Month: March 2013

Hosted Servers are for businesses that want cloud-based, bare-bones IT resources (processing, storage, and bandwidth). Dedicated Server Hosting and Managed Server Hosting are two of the most popular types of Hosted Servers. Though well-known, not everyone understands what makes them different from each other. This blog post will help people differentiate between Dedicated Server Hosting and Managed Server Hosting by providing a definition, an ideal user, and a description of benefits for each one.

Dedicated Server Hosting

Dedicated Server Hosting is a type of Managed Server Hosting. With Dedicated Server Hosting, a business rents an entire physical server from an IT Hosting Provider. In contrast, with Virtual Server Hosting and Cloud Server Hosting the business would have to share the physical server with the IT Hosting Company’s other clients. Virtual Servers and Cloud Servers aren’t any less private or secure than Dedicated Servers because businesses that share a physical server don’t have access each other’s systems or files. At the same time, there are businesses that prefer Dedicated Server Hosting because it gives them the ability to customize and exercise more extensive control over the physical server, and also because many data security regulations prohibit multitenant IT infrastructures.

Managed Server Hosting

Managed Server Hosting, on the other hand, is a combination of Server Hosting and Managed Services. Any Hosted Server can be a Managed Hosted Server—including the aforementioned Dedicated Servers, Private Cloud Servers, and Dedicated Virtual Servers, as well as Hybrid Cloud Hosting, Terminal Server Hosting, Citrix Server Hosting, Web & E-Commerce Hosting, and Compliance Hosting. Technical support, IT security, data backup, and infrastructure management are the Managed Services included with Managed Server Hosting. Managed Services prevent data loss and downtime and improve the performance and security of the Hosted Server. It’s also more effective and cost-efficient for businesses to sign up for Managed Server Hosting than for them to use internal personnel or resources to manage and maintain a Hosted Server themselves. Any company that wants to lower its IT costs while improving the performance of its IT infrastructure should select Managed Server Hosting.

IronOrbit Infrastructure Hosting

All of IronOrbit’s Hosted Servers are Managed Hosted Servers. The Managed Services that come with our Hosted Servers include 24x7x365 online and phone-based technical support, Orbital Security (with firewall, antivirus, antispyware, SPAM blocker, patch management, and content filtering), automated data backups, and around-the-clock performance monitoring and infrastructure maintenance. With our Managed Server Hosting, we allow our customers to focus on their business rather than their IT infrastructure. At the same time, we maintain their Hosted Servers at their highest levels of performance, security, and reliability.

Meanwhile, our Dedicated Hosted Servers, like all of our IT Solutions, are fully customizable. Our clients have the ability to select the hardware and determine the operating system and settings of the Dedicated Server. We make sure that the customer’s Hosted Solutions measure up perfectly to their IT requirements and preferences. From start to finish, our goal in providing comprehensive support and unlimited customization is to make our clients feel like we are their dedicated IT department. To sign up for IronOrbit Managed Server Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, or Infrastructure Hosting, contact one of our sales representatives today!

Summary: IronOrbit Hosted VDI provides telecommuters with an accessible, secure, fully-managed, and complete IT infrastructure.

Studies show that in the United States about 20 million to 30 million workers or 24% of the national workforce telecommute at least one day per week. Around the world, 10% of workers telecommute every day, while more than half of workers in India and almost a third of workers in Mexico telecommute at least part of the time. According to the Telework Research Network, businesses save $11,000 per year for every employee that is allowed to telecommute at least 50% of the time. Telecommuting reduces real estate and energy costs for businesses; increases productivity 13-22%; and benefits society as a whole by conserving fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars.

The one thing holding a lot of businesses back from permitting telecommuting is the lack of an accessible, secure, and centralized IT infrastructure. It isn’t efficient or sustainable to allow telecommuters to exchange files and information via email or depend on them to store and back up their own data. And though there are online applications and data storage services that provide telecommuters with an accessible, centralized workspace, these public cloud solutions are neither secure nor well-supported.

An IronOrbit Hosted VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), on the other hand, provides businesses with an IT infrastructure as centralized, secure, and well-supported as an on-site IT infrastructure, but with the greater availability of a web-based solution. An IronOrbit Virtual Hosted Desktop appears and performs like a normal Windows operating system installed on the hard drive of a PC, but is different in that it is located in the servers of a hosting company and is accessed via the Internet. With the Hosted VDI centralized in our data center, IronOrbit can protect and monitor it 24x7x365.

