The 1990s saw a big investment in application service providers (ASPs)—Internet-based
companies that were going to provide businesses with the applications they needed.
Although the idea was sound, ASPs didn't take off and many providers bit the
dust.
However, the hosted-application market didn't disappear completely, and in the years since there has been
a slow but definite trend toward a general acceptance
of what is now more commonly known as the remotely
hosted–application model. Both client- and server-side
applications are available to businesses, and there are
strong arguments for implementing some hosted applications in almost every environment.
Hosted applications of all sorts have one big advantage: fixed monthly costs.
You can accurately forecast how much you'll spend on hosted applications because
you know how much you're paying per user. If you're self-hosting, you always
need a cushion to deal with the unexpected problems that crop up even in the
best IT organizations. Let's take a look at the different types of remotely
hosted applications and the things you need to consider before giving your business
to a hosted-application provider.
Web Sites
Web sites are the most commonly hosted applications. Only very large businesses
host their own Web sites internally, and there are many good reasons not to
do so, especially if the business has high-traffic Web sites. It's very expensive
to build and manage the infrastructure necessary for a high-traffic Web site,
and the ISPs that offer Web hosting services are equipped to do just that. If
your line of business (LOB) requires Web sites to be available to the public
at all times, it makes sense to host those sites through a provider that offers
the necessary hardware, software, and networking redundancy. I'm not saying
you can't grow your business with the intent to bring Web hosting in house,
but the investment necessary for the infrastructure can usually be better spent
in some other aspect of your business.
If you decide to host your LOB Web sites offsite, you must have a reliable
Internet connection so that your users and customers can connect to the hosted
applications. If you look at the vast majority of ISPs used by small-to-midsized
businesses (SMBs), you won't find many service level agreements (SLAs). For
example, if you read the fine print on business Internet connectivity TV commercials,
you'll notice it states that connectivity and performance aren't guaranteed.
SLAs are available, but guaranteed connections are costly, and you must factor
that expense into the overall price/value matrix that you use to determine whether
remotely hosted Web sites make sense for your business.
Email
The office-automation application that's most commonly hosted remotely is email.
Hosted email makes a lot of economic sense and ranges from simple SMTP/POP3
email to a full-blown hosted Microsoft Exchange server implementation. Keeping
email applications running has always been somewhat complex, especially now
that there's a need to scan and filter email to cut down on junk mail, spam,
and email-borne malware.
Many SMBs simply use the free email provided by the
ISP that hosts their Web sites. Even inexpensive hosting
packages let businesses set up hundreds of individual email
accounts, usually using SMTP/POP3. However, such packages typically don't include managed email, email backup,
or integration of email with other applications. Some basic
spam prevention might be included, but it's rarely accurate
or reliable and usually filters only inbound traffic. And
although many ISPs support standard email clients and
provide a Web interface to their free email accounts, the
Web interface is typically very basic, lacking filtering and
mail management tools.
The next step up from free ISP-provided email accounts is hosted Exchange Server
email. In this case, businesses use a remotely hosted and managed Exchange server
and have access to all the capabilities of that server. Users have full use
of the Microsoft Office Outlook email client (including scheduling, calendaring,
and notes) and get mail-specific functionality, such as Outlook Web Access and
Outlook Mobile Access. The responsibility for maintaining the Exchange server
falls on a service provider that specializes in maintaining the Exchange environment.
Hosted-Exchange providers can provide these services at a reasonable price because
they spread operational costs across multiple customers. At this level, customers
don't get their own dedicated Exchange server, but share the resources of an
environment with other customers.
Most providers offer a step up from this
basic service to what's called a managed
server—an Exchange server that's dedicated
to a specific customer. Your business gets its
own server, which is located in the provider's
data center. Many providers offer businesses
the opportunity to co-manage the server
with the provider, which lets businesses run
their own custom applications on Exchange
while taking advantage of the security and
management services offered by the remote
provider.
Outsourcing email can significantly reduce costs for small organizations. Hosted-Exchange
providers claim that organizations with fewer than 100 mailboxes will benefit
from their services. These claims are based strictly on the cost of running
and maintaining Exchange, which can be determined fairly accurately.
SharePoint
Many hosted-Exchange providers can also host SharePoint for their managed-server
and hosted-server customers. The provider can integrate Exchange and SharePoint
to give customers the ability to build a hosted collaborative workgroup environment.
Most Exchange hosting providers add an incremental charge for SharePoint hosting,
based on the number of users and the amount of storage the business customer
wants to dedicate to users.
Hosted email and SharePoint services make a compelling business case to many
businesses. These services let even small businesses fully utilize email and
related services without requiring an up-front investment in hardware and software
or imposing significant ongoing costs for maintenance and support.