Hosting and facilities management floats up to cloud nine

Solarsoft product director Steven Hargreaves says that as manufacturing and distributors face the worst outlook for 20 years, there is a pressing need to improve cost control and focus on core competencies, and that its Hosting and Facilities Management Plan is one answer. “SMEs must face up to a stark reality – that in the current marketplace, IT departments are often too small to be economically viable. By adopting the Cloud 9 hosting and facilities plan, large and unwieldy IT overheads can be replaced by a simple monthly fee,” says Hargreaves. Under the terms of its service, hosting consists of application installation and operation at a Solarsoft or third party’s high-resilience data centre, he explains. It also covers off-site back-up with media management and monthly validation, as well as network provision and VPN management between data centre and user locations. Data centre hardware management and configuration and quarterly capacity reviews are also part of the service – along with infrastructure support, including on-site desktops, printers and wireless devices under SLA. And it’s the usual story for facilities management. “There is no longer any need for a small or medium size manufacturer, distributor or wholesale business to retain its own computer room, with expensive experts attempting to keep the IT infrastructure afloat,” insists Hargreaves. “A lower cost alternative provides access to a blue chip data centre delivering robust, reliable, up-to-date systems that are well managed by a team of experts.”