What is this hosted sevices I keep hearing about ?

Hosted Services and Cloud Computing. These are two of the new buzz words that we are hearing from the IT industry. But what exactly are they? Well, hosted services can mean any IT service that is hosted in a third party environment. Web Site hosting has been around for many years and people didn't make a big deal out of that, and those old enough to remember bureau services provided a type of hosted service many years ago.

So why make a big deal about "hosted services" now?

Traditionally, companies run their IT systems with a server and client workstations onsite. If they had multiple offices, they ran this configuration in each site or used serial communications if their application was suitable. With the advent of increased graphics in applications, serial communication couldn't be used, however the traditional server and workstations located in the workplace works well. With the advancement in technology, applications are becoming more feature and graphic rich and data communications have become faster and cheaper. The increasing demand for timely information, increased uptime, improved communications with email and wireless connectivity, it is becoming an expensive exercise to setup, maintain and upgrade in the traditional local environment. Companies need in-house skills or contractors in local area networking, server maintenance, security, mobile communications and overall system strategy not to mention which staff member was responsible for backup.

Most successful companies or businesses these days want to focus on their core business. Technology and IT are tools they use to achieve their objectives or a necessary evil forced upon them. They don't want to know about it but they want it to work for the lowest possible price. So the objective is utilizing the latest technology without hassles for the lowest price. Enter the "New Hosted Services". The following business example will illustrate the some of the features of Hosted Services:

Business: "Medical Practice"
Location: "Two Surgeries"
Doctors in Total: "12"
Admin Staff: "4"

Requirement: Doctors have to be able to access patient records from both locations, home and local nursing homes. Administration staff also need access. Backups and System up time are critical as all patient records are on the Server. Business doesn't want to employ full time IT staff and contractors can be slow to respond. There are many good Software packages that provide databases and accounting for the medical industry. Current technology allows one location to access another cost effectively however the communications are still not fast enough for the remote branch. This occurs because ADSL which most people use has a much slower speed on the out traffic than in traffic so the remote site is limited to the speed of the out traffic. One solution is use a high speed BDSL line, however this is very expensive
and we still incur all the other costs and problems of running and maintaining an in house system.

What do Hosting Centres provide?

Most provide a secure controlled environment for your server using your software and hardware. They also supply faster communication channels plus some type of remote hands service. You are responsible for everything else. Some specialist centres, we will call them Managed Application Providers, provide everything except your application software. If the medical practice moves their IT to this type of centre, the centre will provide Hardware, Operating Systems, Managed Communications, Redundant Systems and Backup just to name a few services. This service is charged generally on a per user per month basis. Applications can be accessed using low cost ADSL because the centre's have large capacity Data links. The centres have 24 hours support and are continually upgrading their equipment and Operating System to the latest version. From the medical practice point of view, it meets their requirements.