Tuesday, August 20, 2013

outsourced hosting versus in-house hosting

Do I really need managed IT hosting? This is a question many business owners encounter at some point. Managing your IT hosting means that you need to buy, build and run IT infrastructure on your own and this is no easy feat especially when you should be giving your business more time and energy to grow. Taking the big picture into consideration, outsourcing is not just the most convenient option it also makes most sense in terms of costs as well. Here are some of the advantages of managed services as opposed to in house.
Costs
The first advantage of having an IT hosting service as opposed to managing your network in-house is costs. Though most people are of the opinion that outsourcing hosting costs more, it is in fact more cost effective. To begin with, you do not have to acquire expensive hardware and equipment. You also need to remember that technology is ever changing and you may need to constantly upgrade and maintain utility costs which in the long run cost you more. With an IT hosting service, you only need to pay a monthly cost and you are sorted. There are no uncertainties or unpredictable costs.
Quality Assurance
You get predictability when you have a service provider. These services come with service level agreements or SLAs that guarantee the client constant uptime, quick hardware replacement, fast response times and more. This means that your business is always up and running no matter what. Such assurance cannot be overlooked as it also guarantees your clients of great services all the time as well.
Productivity
Managing your IT internally comes with a lot of risks and could threaten productivity in the workplace. Should the key employees running your infrastructure leave your company, this could destabilize business especially when you have no one else capable of running the internal environment. Outsourcing saves you from having to deal with such a situation since you are guaranteed of constant uptime.
Security
Web host services work with different businesses and environments. This means that their security efforts are always in best form. Some of the security measures put in place are: employee background checks, video surveillance, controlled access to facilities, vulnerability scanning and file integrity monitoring just to mention a few. They guarantee you of security since they have the compliance certifications which by the way are really expensive to acquire as an in-house provision to your clients.
The list goes on and on, the advantages you get with managed IT hosting are vast. There are many things you need to consider and quite frankly, outsourcing relieves you of the burden and responsibility while guaranteeing you constant uptime and security.

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