I have often faced questions like: what application hosting means and how it becomes handy to small and mid sized business? It is a common concept, but will be very difficult to understand if not given correct definitions. Let me try to explain it thoroughly.
Firstly, you should keep in your mind Application Hosting as ASP (Application Service Provider), SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), On-Demand software, or simply Outsourcing of your few IT needs. Though all of these keywords are correlated, they are not completely interchangeable, but the concept is the basically the same and fairly simple.
What Does Application Hosting Mean?
Application hosting is a software application distribution system where your application – CRM, tax and accounting application or other custom applications, are maintained and managed by a qualified service provider and made available to you, as a service over the Internet. So, it means that your applications are not going to reside on your in-house setup, it is going to be installed on the servers of hosting provider. The application can be easily accessed and shared by your company staffs, through a web browser. So, in the case of application hosting, the software hosting vendor is responsible for 24X7support, maintenance, installations, upgrades and security.
What is a standard hosting Provider?
The major characteristics of a standard application hosting provider is a company that has either developed the application and/or is certified by a software manufacturer. The major core benefit of having a standard hosting provider is that they have extensive working experience on related technologies and they know all the ins and outs. They know exactly how to make the application work and are able to support you with best available practices.
What are the Highlights of a standard hosting:
With an excellent hosting service, you should get the following:
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Efficient backup practices to ensure data integrity
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Instant setup and migration
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Easy to use
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Reduced cost with software, infrastructure and IT staff
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24X7 technical support
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Automatic and frequent upgrades
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Ability to adopt new technologies
What are the major Benefits:
The major benefit of application hosting is that you have a common platform for your practices instead of having separate desktops for each individuals. This helps you to share a common data base to each, improving your team collaboration and overall productivity. In addition, you will get:
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Sharing the information at a single platform
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Enhanced company image and customer loyalty
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Reduced costs and increased revenue
What kind of business entities look to host?
Since, application hosting is adopted a general practice, small and medium sized businesses are more aggressive to go ahead. Tax and Accounting firms have adopted application hosting as their core platform. QuickBooks hosting provider helps them to solve their purpose.
