Category Archives: Cloud Hosting
ACS transforms disaster recovery with VMware and Routed – TechCentral
Andrew Cruise
ACS, a division of Altron that provides secure data hosting and networking for not only the Altron Group of companies but also external customers across South Africa, has strengthened its partnership with VMware Cloud Provider partner Routed to enhance its current disaster recovery (DR) offering with a more scalable and efficient cloud-based solution.
We provide the secure hosting of transactional data as well as applications which contain a significant amount of private and critical information. Given the sensitivity of this data, it must always be available. Our previous solution required significant granular manual intervention when we needed to switch customers over to DR. It was therefore essential to implement a more cost-effective solution that could cope with the massive amount of data that needed to be transported across to the DR data centre, said Mira Andric, ACS operations and delivery manager.
Andrew Cruise, MD of Routed Hosting, which is the first VMware Cloud Verified Partner (VCPP) in Africa, said the previous ACS DR solution was not only difficult to manage but was manually driven for recovery and tied to their storage resulting in an inflexible environment.
Because ACS runs VMware inside their data centre and they themselves are a VCPP, it made sense to deliver a solution that combines our respective expertise in the VMware ecosystem. They are quite forward-thinking to approach another service provider partner to deliver a best-of-breed offering rather than try do everything themselves, he said.
Andric agreed. We were looking for a VCPP partner that could integrate well with what we already had in place. It was not a case of reinventing the wheel but rather implementing something that could take the business to the next level.
ACS implemented VCloud availability and shipped over 30TB of data within two weeks. The entire project took three months to complete, with ACS now running a full DR-as-a-service (DRaaS) offering incorporating the reliability, availability and security needed.
ACS is providing customers with a self-service portal where they can ensure that the DR systems are available and up and running at a moments notice. Our engagement with Routed has been a partnership and they have been actively involved in setting the systems up with us and our IT teams, she said.
According to Andric, this has allowed ACS to complete the project on time and within budget.
The cost savings have already started coming through. What is most important for us is that Routed has demonstrated that the VCloud offering is running the way it should at a price that is affordable to our customers. Furthermore, the IT teams within our customer environment understand the solution and it is incredibly user-friendly, said Andric.
Running DRaaS is traditionally quite complex as those are the systems that companies do not require daily.
However, Routed guided us on this complex path and empowered us to deliver a self-service platform to our customers. Now, within five clicks, the DR system is up and running. The VMware system is just a pleasure to run when you need it most. It has provided us and our customers with a good nights sleep because they know that when they need it, DR will be done as effectively and securely as possible, she said.
According to Cruise, ACS can deliver this solution to not only Altron Group companies but also external customers.
ACS can provide a suite of services that speak to the security and compliance requirements of the digital age. And all this is delivered with the availability and reliability of a VMware cloud solution, he said.
About RoutedRouted is a true cloud provider. Secure, robust and reliable, the Routed cloud platform is vendor neutral and offers scalable, full or hybrid cloud hosting. Engaging directly or within a channel, Routed delivers cloud and infrastructure solutions to enterprise customers, wholesale partners, resellers and affiliates. It was founded in 2016 in response to a growing demand for data centre hosting solutions following the rapid growth and penetration of fast, reliable connectivity services in South Africa. Routed is led by industry veterans with over 35 years of experience in delivering and managing secure cloud and infrastructure solutions both locally and internationally. Visit Routeds website to learn more.
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ACS transforms disaster recovery with VMware and Routed - TechCentral
Amazon Lightsail offers cheap WordPress hosting in the cloud – Coywolf News
Webmasters can host WordPress sites for as cheap as $3.50/mo using the Amazon Lightsail cloud platform. While Lightsail is marketed as easy-to-use, its still significantly more complicated to set up and maintain than using a managed hosting provider.
Amazon Web Service (AWS) introduced Lightsail in late 2016 to make it easier for webmasters to affordably launch sites in the cloud. The price to host a site run an instance originally started out at $5/mo but is now only $3.50/mo.
The price point makes Lightsail attractive to webmasters that want to leverage the benefits of using a cloud platform without paying for managed hosting. However, the price difference comes with a significant trade-off. Lightsail is easy-to-use in regards to using AWS, but its still complex for most webmasters to set up and maintain.
