these behind-the-scenes issues, so your team can stay focused on user needs, data integrity, and insights.
Who benefits most from managed hosting?
Organisations without in-house IT teams
Managed hosting delivers professional-grade reliability without needing to hire sysadmins.
High-traffic CKAN portals
Whether you’re running custom extensions or handling heavy API activity, managed hosting ensures your platform scales without performance drops.
Teams with data protection obligations
Whether you’re navigating GDPR, ISO 27001, or other compliance standards, a good hosting provider can bring the right tools, including encryption, intrusion detection, and secure backups.
Publish your data easily with CKAN!
Are you looking for a powerful data management system for data publishing? Interested in using CKAN as your open data repository?
Discover moreCommon mistakes when choosing a hosting provider
But not all managed hosting offers are created equal. Link Digital has seen common managed hosting mistakes that cost organisations time, money, and, in the worst cases, trust.
Making a choice based on cost alone
A cheaper provider may leave out essential services, like 24/7 monitoring or disaster recovery. What you save upfront can cost you more later.
Underestimating support quality
Downtime happens. The real test of a hosting provider is how quickly they can take action and solve the issue.
Skipping over security credentials
It’s no longer enough to have a firewall. You need active threat detection, vulnerability scanning, and regular audits.
Find out about the following before you choose a CKAN hosting partner:
- What’s actually included in their services? Will they be managing just the server, or also your CKAN instance, database, and extensions?
- How do they handle performance? Low latency – the time lag between a request to your portal and a response – matters. Ask about the server specs, caching, and Content Delivery Network integrations . You can also consult your project data manager or IT consultant in this scenario.
- What security standards do they follow? Look for multi-layer protection, ISO-compliant protocols, and incident response plans. Does your organisation require a specific ISO certificate from its provider?
- Can the setup scale? CKAN can handle a large number of users and datasets, but the exact number depends on various factors like hardware, configuration, and how the system is used. Can your potential hosting provider scale up as your portal does?
- What’s their backup and recovery plan? Clarify how often your data is backed up and how quickly it can be restored.
- What level of support do they offer? Is 24/7 coverage specified in the SLA? Are support tickets resolved by the product owners or developers who know CKAN? Can they provide support to the part of the world you operate in?
- Is the SLA transparent and measurable? Clarify the uptime; support response times and escalation paths should be clearly defined in the SLA.
What Link Digital brings to managed hosting
At Link Digital, we support government agencies, NGOs, and research and academic institutions across the globe with tailored CKAN hosting solutions. Our focus is not just on keeping your portal online, but about making sure your infrastructure is a strength, not a source of stress.
Here’s how we do it:
Proactive system management
We monitor everything, resolve issues before they become problems, and ensure your portal stays fast and available. We have certified professionals experts in all the major cloud hosting platforms – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Security-first mindset
We manage the security infrastructure of high-level portals for government and other organisations. From secure data centers to regular audits and DDoS attack mitigation, we handle security so you don’t have to worry.
Flexible infrastructure
Whether you’re rolling out a new dataset catalogue or expanding an existing portal to serve an entire region, we can scale with you.
Global expertise, local context
Our expert team supports clients globally, always with a deep understanding of public sector needs.
Commitment to open source
We are CKAN experts. As one of the software’s major developers, we contribute directly to the CKAN ecosystem, ensuring our hosting knowledge goes beyond maintenance and into active contributions.
Whether you’re launching your first open data portal or looking to improve uptime and security on your existing CKAN deployments, managed hosting isn’t just an IT decision. It’s a strategic one that needs careful steps.
Didn’t see what you’re looking for from the lists above? Need help with managed hosting? Message us.