Reasons for businesses with telecommuters to select IronOrbit Desktop Virtualization Solutions include:

–No on-site IT required. Telecommuters only need a device with a connection to the Internet to access their Virtual Hosted Desktop. The company doesn’t have to purchase or maintain any on-site servers for workers that commute to the office, either.

–A complete, customizable IT infrastructure. Our Hosted VDI supports business applications, email, web browsers, and data storage.

–Managed, protected, and supported. IronOrbit Desktop Virtualization Solutions come with Managed Services (automated backup, disaster recovery, 24×7 monitoring, and patch management), Orbital Security (firewall, IDS/IPS, antivirus, SPAM blocker, and content filtering), and 24x7x365 online and phone-based technical support.

Sign up for IronOrbit Virtual Hosted Desktop and Virtual Server Hosting today to take advantage of our FREE hardware and software promotion. Hurry—there’s only one week left!

Law firms that handle their own IT infrastructure usually find IT management and maintenance to be time-consuming, distracting, and costly. It forces legal professionals to spend time troubleshooting software and repairing hardware (or, if they can’t do it themselves, to spend money researching and hiring freelance IT technicians to perform these tasks) when they should be focused on arguing cases and assisting clients. Though law firms can outsource the management of their IT infrastructure to an Application Hosting Services Provider, there are some that find it difficult to trust a third-party organization with their business-critical applications and data. What these firms don’t realize is that the security and reliability of high-end Application Hosting Providers like IronOrbit are as good as, or better than, that of even the most well-protected on-site IT infrastructure.

Among Application Hosting Companies, only IronOrbit classifies comprehensive, enterprise-level IT security as a standard feature of its Hosted Applications. The custom-designed Orbital Security System that comes with our Application Hosting includes firewalls, 24x7x365 network monitoring, antivirus, spam blocker, antispyware, patch management, and content filtering. IronOrbit Application Hosting Services not only protect law firms from cyber-attacks but also guarantee their compliance with data security regulations such as PCI DSS, SOX, and the GLBA. At IronOrbit we also do our best to prevent outages of our Hosted Applications with around-the-clock performance monitoring, automation, and proactive hardware and software repairs. We actually guarantee 100% uptime since we’re so confident in our ability to prevent downtime and to ensure that our clients have continual access to their files and applications.

The benefits of a law firm selecting IronOrbit as its Application Hosting Provider also include:

-Access Hosted Legal Applications from anywhere. A user only needs an Internet-connected computing device to be able to access IronOrbit’s web-based Hosted Applications. Lawyers can access their files and applications from anywhere, including at the office, at home, or at a courthouse, coffee shop, or airport with available Wi-Fi.

-Deploy multiple Hosted Applications at once. IronOrbit can host not only a law firm’s Legal Applications such as Abacus or Amicus but also its more generic business software such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, and QuickBooks. Multiple Hosted Applications can be deployed either singularly or, in combination with a Hosted Desktop Infrastructure, as a group.

-Doesn’t require any on-site IT hardware or personnel.  With IronOrbit Applications Hosting, a law firm doesn’t have to worry about IT management or maintenance. We will build, maintain, and update the IT infrastructure. We also perform regular data backups and provide 24x7x365 online and phone-based technical support. These Managed Services aren’t add-ons, either—they’re included for free with each Hosted Application’s fixed, low monthly subscription fee.

Join the nearly 75% of law firms that will never have to purchase or manage a server ever again and sign up for Application Hosting today! Also, hurry and contact an IronOrbit sales representative before the end of the month to take advantage of our FREE hardware and software promotion!

IronOrbit Hosted Applications include 24x7x365 technical support, around-the-clock monitoring, a comprehensive Orbital Security System (firewall, antivirus, and patch management), and automated data backups. IronOrbit’s Hosted Applications are more secure and reliable than the Hosted Applications of other Hosting Providers, as well as more cost-efficient and accessible than software installed an on-premise workstation or terminal server. Thousands of enterprises, SMBs, and microbusinesses in every industry have selected IronOrbit as their Hosted Applications Provider. We have the flexibility and expertise to host any application for any company in any location, which is reflected in the diversity of the genres and brands in this list of IronOrbit’s top 10 most popular Hosted Applications:

