Does your company host mission critical applications and data? More and more businesses today do, and a solid hosting platform is absolutely critical in order to run. As you become increasingly dependent on your data, keeping servers in-house may be riskier than you realize. Moving your internal hosting infrastructure to a data center involves at least some level of planning, but it comes with some big advantages. Here are the main reasons you may want to outsource some or all of your hosting to a data center:
1) Cost Savings – Having your own hosting infrastructure on site and hiring staff to keep up with the continuous maintenance that is necessary on a daily basis can be extremely expensive. When you outsource your internal hosting to a data center you gain the expertise of many highly skilled professionals. As your company grows, more hosting technologies become important (e.g. virtualization, security, etc.) and it is easier and less costly to let the data center stay on top of these advancements.
2) Business Hosting Agility – As your company grows, most likely your hosting needs will as well. Do you have the capacity to expand if your demand suddenly increases? What happens if you bring on a client who consumes a large amount of your bandwidth? How long will it take to build out a faster network? These are all questions you will need to consider when deciding whether or not to host your servers in a data center. Choosing to host at a data center can eliminate these concerns allowing your business more room to be agile, further resulting in faster growth and less potential for bottlenecks down the road. You don’t want to lose an opportunity because you don’t have the capacity to grow quickly.
3) Reliability & Redundancy – Many businesses that we talk to have a server room in their office, but it wasn’t built with data center specifications in mind. In other words, often the network connection is usually from a single provider and generator backup power is not available. When you move your internal hosting operations to a data center you gain all the reliability and redundancy advantages a N+1 data center offers. Not only is that good for your company, but you may have a client who asks you about your reliability before they make a purchase, so it could also be beneficial to your bottom line.
4) Compliance – In today’s complex business world many companies are required to meet certain compliances when dealing with data, such as PCI or HIPAA. These audits are required annually and can cost large amounts of money. For example a typical SSAE16 Type II, SOC1, SOC2, PCI, or other audit can cost upwards of $50,000/year for many small and medium sized businesses. When you host in a data center you are inheriting the audits the data center has undergone, and you are provided with the help you need for your business to become fully compliant. In some cases we have seen that simply moving to a data center saved a business thousands of dollars per year because they could piggy back on some of the compliances.
5) Credibility – Today, many clients who do business with a company want to make sure their data is secure and protected before they sign a deal. If hosting is not your primary skill set, it can be devastating to show a potential client an insecure and unreliable data center located your office. If you host in a credible data center you inherit the credibility that goes along with a fully secure structure and reliable network a data center provides.
There are many factors to consider when deciding whether to invest in a hosting infrastructure at your place of business or outsource to a data center. In most cases, moving your internal hosting to a data center is the best decision you can make to ensure your company’s long term success, and NetSource is here to help you every step of the way with that transition. NetSource has over 20 years’ experience partnering with small to medium sized businesses to customize a hosting solution that perfectly fits their needs. Contact us today to explore the different services we provide and how we can customize a solution for you.