Month: May 2013

A virtual desktop is a web-based solution that appears and performs just like a locally-installed Windows operating system. The same desktop can be accessed from anywhere with any Internet-connected device (such as a PC, thin client, tablet, or smartphone). Virtual desktops have superb out-of-the-box functionality and versatility. Unlike hosted infrastructures, which have to be set up and customized first, virtual desktops are ready to be accessed and utilized by end-users as soon as they are deployed; and unlike hosted applications, which are deployed and accessed separately, users can install and access as many applications as they want on a single virtual desktop. In addition, users can save files, browse the Internet, and send and receive emails from a virtual desktop.

Compared to a typical on-site IT infrastructure, virtual desktops are more cost-efficient, secure, and reliable. With hosted desktop solutions, businesses don’t have to purchase any on-site servers or hire any on-premise IT personnel. Virtual desktops are also centralized onto a small number of interconnected servers, which makes them easier to secure and manage.

A virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a solution that hosting companies use to deploy and manage virtual desktops. For our Hosted Desktop Solutions, IronOrbit uses the most cost-efficient and high-performance VDI on the market: VDI-in-a-Box from Citrix. By selecting VDI-in-a-Box, which has a built-in connection broker and load balancer and supports Direct Attached Storage (DAS), IronOrbit significantly reduces our hardware costs, savings that we subsequently pass on to our clients in the form of our low, flat monthly fees. Another unique feature of VDI-in-a-Box—High Definition Experience (HDX) technology—is what allows our Hosted Desktop Solutions to feature high-quality video and audio (including high-definition video conferencing), while still limiting bandwidth consumption with compression and deduplication methods.

The benefits of VDI-in-a-Box aren’t the only reasons to select IronOrbit Hosted Desktop Solutions, however. For example, no other hosting company manages and supports its hosted desktops more effectively or thoroughly than IronOrbit. All of our hosted desktops come with 24x7x365 North America-based technical support, around-the-clock monitoring, Orbital Security (firewall, antivirus, SPAM blocker, IPS/IDS, and content filter), Atomic Speed Technology, and complete daily backups. IronOrbit also offers the widest variety of solutions: hosted desktops, hosted infrastructures, hosted applications, hosted business productivity applications, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)—which can all be customized to fit the exact requirements and preferences of the client.

To get started with a high-performance VDI-in-a-Box Hosted VDI, contact an IronOrbit sales representative today.

According to the research firm Gartner, more than 90% of the smartphones in the world use either an Android or iOS operating system. It’s easy to see why: Android and iOS together support more than 1 million unique applications, while the Windows Phone operating system (with a mere 3% market share) has the ability to run only 100,000 or so applications. Without applications, smartphones are just normal cell phones, and their users—no longer able to receive and answer emails, browse the Internet, conduct research, and work on projects—lose the ability to remain informed, connected, and productive no matter where they are.

For as much as smartphones depend on applications, however, it’s even more important for users of more powerful computing devices (such as desktops, laptops, or end-user devices that rely on the processing power and storage capacity of servers) to have applications that are compatible with desktop or server operating systems. A computer that had a Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, or Linux operating system but that didn’t have the ability to install or access applications wouldn’t be of much use to anyone. For example, just as it would be impossible for a user to create professional-looking documents on a PC without Microsoft Word or a similar word processing application, users would also have to switch back to old-fashioned paper-and-pencil bookkeeping if their operating system didn’t support QuickBooks, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise, or Sage 50.

While users depend on applications to be able to complete their work quickly and effectively, a business, in turn, needs its workers to be as quick and effective as possible if it wants to be efficient enough to make a profit; therefore, it’s important for businesses to maintain the performance, security, and reliability of their applications if they want to succeed. Unfortunately, it’s beyond the budget or expertise of most businesses to optimize and manage their own applications.

At the same time, however, it’s easy for companies to obtain optimally fast, secure, and reliable applications by signing up for Application Hosting from IronOrbit. Each of our Managed Application Hosting solutions is built with performance-boosting Atomic Speed Technology; protected by our advanced Orbital Security System and automated backups; and backed by 24x7x365 technical support, around-the-clock performance monitoring, and a 100% uptime guarantee. No more dealing with the hassles or costs of deploying and managing applications—IronOrbit’s technicians and engineers will take care of everything, and all for a low, flat monthly fee. As an added bonus, businesses can also access their Managed Application Hosting solution from anywhere with any Internet-connected device (including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones).

To get started with Application Hosting, Managed Application Hosting, or QuickBooks Hosting, contact an IronOrbit sales representative today. We have the flexibility to host ANY application (including legacy and customized software), and can help businesses transfer over their files and software licenses from existing deployments for a small fee.

The reasons that businesses select hosted solutions like hosted applications and hosted desktop infrastructures include the fact that they are easy to deploy and utilize; that users can access them from anywhere and with any Internet-connected device; and that they are cost-efficient and a cinch to manage and secure. Managed server hosting is a preferred IT solution of a large number of businesses for similar reasons; the main reason that companies select it, however, is its unparalleled flexibility and customizability.