AWS provides excellent documentation on how to setup WordPress on Amazon Lightsail. This tutorial provides the key steps to setting up a WordPress instance. Theres also a video presentation by George Ellissaios, Senior Manager of Lightsail, that walks through the steps for managing WordPress on Amazon Lightsail.
Reading the tutorial or watching the video reveals that webmasters will need a high level of technical proficiency to set up a WordPress instance properly. For example, to setup a WordPress instance, webmasters need to be familiar with using Command Line Interface (CLI) via SSH. Its required for setting up the instance and also creating the SSL certificate. Additionally, creating the SSL certificate is a nine-step process, and requires a webmaster to manually update the certificate every 90 days.
The setup and maintenance required by Lightsail is in stark contrast to a managed hosting provider like WP Engine. For example, WP Engine creates WordPress instances with the push of a button, solely uses a Graphic User Interface (GUI) to configure the site, and provides automated maintenance, including the automated renewal of SSL certificates and daily backup snapshots.
Lightsail is perfect for webmasters and web developers that are comfortable using CLI and are familiar with managing AWS services. It provides a way for technically proficient users to launch and manage WordPress sites affordably.
Webmasters that dont have experience working with cloud platforms like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud will likely struggle to properly setup and maintain a WordPress instance on Lightsail.
An alternative to using AWS or a managed hosting platform is to use Cloudflares Worker Sites. Webmasters and web developers can host static versions of WordPress on Cloudflare without the complexity and maintenance required by Amazons Lightsail or the cost of managed hosting. The price is also comparable to Lightsails pricing.
For everyone else, managed hosting will be the most cost-effective way to host WordPress. Thats because its more affordable to pay a higher monthly fee for automated managed hosting than to pay someone to maintain cheap cloud computing instances.
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Jon Henshaw
Jon is the founder and Managing Editor of Coywolf. He has over 25 years of experience in web development, SaaS, internet strategy, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship. Follow
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Amazon Lightsail offers cheap WordPress hosting in the cloud - Coywolf News
Northumberlands move to Oracle cloud apps hands control over from IT to end users – Diginomica
Its often the case that an organisation especially one in the public sector, facing ever-tightening purse strings needs a sharp jolt to invest in a major technology project. This was the case for Northumberland County Council when it came to finally moving off of Oracle E-Business Suite.
Northumberland had been using Oracle E-Business Suite since 2004, taking the organisation through the upgrade paths from 11i before moving to R12 in 2014. At the same time as the R12 upgrade, the local authority moved from hosting the suite on-premise to hosting it via an external supplier under a three-year deal, which took it up until September 2017.
At that point, the council was looking forward to being offered a reduction in hosting costs with their hosting supplier. But that wasnt the case, and instead the council was told they would face an increase in cost.
That proved the nudge the organisation needed to start looking at Oracle Cloud enterprise applications instead of hosting R12 E-Business Suite elsewhere. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Solutions Architect Manager at Northumberland County Council, explained:
Some of the drivers were because of the limitations on the current product, that was the starting point. The cost of the hosted solution; the functionality within the R12 instances was becoming dated; the reporting within that system there was a reliance on Discover, which had been unsupported; the overhead of patching we had to do within that environment; there was no external access, so that didnt fit in with the movement as an organisation wed been gradually moving to more agile working. So that was a driver, to have a system that could be accessible outside of the network.
There had also been a heavy reliance on customisation within the old product. As part of the potential move to cloud applications, the IT team was also planning to look at aligning with the business processes within those apps, as opposed to implementing another heavily customised system. Fitzpatrick said:
One of the things that came up quite early was, the mantra has to be configuration over customisation. Because wed had E-Business Suite for such a long time, thered been more and more customisation as we went along and that then needed more and more support and then would cause issues when you had patching.
There tends not to be a big drive to actually make that change when youre just continuing on the same product. We needed to use a bit more of a radical change to help get the focus on those business processes.
