Whilst organisations continue to review the bandwidth of their IT infrastructure they face the challenge that currently there is ‘TOO MUCH’ out there to allow the decision to be a simple one to make. 

One area of significant development is hosting core areas of the back end IT infrastructure and services.  Hosting solutions have been available for over 15 years but required the brand name of ‘Cloud Computing’ to suddenly be considered as a serious subject of discussion.

All of a sudden this brand name has turned into the so called new IT buzz word for 2010.

Whilst traditionally hosting was more considered an easy low investment option for SME’s, this is now applicable to all organisations due to the benefits that include: 

1. Consolidation of physical server hardware, leading to a reduction in warranty renewal costs, space and power
2. Software applications payable on a per user per month basis, thereby reducing the upfront CAPEX costs
3. Removes the risks associated with a single site failure
4. Reduces the investment required for Disaster Recovery
5. Allows systems to be easily restored in the event of a significant hardware and software failure 
6. Allows multiple sites to grow with ease
7. Central point of administration
8. Reduces the number of personnel in the IT team
9. Removes the need to up skill in house IT teams to manage an outsourced hosted environment
10. Puts the responsibility in the hands of the managed hosting provider

To ensure organisations make the right decision, IT must be thought about at a strategic level with clear business objectives defined at the outset. By failing to take IT seriously at a senior level,  organisations could miss out on the continual technology improvements that can deliver clear business benefit from a management, administration and collaboration perspective.