Hosted services

It doesn’t matter how modest your IT requirements, managing your own PCs, servers and applications can still be a full-time task.

So why not get someone else to do some or all of the hard work for you? All that’s needed is a connection to the internet and, in most cases, a browser.

You can then access a wide range of applications, remotely hosted and fully managed by online service providers, without needing in-house support personnel or expensive hardware.

On the downside there’s not quite as much choice as some analysts once predicted. Indeed, a few years back, the market for hosted applications was expected to sky rocket, with some pundits even predicting the demise of local solutions altogether. That didn’t happen and a lot of the original big name providers have long since pulled out of the market.

However, a number of specialised solutions persist, designed and marketed specifically for the smaller business. New products from Google and Microsoft are also on their way, and we’ll look at those alongside others in this feature.

Traditional web hosting
Web server and email hosting are, without doubt, the most readily available of online services, typically included free when you sign up for a broadband internet connection. In addition, there are plenty of providers ready and able to host more demanding websites and email requirements independently, for anyone prepared to pay.

Sign up for one of these services and you can have your own ‘virtual’ server, running either Linux or Windows, complete with associated web server software (Apache or IIS), a supporting database server, Ecommerce and other back-end applications. Prices will be worked out based on a mix of disk space usage, software licensing costs and the amount of web traffic the site will attract. As such they can start from just a few pounds per month for a shared Linux server, rising to hundreds to get a dedicated server of your own running Windows or a big name Linux distro.

An example of one of the providers of this kind of small business service is 1& 1 whose basic Linux-based business hosting packages start from £6.75 (ex Vat) per month. From £60 (ex Vat) per month you can get your own Windows server to do with more or less as you like; similar packages are available from Zen Internet, Demon Internet, UK2, Rackspace and numerous others.

Typically, simple web-based management interfaces are provided to enable customers to configure software themselves, without the need for in-depth technical expertise. However, it’s not compulsory and, especially on the more expensive products, access to the server via a remote desktop and other utilities is also available, along with dedicated support and guaranteed availability to agreed service levels.

Hosted messaging
Prices for hosted email services can vary considerably. The cheapest solutions (some free) are nearly all Linux-based, offering basic Pop3 and Imap access to messages received by the hosted server. These can be used with any client software that supports those protocols, in addition to which most will include a webmail interface for remote and mobile access via browsers and, possibly, the option of sending mail out to Blackberry handhelds and other mobile devices.

Hosted implementations of Microsoft Exchange are also becoming common, such as those available from 1&1 starting at £5.99 (ex Vat) per user per month. You get a licensed copy of Microsoft Outlook for each user and a set amount of mailbox space (1GB with the 1&1 service) on an Exchange server configured to host your domain.

Support for Outlook Web Access (OWA) is usually provided, together with anti-virus and anti-spam protection, and email facilities to forward messages to mobile computers and smartphones. Groupware functionality is also provided as part of the hosted Exchange service, with users able to share address books, calendars and other folders just as they can if connected to a local server.