When the council signed the contract to move to the Oracle cloud applications, it had less than six months left on the hosted contract, which it knew wasnt going to be enough time for the whole project. To buy it the extra time needed, Northumberland signed a two-year contract to host its R12 instance on Oracles hosted infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). The R12 hosting switchover was done within three months - one of the most successful projects Fitzpatrick has been involved in at the council which then gave the opportunity to plan and carry out the deployment of the cloud applications.
The financials/ERP side of the project was completed within the timeframe, going live in November 2018. However, the HR and payroll side started to lag behind, due to a lack of support for areas like multiple assignments and different pension schemes and sickness policies within the new applications. Fitzpatrick explained:
Were actually still not quite live with Oracle Cloud Payroll. Weve had to extend the IaaS contract, which has incurred more cost. The payroll cloud offering wasnt fit for purpose for local government. There are some elements of the system that had been produced in R12, but it wasnt a like for like. We had assistance from our implementation partner to be able to produce some of those.
Its less of a problem now. Theres been a roadmap from Oracle. The quarterly releases are obviously addressing some of those payroll issues. Oracle might tell you different, but I would expect that some of those issues specific to local government may still exist. Within a local authority we have lots of staff who might have one, two, three, four or five different roles. Theyve always been things that weve had challenges with in R12, and they havent all been addressed in the cloud product.
Oracle Cloud Payroll is expected to be completed no later than June. Once its live, the council plans to concentrate on the HCM side of the system, including the use of self-service and manager self-service. Fitzpatrick noted there were elements of this available in R12, but it was very limited in what Northumberland used.
Despite the new applications having potential benefits across the entire organisation, covering core areas like financials, payroll and HR, the main drive for the cloud project was from the IT team rather than users themselves. However, the transition to cloud means there is now more involvement from end users.
Whilst we got business leads for each of the [E-Business Suite] modules, they only came together when we wanted to do a big upgrade process. Once it was live, they would go back into their day job and it would come back to IT to implement any enhancements. The nature of the cloud applications means everything has to be with the business service users, they have to take a bit more ownership, even if its just on the involvement with the quarterly releases. Theyve got to be looking at what new functionality is coming out.
Were only just coming to terms with this and its still a big challenge but thats the way that they would get benefits out of the move to cloud applications. If theyre thinking they would like to see some new functionality in my area, they should get first sight of it. Its not the IT section imposing that on them and theyve got to look to see how they can make that work.
One of the expected benefits of the move to cloud didnt exactly turn out as planned. The council thought that moving to a modern, user-friendly interface as opposed to the dated forms seen in E-Business Suite would be heartily welcomed by users.
We didnt get that message initially. It was, Ive now got to do three or four clicks, where I used to just be able to type all my data. For areas where it was more input based, that was something that was voiced in the early stages. That was something we probably should have been highlighting earlier.
It came across that they were getting a new system, but it was slower. It wasnt the system was performing slower than the previous E-Business Suite, but it gave the impression that it was taking them longer to do because its new and different.
While the council hasnt carried out a user satisfaction survey on the cloud applications to check if theyre now fully accepted, Fitzpatrick noted that there is now less feedback on them, which can only be a good thing with the HR side due to go live in summer.
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Northumberlands move to Oracle cloud apps hands control over from IT to end users - Diginomica
FastComet is Now Powered by AMD EPYC to Dramatically Improve Reliability, Speed, and Security of Its High-Performance Servers – HostReview.com
14:32:10 - 28 February 2020
San Francisco, CA, February 28, 2020 --(PR.com)-- The move follows the recent upgrade of their latest fully-managed Dedicated server line, reinvented with the AMD EPYC processors, including easy scalability, load balancing, and rapid deployment provisioning, available to all their clients. Dedicated CPU provides a powerful infrastructure solution for CPU-intensive applications such as video encoding, machine learning and data analytics processing.
The AMD EPYC processor has been tested extensively to gradually decrease latency, as well as the noisy neighbors impact. The Cores on the hypervisor get exclusive Dedicated vCPU threads, and thus servers dont compete for these resources. Additionally, AMD EPYC SoC's architecture offers extensive I/O with directly attached solid-state drives (SSDs). This aspect of performance is considered crucial for both users and the web host. As for security the AMD EPYC server processor enables encryption for each virtual machine and hypervisor, which helps in safeguarding the privacy and integrity of the application. The AMD Secure Root-of-Trust technology permits the booting of cryptographically signed software only.
