hosting

What is the Technology Ecosystem?

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As we enter the sixth month of COVID-19, shutdowns, social distancing and remote work, many companies are starting to think long-term. It’s clear that the current situation will most likely persist for many more months, and the world will look much different when we return to “normal,” whatever that will be. So how can companies meet the challenges of this new reality? Better yet, how can they leverage the current situation to improve their processes and operations? The Vaultas technology ecosystem can help.

What is the Technology Ecosystem?

There are many different definitions of a tech or IT ecosystem, depending on the context in which it’s used. For our purposes, we define the Vaultas technology ecosystem as the coalition of vendors, suppliers, tools and services that deliver custom IT solutions for businesses and institutions.

How Can the Technology Ecosystem Deliver for Your Business?

At Vaultas, we have access to nearly 200 suppliers of IT tools and services, allowing companies to select the individual solutions that are right for their specific needs. We have the skills and experience to integrate your selections into a cohesive, efficient IT system that will work for you.

Fast, Efficient and Automated

Gone are the days of waiting weeks or months for a new IT system to be built and installed. We can identify and connect the right solutions for your business in a matter of days. Systems will be integrated and automated, allowing your team to focus on your business and customers instead of the IT hassles that devour so many resources.

The Power of Choice

You know your business and its needs. The technology ecosystem gives you the ability to select the tools and vendors that are exactly right for your company. And in this current climate, with all options on the table, there’s no better time to exercise your power of choice and find an IT solution that will deliver for your employees, customers and stakeholders.

Vaultas Is Your Trusted Advisor

We know that the options can be overwhelming. That’s why we’re dedicated to helping you navigate the ecosystem from start to finish. As your trusted advisor, we’ll harness the latest trends, identify needs, and help you harness the IT solutions that will give your business a competitive advantage. A trusted advisor is a CIO’s best friend, and Vaultas has the experience to play that role.

In short, the Vaultas ecosystem provides options, improves efficiency, and saves money. From security and connectivity to cloud and colocation, managed services, voice, and everything in between, let the technology ecosystem change how you do business.

Businesses are facing a wide variety of challenges as they navigate our new reality. The Vaultas IT ecosystem is here to help with all of them.

Vaultas is a technology ecosystem provider that facilitates direct access to any network or service provider. Our services include hybrid IT solutions,  data storage and backup, disaster recovery and business continuity services, hosting, colocation, cloud storage, data center consulting, hosted PBX and VOIP solutions, and more. 

Our primary ecosystem access points are located in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as Alexandria and St. Cloud, MN, and Milwaukee, WI, with remote access from anywhere in the world. Contact us to get started. 

How to Outsource Hosting

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For many businesses, hosting the company website and/or data storage in-house is the best option, both financially and logistically. But then, things begin to change. The business grows, new services are added, budgets are reprioritized or staffing changes are made. Or, in a worst case scenario, the business falls victim to a disaster or cyberattack, and determines that it’s time for a more secure hosting setup. Whatever the reason, when it becomes time to outsource hosting, it’s helpful to know the steps.

Step One: Get The Information

Before deciding whether to outsource hosting, you should first get in touch with a reliable hybrid IT company. At Vaultas, we’re happy to talk businesses through our hosting solutions, and to help determine what exactly they need.

Step Two: Determine What You Have and What You Need

What and how much you choose to host will depend on:

  • the company’s personnel resources,
  • budgetary allocations, and
  • the type of business you conduct.

Step Three: Start Making Decisions

Whether you maintain some hosting in-house will depend on having the right personnel and your specific business needs. One option is to choose an IaaS, or Infrastructure-as-a-Service, provider to manage select hosting needs, while managing others in-house. This allows companies to save money while outsourcing some of the more complicated aspects.

(If a company does business in healthcare, banking, insurance or financial services, there are federal regulations on security and compliance that can make it more difficult to manage in-house.)

For companies without the personnel or IT resources to manage any part of the infrastructure, fully managed hosting services may be the way to go. This could be a more costly option, but it allows for smoother day-to-day operations, and decreased risk.

 

 

 

Vaultas offers a wide variety of hosting options, including website, application and storage hosting solutions. If your business needs a more custom solution, we can tailor any of our services to meet your needs, providing nonstop, comprehensive support to ensure that there are no interruptions.

Could outsourced hosting save your company time and money?

Contact Vaultas to learn more about our custom hosting solutions.

Vaultas is a premier provider of hybrid IT solutions, providing data storage and backup, disaster recovery and business continuity services, hosting, colocation, cloud storage, data center consulting, internet connections, hosted PBX and VOIP, and more. Our data centers are located in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Alexandria and St. Cloud, MN, and Milwaukee, WI. Contact us to get started.

(This is a repost of a blog post from October 2017 that was updated in March 2020.)

Edge Computing is the Newest Trend in Hosting

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In our previous blog posts, we’ve discussed server hosting in detail – the different types and the benefits of server hosting. Today, we’ll cover one of the new and popular trends in the hosting word: edge computing.

Edge computing may seem like a complicated concept, but it’s really pretty simple. It entails a network of micro data centers that store or process the most critical data locally, and push less important data to a cloud storage warehouse or a central data center. This results in a smaller local footprint and faster processing times.

There are many benefits to edge computing, which can explain why it is growing so quickly in use and popularity.