1. QuickBooks. The world’s leading Accounting Software for small businesses is also the most popular of IronOrbit’s Hosted Applications. We support all versions of Hosted QuickBooks: QuickBooks Accountant, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise. Also, we can transfer a business’s existing on-site QuickBooks software deployment (licenses, settings, and data included) to our Private Cloud at no extra cost.
2. Peachtree (also known as Sage 50). Access your financial data from anywhere with Hosted Peachtree from IronOrbit. Let IronOrbit take care of building and maintaining your Hosted Financial Application’s IT infrastructure so that you can continue focusing on your work as an accountant.
3. Microsoft Exchange. Hosted Exchange from IronOrbit is a centralized, enterprise-level, web-based Email Solution. It lets your employees access their emails from anywhere at any time. Its centralization makes it an effective communication and scheduling tool and contact management system for businesses with multiple locations. It’s also highly reliable due to IronOrbit’s automated data backups (performed daily), Orbital Security System, and 100% uptime guarantee.
4. Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint is an all-in-one document management system, project management system, and website and application development platform. It lets you assign tasks, share and store files, and build and host websites and web-based programs. IronOrbit not only hosts SharePoint for you but also manages it, secures it, and backs it up.
5. EMR/EHR software. IronOrbit Hosted EMR/EHR lets doctors, nurses, and front office workers focus on processing and treating patients again. We host and provide management, security, and data backup services for Healthcare Applications developed by eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, GE Healthcare, Epic, McKesson, and others.
6. Microsoft Office
7. Abacus
8. Amicus
9. ERPs (Microsoft Dynamics, PeopleSoft, Sage 300 ERP, SAP Business One, Epicor ERP, and others)
10. Microsoft Lync

Contact one of our helpful sales representatives today to get started with Hosted Applications from IronOrbit. We host ANY application—including customized software, legacy apps, and any of the programs listed above!

You’re a business owner or a manager and you’ve decided to allow BYOX (Bring Your Own X) at your company or within your department. This means that you’ve given your employees permission to bring to the office their own computing devices (BYOD), applications (BYOA), or network (BYON). You approved of BYOX for a couple reasons: that it would raise the comfort level and morale of employees; that employees, in being more comfortable and motivated, would also be more focused and productive; that it would make your business more appealing to highly-sought-after and young job candidates; and that it would save you the expense (usually amounting to more than $15,000) of having to purchase computing devices for your employees. The next step after approving BYOX is to switch your IT infrastructure to the one that works best with mobile devices: an IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Infrastructure.

There are several reasons why you as a BYOX business should select IronOrbit Hosted Desktops. First, an IronOrbit Hosted Desktop is a web-based solution that can be accessed from anywhere with any Internet-connected device (including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones). Second, an IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Infrastructure is highly centralized and secure. Security has always been a sticking point for businesses when it comes to BYOD and BYOX: companies worry that when mobile devices get lost or stolen (as they often do), the person that ends up with the device will have unrestricted access to all of the business’s files and applications. Lost or stolen devices aren’t a problem with an IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Infrastructure, however. IronOrbit Hosted Desktop requires a username and password. They also prevent the transfer of data from Hosted Desktops to the hard drive of the users’ device. In this way, IronOrbit keeps the minor misfortune of a lost or stolen smartphone from turning into a costly and reputation-damaging data loss incident.

You should also select IronOrbit Hosted Desktops because:

-We include comprehensive Managed Services with all of our Solutions, including Hosted Desktops, Application Hosting, and Managed Application Hosting. These Managed Services include 24x7x365 technical support, around-the-clock monitoring, Orbital Security System (firewalls, antivirus, spam blocker, patch management, and content filter), and automated data backups.

-Free setup and data migration. You won’t have to deal with any costs or hassles when switching to an IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Infrastructure or Application Hosting. Our technicians and migration experts will take care of everything.

–FREE thin clients and Microsoft Exchange. Sign up for IronOrbit Hosted Desktops or Application Hosting before the end of the month to receive FREE hardware and software.  If you’re a BYOX business, switch to an IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Infrastructure ASAP!

In previous blog posts such as “How the IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Helps Small Businesses” and also “How a Hosted Desktop Broadens a Business’s Scope,” we’ve gone into detail about the benefits of the IronOrbit Hosted Desktop.

Businesses should prefer Virtual Desktop Hosting to an old-fashioned on-site IT infrastructure due to the Hosted Desktop Infrastructure’s superior cost-efficiency, reliability, mobility, and data security. Rather than take our word for it, however, have a look at this real-world scenario of a Large Healthcare Facility that required an overhaul of their IT infrastructure and selected an IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Infrastructure:

The challenge

A Large Healthcare Facility in Orange, California had an old IT infrastructure that needed to be replaced. The PCs and servers were all five years old or more and were frustrating to use and expensive to maintain. The current IT systems weren’t compatible with the latest Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record (EHR) software, which disqualified the Healthcare Facility from federal subsidies of more than $100,000 per physician. The infrastructure was also in danger of violating HIPAA and HITECH data security regulations (which would result in up to $1.5 million in fines and public disclosure of the violation) with its rudimentary IT security and data backup systems. Under the Affordable Care Act, the Large Healthcare Facility was also under pressure from public officials to cut costs wherever possible.

