It is also called as ASP, which means, Application Service Provisioning. Application hosting means the rental or outsourcing of business applications from an applications service provider instead of installing the software internally. There are currently available in the market, many applications hosting service providers specialized for provisioning of hosted business software for the Windows, Linux, and other operating systems platform. But, among these, only very few are competent enough to meet specific needs of a business organization.
SMBs or Small and Medium size Businesses, are the companies that get the maximum benefits from the provisioning of application hosting services for various well known business oriented software products. These software products belong to the classes of financial software, tax software, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, etc. Some of the software for which application hosting solutions are present include, namely, QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Enterprise and all industry specific versions; ACT! CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software; tax applications such as Lacerte, ProSeries, ATX, UltraTax, CCH, ProSystem FX, TaxWise, TaxWorks, Drake, and many others.
In addition to fully secure application hosting services, host provides an array of other essential services including robust data backup technology and immense data storage capacity in its state-of-the-art data centers. This combined with network, system and security monitoring, and round the year support service enables application hosting service providers to deliver end to end and fully efficient software hosting services for small and medium size businesses and software developers.
Advantages offered by application hosting technology-
A great number of advantages are offered by application hosting technology providers to SMBs or small and medium size businesses. These benefits include –
Application hosting service vendor provides high quality data centers
The data centre is guarded with security persons for 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. A very high security is maintained inside and outside the data centre premises of application hosting service provider.
The data centre is equipped with fire detection and suppression systems. The data centre is equipped with high quality gaseous extinguishing system, to provide rapid discharge and flame suppression in the event of a fire, while minimizing damage to equipments and reducing danger to personnel.
Equipment performance and thus, reliability, offered by the application hosting service provider can be significantly improved by housing the system under optimum environmental conditions. System is kept at an adequate standard temperature neither above that nor lower than that. As with data centers temperature, its humidity is also maintained within a constant range as per the international data centre standards.
Main power to the data center is supplied by fully robust electric power utility. Some amount of resilience is provided in the form of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to every area. However, diesel generator backup also starts as soon as there is a main power source failure. Application hosting service provider uses a power conditioning strategy in order to do uninterrupted business across its data centers.
Data Security Provision
Spam, worms, and viruses can literally bring a companys operation to a complete halt. Lost time, money and data are only some of the results of an attack. Bandwidth eating spam and newly crafted viruses are spread on a daily basis worldwide. To keep your business secure, you need protection for your sensitive files, data, and network. Application hosting service providers anti-spam technology classifies spam messages to save you time. Application hosting service vendors superb technology systematically stops viruses before they hit your inbox so you can concentrate on running your business.
Email Anti-Spam protection blocks spam with Bayesian filters or with filters that are more efficient and sensitive than Bayesian filters, content filters, blacklists, whitelists, HTML trick detection, and more. Application hosts Email Servers add a sending IP address to the blacklist automatically if it sends too many bad requests in a short period of time.
Enterprise level Firewall implemented on application hosts servers helps to protect your data. Firewalls are effective gatekeepers, denying access to recognized security threats. However, when coupled with Intrusion Detection System (IDS) you can go one step further. Intrusion Detection System provides an Added Layer of Protection.
Data Backup and Data Recovery
Protecting data from a disaster is critical for all companies including small and medium size businesses. Application hosting service provider includes fully managed and automated, offsite backup protection for all of your mission critical data. Its personnel specialize in data backup and disaster recovery procedures to ensure your business continuity in the event of a disaster. Its daily, offsite data backups and server snapshots ensure that you are protected and never have to worry about losing your valuable data.
24×7 IT Support Service
Your company gets a professional and friendly technical support team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Application hosting service provider makes sure that its experts are always there to provide you with the highest level of quality support right when you need it.
Multiple Users Accessibility
Multiple users can concurrently access the same file of a business application when it is hosted. They can access the file from any place where ever they are present.
Always on and Instant Accessibility
The application and its data are always available for access as they are always online, and can simply be accessed via the Internet in real time. Thus, there are no restrictions with respect to place and time of data accessibility.
No expensive Information Technology staff
With hosting of your applications, the need to pay for expensive Information Technology consultants to provide upgrades, maintenance and other application support is completely eliminated. Application hosting service vendor delivers your applications to you with the latest upgrades and security patches, so that you remain totally worry-free.
Application hosting works on almost any platform
Application hosting services are delivered to your Personal Computer, terminal or mobile device via the internet, and do not run locally. Because of this, it does not matter what kind of device or operating system you have installed, or how old the device is application hosting works on almost any platform.
About the Author:
William smith is an IT and cloud hosting technology expert at Real Time Data Services. He specializes in technical part of application hosting services such as QuickBooks hosting, tax software hosting, Peachtree hosting, CRM application hosting, and many others. The Author always remains fully updated on the current trends in the sphere of application hosting.
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