Popularity Contest: Hosted, SaaS & Cloud Software

February 2, 2012

After many discussions with individuals looking for new software, we have come to the conclusion that there is no consistent term used to describe hosted ERP software. Some people refer to it –most accurately – as a hosted solution, while others refer to it as SaaS or cloud software. So the question is: why one is most popular?

A Google Trends analysis was able to shed some light on which terms generated the most online traffic.

popular-hosted-saas-cloud-google-trend

The above graph illustrates the comparative use of the terms. You can see that the term SaaS was not being used until 2006 and Cloud Computing was not used until late 2007. This skewed the results towards hosted considerably as hosted was being used to refer to website hosting and other concepts long before SaaS and cloud computing came along. Yet, despite these trend-polluting factors, it still seems as if hosted is the consistently preferred term over SaaS and cloud computing – now relating to a vast number of cloud-based consumer applications – is now more popular than them all. Of course, each of these terms refers to a different concept, however, they are all closely related and many people that are not technology experts tend to use them interchangeably.

With the benefits of Hosted ERP Software becoming more apparent, hosted software will continue to increase in popularity at an astounding pace. As such, we expect to see the term hosted used more and more, particularly when dealing with ERP applications. It will be interesting to revisit these figures in a few years to see what has changed.

Note: Although the data presented is US data, the figures were very similar for Canada as well.

Leave a Comment » | Cloud Computing, Hosted Software, SaaS | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Canes

Hosted Software: Keeping Your Data Safe

January 17, 2012

hosted-softwre-keeping-data-safeSo you are now familiar with the differences between on-premises and hosted software solutions and you have decided that hosted software seems like a great fit for your business – yet you have concerns over the safety of your data. You are not alone in being worried, but you shouldn’t have to be.

Most hosted software solutions are very safe and very stable. Of course, I cannot speak for all the software out there; ultimately it is up to you to have an in-depth discussion with the vendor in question to determine how they keep your data safe. There are, however, a number of things you should look for in a hosted solution and the data centre used by the vendor:

Stated server up-time

The vendor in question should be comfortable stating the historical reliability of their servers. Down-time should be rare for a reliable system so a good level is somewhere north of 99% up-time.

Redundancy

In order to ensure the highest level of security possible for your data, there should be a number of fail-safes in place. These can include multiple power supplies, processors and harddrives per server and multiple data back-up locations. A bonus is the option to keep a copy of your data in-house as well.

Automatic Fail-Over

A proper hosted solution will employ back-up servers that immediately take over if one were to fail. This means that in the event of total server failure there is always another server to take over the task of running your business.

Data Centre Security

One of the biggest benefits of employing a hosted solution is that your data is often far safer than it ever would be if you kept it on-location at your place of business. A good data centre will offer multiple levels of security (BioMetric, PIN code, Access card etc.) and 24/7 monitoring to ensure the servers and data are secure. Most small/medium businesses will not have this level of security in their place of business.

Disaster Prevention

Back-up power generators should be employed in the data centre as well as state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression systems. The implied bonus with a hosted solution is that, if your entire business was to encounter a disaster such as a fire, your system would still be accessible and all your data would be safely running in the data centre.

Ultimately it is your comfort level with these new technologies that will determine whether or not a hosted solution is agreeable to you, however, data security and reliability should not be a concern as most data centres provide a far bigger safety net than most in-house implementations.

1 Comment | Business Technology, SaaS | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Canes

SaaS: Stop Adding Annoying Servers

July 3, 2011

Much has been said and written about the pros and cons of moving your business and accounting software systems into the “Cloud”. If you’re planning to replace your existing, on-premise ERP system anyway, then hopefully you are at least exploring the possibility of a SaaS / Cloud Computing implementation.

cloud-software-hostedBut what if your server has reached the end of its useful life? Faced with the costs and headaches of buying a new server, and the ongoing 3rd party costs to maintain and support your infrastructure, this may be an opportune time to consider instead moving your applications into the cloud.

If the on-premises (in-house) software you’re using also offers a SaaS implementation, I’d suggest that you at least strongly explore and consider the SaaS route before going out and replacing (or upgrading your server. If it doesn’t offer this – why not?

(By the way, “SaaS” actually stands for “Software as a Service” – but I prefer my version in the title of this post.)

Leave a Comment » | ERP Software, SaaS | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Canes

SaaS (Hosted) ERP: How Safe is Your Data?

April 17, 2011

The trend towards SaaS (software as a service) / Cloud Computing / hosted software continues, although in the ERP and Accounting software space, it’s an evolution rather than a revolution. In dealing with smaller owner-managed companies, I note that one of the ongoing reservations that business owners have about going the SaaS route is the whereabouts of their key business data.

Sometimes its the geographic location of the data – such as the concern that if data is physically located in a different company, it may be subject to laws of access different from those in your own country – the very legitimate fear that a foreign government may be able to legislate its way into your confidential business information. But more commonly, the concern relates to not having the data in their own building. and not knowing where it is.

saas-hosted-erp-safe-dataIn a typical SaaS implementation, the data is housed inside a very secure data center, usually employing multiple levels of firewall and up to date security, whereas most smaller businesses have network and server infrastructure that is much more vulnerable to hackers. Additionally, the odds of someone breaking into the average small business and stealing the actual server (or storage array) are much better than getting into a secure data center. So realistically (for the most part) your data is actually much safer and more secure in a cloud computing environment than in-house.

However, there is a question around backup strategy in the hosted environment. This post was inspired by a story I heard last week (not sure how true it is, but it could happen): a company provides SaaS using a 3rd party data center, but managing their own equipment in the data center. All is very secure and safe. However, the company’s strategy for off-site backup of client files in the data center is to back it up onto removable media and store than removable media at an employee’s house. What this means is that someone who breaks into that house, presumably less secure than a data center, might walk away with the business data of multiple companies on transportable magnetic media. (Now of course the same often applies non-hosted situations with off-site backups.)

My opinion on this is that, if your data is in a secure and credible data center, and the offsite backup plan involves multiple-encryption and / or equally secure offsite backup locations, then there is no way that your data is less secure in the hosted (SaaS) arena than it would be on your own premises – in fact the opposite is much more likely.

Leave a Comment » | Business Technology, ERP Software, SaaS | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Canes

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