The solution

To modernize its IT infrastructure, the Large Healthcare Facility turned to Desktop Hosting Services from IronOrbit. This solved a lot of the Facility’s IT problems immediately. With the Hosted Desktop Infrastructure being housed in the hardware of an IronOrbit datacenter, the Facility would no longer have to dump costs and resources into maintaining its own on-site servers. At the same time, the Healthcare Facility wouldn’t have to upgrade its PC workstations because IronOrbit’s high-end infrastructure (responsible for “The World’s Fastest Hosted Desktops”) would pick up the slack and make the Facility’s old hardware perform like they were brand-new. It also wouldn’t have to worry about HIPAA and HITECH compliance with the IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Infrastructure’s built-in Orbital Security System (firewall, antivirus, antispyware, spam blocker, content filter, and data backup).

It took the Large Healthcare Facility less than a month to switch to Virtual Desktop Hosting. IronOrbit started by inspecting the Facility’s current IT infrastructure and learning about its near-term and long-term IT requirements and preferences from its CIO. We put together a design of the Healthcare Facility’s Hosted Desktop Infrastructure from this information and submitted it for approval. IronOrbit then followed up with a swift and problem-free data migration and deployment process.

The result

The Large Healthcare Facility found in IronOrbit Desktop Hosting a cost-efficient, high-performance, HIPAA-compliant IT infrastructure. The IronOrbit Hosted Desktop helped the Facility meet its cost-cutting targets and maintain its Meaningful Use eligibility. Due to doctors’ familiarity with the Hosted Desktop interface (a Hosted Desktop has the same appearance and features as the “desktop” or operating system of a PC) and their ability to access it from their preferred device (a laptop, tablet, or smartphone instead of a PC workstation), there weren’t any significant barriers to adoption. IronOrbit’s Virtual Desktop Hosting platform had the flexibility to support all the different EMR and EHR systems that physicians had independently selected and implemented.

About IronOrbit

IronOrbit distinguishes ourselves with the variety, quality, and cost-efficiency of our Hosted Solutions. We provide every kind of Hosted Solution (including Hosted Desktops, Hosted Applications, and Managed Hosted Servers) to businesses in all industries (healthcare, financial, legal, retail, government, and more) and of every size (microbusinesses, SMBs, and enterprises). We include 24x7x365 US-based technical support, around-the-clock monitoring, Orbital Security, and Atomic Speed Technology with all of our Solutions. Contact an IronOrbit sales representative to get started today.

With Tax Day just around the corner, it’s the busiest and most lucrative time of the year for CPAs and other workers in the financial services industry. The last thing a financial professional needs at this point is to waste time troubleshooting their Accounting Software or ordering repairs or replacement parts for a broken-down server. Unfortunately for financial workers, however, the busiest periods aren’t only crucial to a company’s bottom line; they’re also when a business’s IT assets are most likely to fail from overuse.

With Application Hosting from IronOrbit, though, CPAs don’t have to worry about downtime or IT maintenance. IronOrbit guarantees 100% uptime and includes free management, support, and maintenance with all of our Hosted Solutions. Financial professionals that sign up for our Hosted Applications won’t have to spend a minute of their time fixing or worrying about their IT infrastructure for the rest of the tax season—and for as long as they remain an IronOrbit user!

Workers in the financial services industry should select IronOrbit Application Hosting for reasons that include:

–Fixed-cost, affordable Application Hosting. IronOrbit users are charged only a low, flat monthly fee for their Hosted Applications. Since IronOrbit provides all of the hardware and technical support, our users don’t need to invest any capital in purchasing and maintaining on-premise servers or hiring salaried IT personnel. Financial professionals, more than anyone, should appreciate the value of predictable costs with no upfront or surprise fees.

–Host any application. The financial applications we support include QuickBooks Accounting, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise, Peachtree Accounting, Sage 50, AccountEdge, and DacEasy. Businesses can transfer data and licenses from an on-premise deployment or start from scratch. Our selection isn’t limited to just Hosted Financial Applications, of course; IronOrbit can also host business productivity applications such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Exchange.

–Anywhere-enabled. IronOrbit Hosted Applications can be accessed from anywhere and anytime on any Internet-connected computing device. This helps financial professionals in two big ways: 1) it provides them with mobile access to their Accounting Software when they perform off-site bookkeeping and auditing services; 2) their clients can input their data into the web-based system, averting a costly and time-consuming transfer process of electronic or physical records.