After upgrading the Dedicated server plans just four months ago and seeing both speed gains of up to 200% and insanely favorable feedback from users, the next steps were clear. This enables FastComet's already highly optimized platform to handle today's most demanding websites and achieve speeds unrivaled in the industry. This platform refresh also marks the end of Intel on SSD Cloud at FastComet.
Dimitar Petkov, CTO of FastComet stated, "Moving to the AMD EPYC environment has taken our already fast platform to a whole other level and it is undoubtedly the most exciting and impactful change we've had to our platform, especially in regards to stability, security, and speed. We are seeing massive performance gains across the board, which gives our clients the competitive edge they need to succeed."
Finding ways to boost its users' website performance is a worthy pursuit, and FastComet continues to eagerly update its hosting platform to do exactly that.
About FastComet
FastComet Inc. is a full-service web hosting provider located in San Francisco, California focusing on server stability, excellent customer service and ease in web hosting. They continue to impress current and potential clients with speedy replies and exceptional support.
FastComet Inc.Elena Tileva855-818-9717https://www.fastcomet.com
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FastComet is Now Powered by AMD EPYC to Dramatically Improve Reliability, Speed, and Security of Its High-Performance Servers - HostReview.com
Ankr Partners With LTO Network; Announces Node Hosting and Campaign – CryptoNewsZ
Ankr, a leading name in the cloud computing industry, has announced its partnership with LTO Network following which it will channelize the LTO Network public node hosting on its distributed cloud using a highly efficient UI. The strategically important news was circulated in the crypto space through the release of an official report on February 27, 2020, by the Ankr network. Ankr has designed a simple and revolutionary application that can be employed by the community members to set up their public node in a few quick steps.
The auspicious event is being welcomed by the Ankr community in a big way as it will launch a super promo campaign for its global client base. As part of the campaign, the customers will get a golden opportunity to enjoy access to a month-long free hosting along with a fair chance to earn lucrative rewards from a shared pool of 100,000 LTO. Ankr will also give a cashback on the first month of hosting for LTO nodes.
It is really great to be working with our long-time friends at LTO Network! They have a great node hosting community, which have been very supportive helping out with testing and UX optimization. We look forward to adding more nodes to the LTO Network and to more future collaborations! stated Ryan Fang, COO of Ankr.
LTO Network boasts of a hybrid architecture in which a portion of it is a permissionless public chain where the LTO token utility and the economic model are channelized. Unlike other public blockchain networks, LTO supports a variation of Proof of Stake and is also non-inflationary, which makes it quite popular among masses. On the other hand, Ankr aims to streamline the process of node hosting by eliminating the barriers for community members that occur during node hosting. The users earn staking rewards for their favorite projects.
One does not require technical knowledge for setting up an LTO public node on its cloud solution. It takes less than five minutes to deploy the LTO node on the network. One also need not struggle with documentation or pricing set up at a public cloud provider.
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Ankr Partners With LTO Network; Announces Node Hosting and Campaign - CryptoNewsZ
Source Code Escrow Agreements Are Reaching For The Cloud – Law360
Law360 (February 28, 2020, 3:22 PM EST) -- Source code escrow agreements have long been accepted by software providers in traditional on-premises software sales. But how often do we see on-premises software licenses today? An overwhelming number of vital business functions are now offered through cloud applications, including software-as-a-service solutions.
When it comes to SaaS, the customer is often at a greater risk of losing access to the solution than it would be with traditional software, and yet the traditional source code escrow model is not sufficient to mitigate that risk. As tech transactions practitioners who negotiate SaaS agreements on a near-daily basis, we are seeing, in real time,...
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Source Code Escrow Agreements Are Reaching For The Cloud - Law360
Two Rare Cloud Features Appear Over New Hampshire’s Mount Washington – Smithsonian.com
Mount Washington, the tallest peak in New Hampshires White Mountains, has long been the site of unusual and extreme weather. On Monday, its mountaintop observatory shared a striking view: not one, but two rare cloud features hovering side by side, lit by the sunrise.
