DynaSis Blog

Top Ten Reasons to Host Your IT: Part One

by Chas Arnold, VP Sales and Marketing

Breaking away from a traditional local area network can be hard to get your mind around. Having your server room equipment on your site can bring a sense of control and comfort, however in times of economic uncertainty you can’t always afford to do things the same way you always have. Companies that leverage their technology as a competitive advantage are going to be the ones left standing after the storm.
Hosting your equipment, email, and applications can not only save you money in the long run, but it takes you, the SMB out of the datacenter business, freeing up your IT resources to focus on what is going to keep your business viable in an already competitive climate. Here are a few other reasons to consider hosting your IT:

IT Becomes and Operating Expense
Instead of outlaying cash for depreciating equipment that you will need to replace in 3-5 years, hosting allows you to move IT from the asset column to the operating expense column-- in turn giving you the ability to write off that equipment and earn significant tax benefits. Technology changes extremely fast, and keeping up with the latest and greatest can be a huge money pit. Now with hosting, the managed service provider bears the costs of upgrading while you benefit from the latest versions of operating systems, server technology, and applications.

High Availability
How much unplanned downtime do you currently experience? A hosting solution from a managed service provider can offer guaranteed uptime as high as 99.999%. Such providers offer hosting from state-of-the-art datacenters with built in redundancy, meaning if your server fails your data can be automatically offloaded to a functioning machine with no interruption of service. Plus, expert engineers are constantly monitoring storage requirements, patches, upgrades, and bandwidth and responding to proactive alerts before thresholds are reached.

Automatic Backups
Relying on an office manager or other employee to handle switching tape drives is a headache in and of itself. That person may forget to switch the drive or copy over important data, plus you need to consider where that data is being stored. Best practices say data should be stored offsite, and if your company must comply with HIPPA or Sarbanes-Oxley, your investment in a reliable backup solution just grew exponentially. In a hosted environment, regular automatic backups can be included in your service agreement. No more remembering to change the tape or worrying if data is being stored correctly.

Anywhere Anytime Access
A huge advantage of hosting your data and equipment in a central location is the ability to access it from anywhere you can connect to the Internet. Employees on the road can easily access all necessary files from any device they choose. So, instead of waiting to input records into your CRM at the office, they can fire up Act! or Goldmine from their hotel room or the coffee shop down the street, so no important sales lead is lost. Plus, office workers no longer have to use vacation or sick time to stay home with a child or wait for a repair man. They can still be productive at home by logging on to the network remotely.

Security
Even though your local network is under the watchful eye of the IT manager, other employees or intruders could gain access to your sensitive data if you don’t have the proper physical and virtual measures in place. Hosted IT solutions offer world-class security from datacenters with 24/7 security personnel, digital video surveillance, biometric finger print and retina eye scanners. What’s more, your managed hosting provider also makes sure there are no virtual security holes that a hacker could gain access through. Anti-virus, anti-spam, and firewall protection at each gateway from security experts will give you peace of mind that your data truly is secure.

While being able to physically see and maintain your local network gives you a sense of comfort and control, it could also be giving you a false sense of security as well as costing you more in the long run. A hosted IT solution still gives you complete access to your data while offering significant savings and competitive advantage. Investing the time to research a hosted solution can open up a world of possibilities. To learn more about a fully hosted IT solution, visit www.dynasis.com/itility.