–SOX, PCI DSS, and GLBA compliant data security. Our security measures include built-in security measures include firewalls, antivirus, spam blocker, intrusion prevention system, data backup, business continuity planning, and content filtering, IronOrbit Hosted Applications are compliant with data security regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Select IronOrbit Application Hosting Services today for a worry-free tax season and beyond—whether you’re a financial services firm in Orange County, a CPA in Los Angeles, or a member of an accounting department anywhere in Southern California! Even better, if you sign up before the end of the March you’ll receive Microsoft Exchange and Wyse C Class thin clients for FREE. Contact an Ironorbit Solutions Expert now to get started.

Select IronOrbit Hosted Desktops if you want to reduce your IT costs and hassles and enhance the performance and flexibility of your small business’s IT infrastructure. Our Hosted Desktops don’t require you to procure or maintain any expensive on-site IT hardware such as servers and storage devices. You don’t have to pay any upfront or maintenance costs with the IronOrbit Hosted Desktop, either. Our Solution lets your employees access their files and applications from anywhere, at any time, on any device (such as desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones). We include IT infrastructure management, around-the-clock monitoring, 24×7 technical support, and automated data backups with our Hosted Desktops, as well. Simply sign up and sign on to get started with IronOrbit, the Small Business Hosting leader!

Never worry about installing, monitoring, upgrading, repairing, or replacing any on-site IT hardware again with this Hosted Solution. Set your focus on your small business once again, not on your finicky IT infrastructure. Fluctuating IT budgets will also be a thing of the past with the IronOrbit Hosted Desktop—our users pay only a fixed, low monthly fee for our Hosted Solutions (managed services and technical support included). There aren’t any qualitative trade-offs for these lower costs, either. The custom-built architecture of our Hosted Desktops includes our state-of-the-art Atomic Speed Technology and Orbital Security System and features enterprise-level performance and data protection.

Hosted Desktop

Hosted Desktops are web-based desktop operating systems. The average user won’t notice the difference between a Hosted Desktop and the native operating system of a PC or laptop. Unlike a locally-installed operating system, however, Hosted Desktops are located on servers in an off-site datacenter and accessed via the Internet. It’s easier to manage the centralized and flexible Hosted Desktop than widely-dispersed and un-virtualized PC workstations.

Small Business and IronOrbit Hosted Desktop

The typical small business has a relatively minuscule IT budget, limited office space in which to store IT hardware, and no on-site IT personnel. Consequently, they need a cost-efficient, low-footprint IT infrastructure that doesn’t require any maintenance. IronOrbit Hosted Desktops are a low-cost, fully-supported IT Solution that doesn’t require an on-site hardware. For small businesses, IronOrbit Hosted Desktops are the ideal IT infrastructure. Switch to the cloud with IronOrbit today and receive FREE thin clients and Microsoft Exchange—whether you’re a law firm or a physician’s office in Irvine, an IT Solutions company in Anaheim, or a retailer in Orange!

Doesn’t it seem like everyone has a smartphone or tablet these days? According to this infographic from Engine Yard, that’s because just about everyone actually does own and utilize a mobile device. Currently, two-thirds of all American adults use a smartphone, tablet, or laptop to connect to the Internet. This year, experts predict that 1 billion smartphones will be sold worldwide. A total of 10 billion mobile devices will be in use by 2016, they project.

The infographic also suggests that “the growth of mobile is driving cloud computing and vice versa.” Mobile devices use cloud computing to compensate for their relative lack of processing power and storage space. Also, mobile devices enhance cloud computing by making it possible to access cloud-based services from anywhere. Therefore, any growth in the sales of mobile devices would lead to a correlating expansion in the adoption of cloud-based solutions (and vice versa).

Mobile devices and cloud computing aren’t just trends. The data suggests that they will overtake traditional PC-based and on-site computing models soon. If you haven’t switched the cloud already, sign up for Cloud Solutions from IronOrbit today. With no-cost and hassle-free data transfer and setup, no one makes it easier to migrate to the cloud than IronOrbit. We include Atomic Speed Technology, Orbital Security, 24x7x365 technical support, around-the-clock performance and security monitoring, automated data backups, and (for a limited time) free thin clients and Microsoft Exchange with all of our Hosted Solutions for no extra cost. Contact IronOrbit today to sign up for Hosted Desktops, Hosted Applications, Managed Hosted Servers, and Hosted Financial Applications!