The photograph, taken around 7 a.m., features a smooth, round lenticular cloud that swoops into a curled Kelvin-Helmholtz wave. The pair was likely a fleeting feature in the morning sky, as clouds like these are unstable and usually lasts less than a minute.
Seeing either type of cloud is unusual, meteorologist Matthew Cappucci writes for the Washington Post. But for both features to be wrapped up in one cloud? An exotic sight and then some.
As Cappucci explains, lenticular clouds are common around mountains that force incoming air to rise. If that air is carrying water vapor, then when it rises through the atmosphere and its temperature drops, the water will condense into a crowd of water droplets, the same way that droplets cover a cold glass on a warm, humid day. In the sky, the massive collection of suspended droplets forms a lenticular cloud, which erodes as the air sinks back down.
A single lenticular cloud recently appeared downwind of Californias Mount Shasta, per the Post. But Mount Washingtons cloud had another trick to share. Unstable conditions in the atmosphere can lead air currents to rise, while fast, low-density wind sweeps along the top. These wind currents can sculpt a cloud into the curlicue shape of a Kelvin-Helmholtz wave, meteorologist Jesse Ferrell tells AccuWeathers Lauren Fox.
Kelvin-Helmholtz waves normally appear in a repetitive series, making Mount Washingtons one-off wave unique. Then, the waves usually only last for a matter of seconds. A series of clear Kelvin-Helmholtz waves in Virginia was photographed last June when it appeared for less than a minute, according to the photographer Amy Hunter. The waves are named for the scientists that discovered the weather patterns that cause them: Hermann von Helmholtz and William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin, meteorologist Brett Rossio told Ashley Williams at AccuWeather last year.
Mount Washington is no stranger to mind-boggling winds. For 62 years, the Mount Washington Observatory held the record for the fastest gust of wind recorded on Earths surface. At 231 miles per hour, the measurement taken in April 1934 is still the fastest surface windspeed observed directly by humankind. An autonomous instrument recorded the current windspeed record, 251 mph, in 1996 during Typhoon Olivia in Australia.
The observatory is staffed year-round by scientists and staff, and has a history of hosting cats, like Elmer, Manx, Oomph and a litter of kittens who huddled by the coal stove the winter that the record windspeed was recorded. This Monday, temperatures at the observatory were in the low 20s, and winds gusted near 50 miles per hour.
The Mount Washington Observatory regularly shares sunrises and sunsets on social media. On a foggy day, visibility is severely limited in all directions. But on a clear day, viewers from the 6,288-foot-tall mountains peak can see the peaks of Mounts Adams, Jefferson and Madison of the Presidential Range.
Mondays view was special because, as the observatory said in its original post, "Mother Nature waved back."
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Two Rare Cloud Features Appear Over New Hampshire's Mount Washington - Smithsonian.com
Millennials to Drive Bitcoin Higher: 4 Stocks to Watch – Nasdaq
U.S. stock markets fell for the sixth straight day on Thursday after the coronavirus epidemic sparked fears of a slowdown in the major economies of the world. Following this, investors rotated out of stocks to safer haven assets such as gold and U.S. Treasury bonds.
Bitcoin prices rose 1.4% to $8,902. The worlds favorite cryptocurrency rose along with other popular cryptocurrencies such as ether. While some might argue, like they have in the past, that Bitcoin is all but a fad, millennials have a different take on it when it comes to investing.
Approximately one-third of all the millennials in the country prefer to hold Bitcoin over shares. Further, a staggering 43% of U.S. millennials stated that they trusted cryptocurrency exchanges more than Americas stock exchanges.
A report by Edelman stated that approximately 25% if the countrys millennials who earn at least $100,000 in individual or joint income or own $50,000 worth of investable assets, admitted to either holding or using cryptocurrencies. Further, the report also stated that another 31% expressed their interest in using them.
Quite unsurprisingly, a shift toward alternative banking options such as PayPal PYPL and Square Cash have also popularized Bitcoins. Tech-savvy millennials who find the digital way of doing business efficient and normal choose to take this route.
