With all the news about cloud hosting and the buzzwords surrounding it, I thought it makes sense to take a minute and explain a little bit about what "hosted software" is. As the term suggests, it is your software that is installed and accessed on a remote server, offsite from the traditional "office".

There are two types of hosted software. Software hosted by the manufacturer on a subscription basis (Software As A Service or SaaS), and software that has been purchased and installed on remote servers to be accessed by end users.

Both types of installation can be accessed via the internet and a web browser. Traditionally the software has been focused on a desktop or laptop interface, but more and more these software applications are accessible via handheld devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Hosted software is not installed on a user's machine, but instead installed on a remote server and accessed via a web browser, much like going to a website and using Gmail for example. Computing power and data processing are not dependent on the local machine, and are done solely on the remote server.

In this case, the end user can get away with using a low power computer that only needs to run a web browser. In days past, end users had to have high end latest model computers to run many of the popular software programs. With hosted software, the processing power of one server can be centralized and taken advantage of by many end users.

Updates, patches and upgrades are all done on the one central remote server, as opposed to all the individual end user computers. This allows the closing of potentially damaging security holes in the local infrastructure.

The benefits are just too many to ignore.

Real Benefits

• Cost efficiency

• Reduction of maintenance requirements

• Flexibility and scalability of resources

• On demand user administration

• 24/7 user support

• Off-site backup of critical data

• Regular maintenance and software upgrades

• Employee mobility anywhere, anytime

• Freedom to focus on core business

Your Choice

At this point, it is worth the time and effort for IT departments to take a hard look at this opportunity, and at a minimum do some cost/productivity comparisons. We are definitely past the days of early adoption, with many larger companies now taking the steps to move in the direction of cloud-based desktops, apps and file storage. Armada Hoffler, The J Companies are a couple of our client names that come to mind.

Here at AEC Cloud, we have been helping businesses in the AEC industry make the transition to hosting critical software applications. We have over 15 years in the business and have consciously chosen to focus on the AEC industry.

We know what you need before you do. We are specialists in cloud hosting, and that knowledge base we have built for the past 15 years is yours to share in when you use our services. Why take the risk with some off the shelf general "cloud hosting" company?