 

Benefits of Edge Computing

  1. It’s more reliable in instances of breaches, outages or intermittent connectivity. This is a big plus for companies who are looking to implement or improve their disaster recovery and business continuity processes.
  2. It’s more secure, processing personal information locally instead of within the cloud.
  3. It’s faster, providing better response times for internet-connected devices.
  4. It can reduce costs, because it allows businesses to cost-effectively decide what information gets sent to which location.
  5. It gives a boost to businesses with multiple locations by allowing data processing to occur at the site while communicating with the home office.

Edge computing is especially beneficial for applications within the Internet of Things (IoT) – devices and objects with the ability to automatically transfer data over a network – which are growing in popularity. Edge computing allows for streaming data to be captured in the moment.  This can prevent devices from failing, and can also prevent defects, reroute traffic and optimize production and speed.

Ready to find a new hosting solution? Give Vaultas a call at 888-998-2858, or contact us online. With custom solutions to meet the most demanding IT needs, we’ll work with you to find the best hosting products for your business.

The Benefits of Server Hosting

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As companies continue to transition more of their data and operations to digital platforms, the need for a sufficient and secure hosting service becomes even greater. Depending on a company’s size and resources, it often makes more sense to enlist a server hosting service, like Vaultas, to maintain and oversee the company’s physical hosting.

But what are the benefits of using a hosting service?

First, a refresher: server hosting is the offsite management and maintenance of a company’s hardware hosting resources – the physical and virtual servers on which data is stored. Read our previous blog post to learn more about the different variations of server hosting.

There are many benefits of server hosting. When physical hosting services are outsourced, so are the financial and personnel resources involved in maintaining a server onsite. This can result in significant savings – both in time and money – and is especially beneficial for smaller companies who can’t afford a dedicated IT staff.

In addition, server hosting usually significantly increases a company’s protection against disasters, ransomware, and other security threats. Hosting services protect their clients’ data with firewalls, backups and physical security measures, protecting it against whatever threat might occur.

Finally, if your company seeks to host an application or website, there may be special skills required to support those platforms. An experienced physical hosting service will have the necessary knowledge, saving the company the effort and cost of having to hire or train someone skilled in that area. At Vaultas, we engage a network of vendor partners to support most applications, and our data center environments allow us to offer customers the reliability necessary to support the applications that are critical to business continuity.

Ready to switch to a hosting service for your data, website or applications? Learn more about Vaultas’ dedicated hosting service, then get in touch to receive a custom quote from our experienced hybrid IT professionals.

What is Server Hosting?

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When you hear the word “hosting,” what comes to mind? For many, hosting is synonymous with web hosting, which is providing a platform for a website or application. This is an important type of hosting, yes – but it’s not the only one. At Vaultas, we provide not only web hosting, but also server hosting, which is the offsite management of a company’s physical or virtual data and digital operations.

There are several different types of server hosting, which we’ll detail below.

Managed physical server:

The customer either provides the server or leases the server for use onsite. The hosting service installs the server and provides maintenance and monitoring, but the customer has control over the operating system, hardware and software. This can be an expensive option because the server requires both onsite management and offsite monitoring.

Dedicated server:

This is similar to a managed server, but the hosting service owns and maintains the server offsite. Customers have fewer choices for operating systems, but less hands-on management is required. It’s in the hosting service’s best financial interest to provide high-quality maintenance to increase reliability and life cycle duration.

Virtual private server:

VPS provides the same benefits as dedicated servers, but involves the coupling of a robust group of servers to host in a virtual environment. This creates a “high availability” server for high-demand environments and applications, often with a lower cost to the customer.

 

There are variations within each of these server groups, and each can be customized to fit the unique needs of your business. With a wide network of partners and 24/7 support, hosting with Vaultas ensures that there will never be any interruptions in your hosting.

To learn more about hosting, cloud storage, data storage or any of our other hybrid IT solutions, visit our website and get in touch for more information and a free quote.

When Should Hosting Be Outsourced?

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If you’re in need of a hosting solution for your business, you may find the options and process confusing. What’s the difference between website and storage hosting? Can we manage our hosting in-house, or should we outsource some of it to a third-party provider? Does it make sense to let someone else manage it all?

When determining what and how much to host, the first and best advice we’ll give is to get in touch with a reliable company and ask a few questions. At Vaultas, we’re happy to talk businesses through the details of our hosting solutions, and to help determine what exactly they need.

On the question of outsourcing some or all of the hosting services, what you choose will largely depend on: 1) your company’s personnel resources, 2) your company’s financial resources, and 3) the type of business you conduct. Managing your IT infrastructure in-house can save money, but it will also require an investment in the personnel and technology required to manage it.

One option is to choose an IaaS, or Infrastructure-as-a-Service, provider to manage select hosting needs, while managing others in-house. This allows companies to save money while outsourcing some of the more complicated aspects.

For companies without the personnel or IT resources to manage any part of the infrastructure, fully managed services may be the way to go. A service provider should function as a partner – fully knowledgeable about the company and its needs, and ready to step in whenever assistance is needed. This is a more costly option, but it allows for smoother day-to-day operations.

An important note: if a company does business in healthcare, banking, insurance or financial services, there are federal regulations on security and compliance that can make it more difficult to manage in-house.

Vaultas offers a wide variety of hosting options, including website, application and storage hosting solutions. If your business needs a more custom solution, we can tailor any of our services to meet your needs, providing nonstop, comprehensive support to ensure that there are no interruptions.

To learn more about hosting, cloud storage, data storage or any of our other hybrid IT solutions, visit our website and get in touch for more information and a free quote.