Bitcoin or Digital Gold?
It is a norm to save up for the future by investing in gold and bonds, a lesson that has been passed down through generations. However, technology and money have revolutionized the way investing is done in todays age. Millennials, who vouch for bitcoin democratization, also prefer the worlds numero uno cryptocurrency as a form of investment to save for the future.
A survey revealed that millennials are five times more likely than baby boomers to say that Bitcoin is the best way to save for the future. Such sentiments have only cemented the cryptocurrencys place as the digital gold of the modern world.
Transfer of Wealth from Baby Boomers to Millennials
Now that it has more or less been established that millennials prefer Bitcoins for long-term savings, an increase in millennials wealth should only prove to be a boon for Bitcoin. A generational shift of wealth from the baby boomers, currently the richest generation in Americas history, is set to take place through the 2020s.
After living the American dream and enjoying a long period of economic prosperity, baby boomers are all set to pass on the baton of wealth to the largest generational cohort currently in America, the millennials. It is estimated that millennials would collectively receive approximately $7 trillion from their elders till 2030. This is going to shape up the cryptocurrency space over the next decade, not to mention technology.
4 Stocks to Watch Out For
As with any revolutionary technology, the Lindy effect applies to Bitcoin as well. The Lindy effect is a theory, which states that the future life expectancy of certain non-perishable things such as technology or an idea is proportional to their current age. This means that for every additional period that the technology survives, it ensures a longer life expectancy. This only strengthens the argument that Bitcoins are the future.
In this context, we have selected four stocks that are expected to gain from these factors.
Microsoft CorporationMSFT became the first major cloud hosting provider to integrate blockchain into its Azure cloud last year. Furthermore, the companys affinity for Bitcoin is a known fact. The tech giant, has in the past, also launched the decentralized identity system on Bitcoin.
The company carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is based out of Redmond, WA. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 18.72% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 5.4% over the past 60 days.
You can seethe complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
International Business Machines Corporation IBM has been one of the early providers of the blockchain technology. Broad-based availability of the IBM Blockchain World Wire a blockchain driven global payments network has driven the companys performance in the past.
The company carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and is based out of Armonk, NY. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 4.30% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 1.2% over the past 60 days.
PayPal Holdings, Inc.is another bitcoin-related stock that you must watch. The leader in digital payment process has done well recently to strike a deal with three major bitcoin payment processors, BitPay, GoCoin and Coinbase, to help PayPal merchants accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment.
The company carries a Zacks Rank #3 and is based out of San Jose, CA. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 11.35% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 1.4% over the past 60 days.
Social media giant Facebook Inc. FB is another stock worth taking note of. Facebook currently has a Zacks Rank #3. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-quarter earnings has increased 2.7% over the past 60 days. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 44.79% for the current year.
5 Stocks Set to Double
Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM): Free Stock Analysis Report
Facebook, Inc. (FB): Free Stock Analysis Report
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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Millennials to Drive Bitcoin Higher: 4 Stocks to Watch - Nasdaq
Why CFOs are turning to hosting as they move to in-house accounts – Financial Director
So, youve realised the benefits of running accounts in-house rather than outsourcing.
You want to make the move to improve visibility, control, and save your organisation significantly on costs.
And youve seen the great benefits that IRIS accountancy software can bring to your employer.
But youve then discovered it can take many months to set up and deploy the software because of internal security and privacy procedures that have been put in place by your IT department.
Some organisations can have very stringent IT operations and, if they are taking on new software only relevant to the finance department, it can be very difficult to get it set up and brought on board.
Some CFOs have reported having to go through a conference call involving 30 senior managers to assess whether a software provider passes numerous tests before they can get approval. These issues can relate to budget, security, infrastructure or privacy.
But if the decision can be taken outside the IT operation, sometimes it can be easier to push through without having to go through that lengthy and frustrating approval process.
Yes. The way we do it is through IRIS Hosting essentially putting your finance department and our accountancy software in the cloud. By doing so, you isolate your finance teams IT from the wider organisations network. Many businesses who have adopted it already have found this means avoiding the usual hold ups involved in the IT approval process.
