Much has been written about the advantages and disadvantages of Cloud Hosting. The factors to be considered are cost, reliability, security, scalability, and level of IT expertise within your organisation.
As EFACS is a browser-based software solution, being hosted on-site or in the cloud has no impact on the user.
Cost: When purchasing a Physical server, you not only have the upfront cost of the hardware, you must also look at the life span of the hardware. It may be state-of-the-art technology on the day of purchase. However, in a fast-moving world, it may be obsolete or not fit for purpose sooner than you think. Hosting allows you to tailor your needs when they are required. Host providers need to consistently provide optimum performance to maintain market share in this very competitive service provider sector.
Reliability: Along with our support team, our hosting partners provide a team of expert engineers to provide 24/7 support all year round. With a hosted solution environmental controls for temperature, humidity, fire protection, etc. all come as standard.
Security: Our hosting providers have developed robust cloud architecture that is constantly updated. This saves you the additional cost of hiring security experts to evaluate the potential risks to your on-premises hardware. Data can also be backed up to multiple locations if required.
Scalability: You can easily opt for an increased or decreased cloud capacity as per your business requirements thus giving you more flexibility for operational productivity. On the other hand, on-site based systems make this task very tedious and costly.
IT expertise: Most SMEs do not have dedicated IT personnel or the function is covered part-time by people that show an aptitude for IT within their department. Choosing a hosted solution removes the requirement for ongoing training in IT infrastructure.
In conclusion, choosing a hosted solution is becoming much more popular. In our recently published ERP Market Report 2020, 69.4% of companies showed a preference for a hosted solution. This report is available on request by clicking HERE