Pacnet White Paper IT Server Hosting: How it benefits SMEs
IT Server Hosting: How it benefits Enterprises Introduction There is a growing trend in the market -- especially among the small and medium businesses -- to outsource IT infrastructure. In the Asia Pacific region alone, Gartner has forecast the IT Outsourcing market to grow from US$15.2 billion in 2009 to US$18.5 billion in 2012. IT hosting enables hardware, software and support to be provided as a service. Enterprises are drawn to this managed services model because of its cost benefits derived from CAPEXfree deployment and significantly lower operating costs. Instead of buying their own IT infrastructure and maintaining in-house resources to support everything from email to web sites and applications, enterprises could leverage the expertise of IT hosting providers so they can focus on their core business instead of being saddled time consuming server management tasks. IT hosting providers offers a variety of services that cater to customers varying demands from providing co-location service where customers house their equipment on a hosted service provider s data center to hosted servers that run customers applications. One of the most popular, and arguably, the most beneficial IT outsourcing services for a growing enterprise is Dedicated Server Hosting. Gartner predicts that the hosting market will grow by over 30% from 2009 to 2012, with colocation and dedicated hosting markets leading the way as more and enterprises opt to outsource hosting to external providers to reduce cost. What is Dedicated Server Hosting Dedicated Server Hosting, sometimes referred to as dedicated hosting or managed hosting service is defined a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. Dedicated Server hosting providers offer basic server administration such as OS patching and hardware maintenance as key or add-on service. These dedicated servers are housed in data centers, similar to co-location whereby the data center is environmentally controlled with redundant power and internet connections. With no upfront costs required customers rent the entire server from the service provider at a fixed monthly fee inclusive of hardware and software. Based on his needs, a customers can select his preferred operating systems and hardware configurations including server model, number of CPU, memory, hard-disk capacity. Business Benefits The business benefit of this service is closely linked to those of IT outsourcing. It appeals to customers because of its capex free deployment as well as cost-saving derived from leveraging on hosting providers technical expertise and economies-of-scale. Freeing up the company s IT staff from mundane hosting-related tasks allows in-house personnel to focus on key activities to support business processes more effectively. This is especially true for smallto-medium-sized business, whereby IT resources are often limited; the time spent on managing/maintaining the server, network, datacenter, security, etc, often result in a loss of time in actually running the business. The following section outlines the potential benefits of using Dedicated Server Hosting service:
1. Financial Advantages Capex-Free Deployment With dedicated server hosting service, customers simply rent the equipment from the hosting providers and leverage from minimize upfront capex commitment through a monthly subscription model. Sustained Cost-savings Designing, building and maintaining a data centre for housing servers can be taxing and costly. Dedicated Server Hosting service takes away these burdens by allowing customers to host servers in the hosting provider s data centre and capitalize their administration resource without needing to hire a full time system administrator. Additional cost benefits come from economies of scale that service providers realize through bulk purchase of hardware, software and connectivity. These savings are eventually passed on to customers. 2. Operational Advantages Ease of Upgrade Hosting providers will typically maintain its competitive edge by ensuring its service uses upto-date technology. When newer hardware becomes available, customer can opt to continue using existing equipment or migrate to a new one without having to worry about upgrading his IT staff skill sets. In essence, customer taps on the hosting provider s staff and resources for faster deployment and ease of upgrade. Access to Technical Expertise Hosting providers maintain a pool of technical staff to take care of the support functions, including monitoring of the server, hardware problems and repairs due to failures and network issues/problems. In addition, these hosting companies also provide backup services for periodic data backup against data loss or corruption. With Dedicated server hosting service, an enterprise can spare its in-house staff from tedious server maintenance job in which he has no proven expertise, allowing him to focus more on running the business and other critical day to day operation. 3. Risk Minimization Security Server security is more than just providing firewalls to prevent intrusion; involves protecting the physical server against unauthorized access, damage and disaster. Features like closedcircuit television, secure server cabinets, limited access to server rooms, and on-site security help ensure security of customers servers. With dedicated server hosting service, the hosting provider will take care of the necessary around-the-clock premise and equipment security. Service Level Guarantee Most Dedicated Hosted Service offerings are backed up with Service Level Agreements, including service availability or uptime. Dedicated server hosting customers have the peace of mind that their service provider is delivering guaranteed levels of service. 4. How to Evaluate Your Provider Besides pricing, there are a number of factors you need to consider when evaluating your IT Hosting provider. Below are key areas to look need to look into: Service Quality How robust is the provider s infrastructure that delivers the service?
a) Data centre and server availability Down-time can have serious consequences for a customer s business/reputation. Make sure that downtime has not been an issue with your provider. b) Reliable network performance Network connectivity to the Internet are critical in assuring that customer s applications function properly and are available even during peak loads. High bandwidth connectivity and diverse peering arrangements with leading Internet backbone providers are critical network components that should be part of the provider s comprehensive hosted IT infrastructure. c) Service Level Agreement The provider s service offering should be back-up by appropriate SLA. Customer Support How good is the provider s technical and customer support team? a) Strong technical expertise Provider s staffs with appropriate qualification and experience are valuable in measuring the collective competency of the technical team. b) Responsible support team Customer support staffs that are responsive and knowledgeable are crucial to providing a high level of support to your organization. Scalability Is the provider able to support customer s growth with appropriate solution? Majority of the customers are striving to grow their business and the customers requirement may change as their businesses grow. The provider s ability to support upgrade and expansion as well as changes in the hosting requirement is essential to supporting customer s business growth. Financial Strength Is the provider financially strong? Make sure you are dealing with a provider that has a stable financial position and a proven track record. 5. Conclusion Dedicated server hosting services deliver compelling benefits to businesses, especially among the small and medium business. These services provide customers with cost-effective and capex-free IT solution as well as access to hosting provider s technical expertise. Customers are able to focus their limited in-house resources in developing on their core competence and growing their businesses. Pacnet offers a cost effective Dedicated Server Hosting packages for Small and Mediumsized companies. For more information about dedicated server hosting and co-location services, please contact a Pacnet representative.
About Pacnet Named Best Wholesale Carrier at the Telecom Asia Awards 2009, Pacnet is Asia s leading independent telecommunications service provider, formed from the operational merger of Asia Netcom and Pacific Internet. Pacnet owns and operates EAC-C2C, the region s largest privately-owned submarine cable network at 36,800 km, with a design capacity of 10.24 Tbps. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of industry leading IP-based solutions for carriers, large enterprises and SMEs. Pacnet is headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore, with offices in all key markets in Asia and North America. For more information, please visit: www.pacnet.com.