You get a fully virtualised, secure and continually updated IT environment with independent working platform for your accountancy software.
And, in terms of approvals, for those already with IRIS or those about to partner with us, you get the benefit from the one supplier relationship. The due diligence and checks have already been carried out on IRIS, making the move to Hosting even easier.
There are many other good reasons that CFOs might want to consider choosing IRIS Hosting.
Firstly, theres value for money. Hosted assets can be scaled upward and downward quickly against an agreed cost structure, so IT spend can be more closely aligned with growth, and Finance Directors can keep related costs in-sync with business levels.
Costs for IT security are also kept in check. Keeping IT up to date is expensive and the costs of a breach can be severe but with Hosting you get highly secure protection and continual updates without having to take any action yourself.
Furthermore, many customers say that the experience of using a Hosted system is more satisfying because they always have the latest versions and the latest functions.
There are many advantages that IRIS Hosting can provide your corporation, including:
Want to gain the benefits from IRIS Hosting for your finance department? We can help you understand more and discuss options for getting your organisation set up.
Give us a call on 0344 844 9644 or email [emailprotected].
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Why CFOs are turning to hosting as they move to in-house accounts - Financial Director
Harnessing the benefits of HSCN requires more than just ‘connectivity’ – Open Access Government
Its evident that NHS Digital has a vision for greater collaboration and improved access for health and social care services. However, the onus is on health and social care organisations to ensure they adopt its recommended framework and that the digital journey keeps pace with the rest of the sector.
As part of this, the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) data network has been widely adopted by NHS bodies across the UK. Those that have procured HSCN have subsequently enabled themselves to move to internet and cloud-based systems and protect themselves against potentially devastating cybersecurity threats.
As one of the building blocks in an organisations digital ecosystem, HSCN gives health and social care organisations the robust IT infrastructure they need to align with NHS Digitals mission to harness the power of information and technology to improve health and care.
However, to truly reap the benefits of the new network, and deliver the best outcomes for the people they serve, organisations must look beyond the initial procurement stage and maximise everything the network has to offer.
There are three phases of IT implementation that organisation can follow up on to ensure it is maximising HSCN. Phase one involves optimising the bandwidth at each of site based on the needs of the organisation and cost-efficiency requirements, ensuring that HSCN is supported by a reliable network. With mobile failover and proactive network monitoring too, an organisation will have total peace of mind that a robust system is in place. Networks can also be opened up with Wi-Fi, letting different users access the network in different ways and creating an always connected environment.
With a reliable network in place, organisations can then explore phase 2. This includes exploring hosted voice services for efficient communication between staff. Moving to hosted platforms for voice needs provides clarity, flexibility and cost savings. Organisations should then consider cloud adoption, providing flexible, always-on access to applications and data the moment their workforce needs it. And with direct cloud connections to these platforms, organisations can offer speed, security and reliability when its needed most.
The next thing to consider is quick, secure and reliable data and application access, via direct, uncontended cloud connections. Organisations can get a safe, flexible hybrid hosting solution using Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud, alongside their UK-based supplier data centres. Office 365 can then be integrated and leveraged in order to let employees work smarter, anytime, anywhere.
The third and final phase that an organisation can undertake to maximise HSCN post-procurement is to gain more network control with SD-WAN. A 21st century network with performance and service at its heart, SD-WAN offers resilience and security, and is easily configured via the cloud.
HSCN connectivity to the public cloud will also be key. This will enable health and social care workers to securely access public cloud providers (e.g. AWS and Microsoft Azure) to leverage the associated cost and operational benefits. Finally, an organisation can become a truly mobile workforce by using mobility services that provide applications and devices that ensure employees can access whatever they need, wherever they are.
Whilst NHS Digitals strategy is still evolving, and the migration to a new network may seem onerous, HSCN represents a major milestone in how health and social care is delivered. Every health and social care organisation stands to benefit from the greater collaboration, standardised networks and simpler access to national systems and applications that HSCN offers. By creating a robust IT infrastructure that combines connectivity, cloud and hosted voice, organisations can deliver the best possible care to those that need it.
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Harnessing the benefits of HSCN requires more than just 'connectivity' - Open Access Government