Five
Hosted
VoIP
Features
HOSTAPHOBIA
WHITEPAPER:
www.megapath.comHostaphobia is a common affliction that often
strikes IT managers, the people directly responsible
for maintaining the IT systems for small and
mid-sized businesses. “Hostaphobia” is a term used to
describe an intense resistance to—or abject fear
of—using hosted email and IT services.
First, let’s look at what triggers hostaphobia. Hosted services enable companies of all sizes to outsource their IT needs and spend less time worrying about technology—and avoid maintaining physical servers in their offices. The hosting provider handles all technology details for a very affordable monthly or yearly subscription fee. These are good things—so why do IT managers resist them?
Symptoms of hostaphobia include:
> Fear of loss of control
> Fear of performance degradation > Fear of job insecurity
> Fear of vendor overload > Fear of increased expense
Let’s examine how we can manage each of these symptoms and possibly offer some relief to hostaphobia sufferers.
IT administrators are the ultimate experts regarding
their systems, and should retain control so they
combating
“hostaphobia”:
the it manager’s
GUide
Page 3
can apply this expertise to ongoing systems
management. Hosting companies retain control
where it belongs: with IT administrators.
A hosted solution offers the ability to add users, change settings, increase storage, delete an account, and so on—every typical account maintenance activity. The difference is this: the IT administrator clicks a few buttons within a management console, and the hosting provider handles all of the complexities.
One element of control that any IT administrator is likely to be happy to relinquish is being on call 24/7. With a hosted solution, 3:00 AM issues are handled by the hosting company’s expert staff while the IT administrator stays nestled in a warm, cozy bed. The hosting company’s team is also responsible for fixing issues that may arise during business hours, giving the IT person solid backup in the event of a crisis.
A few years ago, this was a valid fear. Immature
infrastructures and expensive bandwidth routinely
led to delays between office machines and hosting
companies. Today’s robust network infrastructures—
coupled with inexpensive bandwidth—have
eliminated this issue. In some cases, a hosted
solution may actually offer faster speeds than what
small businesses can provide internally.
More than speed, hosted solutions offer the infrastructure of a Fortune 500 company at nowhere near the cost and include redundancy, security, scalability, and staff expertise.
Hosting providers build their data centers to be redundant—featuring clustered systems that make a high-impact outage virtually impossible. The security employed by hosting companies features state-of-the-art spam and perimeter protection, as well as advanced security features—such as encrypted text in emails on an as-needed basis.
symptom #2:
Fear of
performance
degradation
symptom #1:
Fear of loss
of control
Finally, hosting companies hire experts in the technologies they provide. Email is handled by Exchange experts, security is handled by security experts, and so on. Hosting companies even provide compliance expertise for electronic data storage and preservation.
All of these features are within reach via hosting, at a fraction of the cost of building in-house infrastructure.
This is probably the strongest symptom of
hostaphobia. While IT administrators usually
comprehend the benefits hosted services would
bring to their company, they have a hard time
seeing how hosted services will benefit them—
personally and professionally. IT administrators see
their value coming from being the person to whom
other employees turn in order to keep their critical
applications up and running.
IT administrators are frequently referred to as “heroes” for their efforts. If IT gets outsourced, how can they continue to validate their reason for existence? The truth is: Once the day-to-day management and
troubleshooting of email and phones are off their plates, IT professionals are free to focus on core job functions that directly benefit their company— whether development, support, or another technology focus—without having to fret about email, voice, or other services going down.
IT administrators also don’t have to worry about losing their “hero” status when email and other technologies are outsourced; rather than being praised for fixing problems, they become revered for the stability of their systems. A hosted solution also enables a quicker rollout of new functionality demanded by end users. The IT administrator will be seen as a strategic member of the team, rather than just the person who “fixes email.”
symptom #3:
Fear of job
insecurity
Page 5
By moving to a hosted model, IT administrators can
now have “one hand to shake” (or, if the circumstance
demands, one number to call). If there is a service
issue, the IT administrator makes only one call to the
hosting company.
The hosting company tracks down all the players involved in the issue and works the problem until it is resolved. In addition, the hosting provider is responsible for evaluating and implementing the technologies that touch their service—including firewalls, back-up applications, load balancing, etc., which takes a huge burden off the IT administrator’s to-do list.
There can be tremendous cost involved in owning
and maintaining multiple servers and software
applications—including staff time, hardware,
software, and training. These expenses can be
eliminated via the hosting model, which still provides
the following advantages:
> Immediate deployment
> Reduced total cost of ownership
> Cost-effective scaling as business requirements change
> Anytime, anywhere access to information
> World-class security and reliability
> Timely upgrades and patches
> 24/7 live customer support
> 100% financially backed uptime Service Level Agreement
symptom #5:
Fear of increased
expense
symptom #4:
Fear of vendor
overload
next steps
the prescription
is clear
The hosted model also makes a company’s IT investment a predictable and stable line item within corporate budgets.
Understanding and experiencing the benefits of hosted solutions is the best cure for hostaphobia for the IT administrator and anyone else in an organization.