Servers are powerful, centralized computers that perform tasks and save files on behalf of other computing devices. The power of servers (with their multi-core processors and at least 2GB of RAM) makes them ideal for hosting all of the applications of a business. The centralization of servers, meanwhile, makes it a lot easier to install, secure, update, and remove applications—in comparison to the deployment method of installing single-user versions of applications on every user’s device. Similarly, servers—because of they can be accessed via a network and, when well-maintained, are secure, reliable, and powerful—are also ideal for hosting file storage databases, email mailboxes, collaboration platforms (such as Microsoft SharePoint), and websites.

Many servers are purchased, locally-stored, and maintained by the same businesses that utilize them. It has become increasingly common, however, for businesses to outsource the procurement and maintenance of servers to an external hosting provider. With hosted servers, companies don’t need any expensive on-site IT hardware. Employees only need an Internet-connected device such as a desktop, laptop, thin client, tablet, or smartphone to be able to access files and applications on a hosted server.

Most external hosting companies don’t include security, backups, technical support, or performance monitoring with their hosted servers; they are only concerned with complying with their availability SLAs (usually 99.99%) and maximizing their uptime. But who cares about the uptime of a hosted server when that server is slow, unsupported, riddled with malware, and incompletely backed up? IronOrbit—in contrast—protects, supports, and optimizes all of its hosted servers with its advanced Orbital Security System, managed data backups, 24x7x365 monitoring and technical support, and performance-boosting Atomic Speed Technology.

With Managed Server Hosting from IronOrbit, businesses gain the ability to host files and applications with the flexibility, control, and visibility of on-site servers, but without the costs and hassles of the latter. To get started, companies only need to select the type of Managed Server Hosting that they prefer—the offerings of IronOrbit include Small Business Hosting, Virtual Desktop Hosting, Hosted IT Infrastructure, Dedicated Servers, Private Cloud Servers, Terminal Server Hosting, Citrix Server Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Dedicated Virtual Server Hosting, and Compliance Hosting—and contact an IronOrbit sales representative via email, form, or at the phone number 1-888-603-9033.

Businesses demonstrate “mobility” when their employees can access their files, emails, and/or applications from anywhere via the Internet (including web-enabled mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones). Mobility benefits companies in several ways: first, it gives businesses the opportunity to establish a single, centralized IT infrastructure that can be accessed by employees everywhere (helpful if the company has multiple offices or if its workers travel or telecommute on a regular basis); second, by letting users access high-performance and full-featured IT resources from anywhere, mobility adds up to nine hours of productivity per employee per week; and third, it makes the business more attractive to higher-echelon young job applicants, who expect—much more than employees that grew up in an era before commercially-available mobile technologies—to be able to access their files, emails, and applications from their smartphones and tablets no matter where they are.

Businesses that decide to remain an “immobile” organization—retaining their on-site IT infrastructure, which can only be accessed from an on-premise workstation, and refusing to allow employees to access their files and applications remotely and/or from personal devices—do so because of security concerns. They believe that by extending the accessibility of their IT infrastructure to authorized users everywhere, they also open themselves up to unauthorized access by cybercriminals. But the truth is that the mobile-ready applications, virtual desktops, and infrastructures of an external hosting provider are actually more secure than the cloistered solutions delivered by a self-hosted, on-site IT infrastructure.

For the most part, hosted solutions (including hosted desktop infrastructures, virtual hosted desktop infrastructures, and cloud hosted desktop infrastructures) are more secure than on-site IT solutions because of how they are managed. For example, each IronOrbit hosted solution is protected by a combination of firewalls, file encryption, IPS/IDS, antivirus software, and SPAM blockers. Not only are our hosted solutions well-protected, they are also monitored 24x7x365 by our keen-eyed and experienced personnel, which gives us the ability to respond to potential security threats or breaches before the hacker or malware can do any damage. The security of most on-site IT infrastructures is limited in comparison—it usually amounts to nothing more than a firewall and perhaps a single on-site IT specialist (who’s restricted to 40-hour weekly availability).

For an IT solution that’s the most effective combination of mobility and security, businesses should select a Hosted Desktop Solution from IronOrbit. An IronOrbit Hosted Desktop appears and performs just like a Windows desktop operating system. Each user is assigned to their own permanent hosted desktop—which retains all of their files and settings—and accesses it via the Internet from any device (including smartphones, tablets, thin clients, and Apple PCs). In a way, a Hosted Desktop Infrastructure is the ultimate mobile IT solution because it provides users with the ability to remotely access all of their files, emails, and applications in a single program—when these things would normally have to be separately hosted and paid for in the form of a file storage service, web-based email inbox, and hosted application. We protect our Hosted Desktop Solutions with our advanced Orbital Security System. All of the data in a Hosted Desktop Infrastructure remains on our servers—so even if a user’s device is stolen, the thief won’t be able to extract a business’s sensitive data onto a hard drive.

To get started with a 30 day free trial of Hosted Desktops, contact a helpful IronOrbit sales representative today!

A Hosted Desktop Infrastructure from IronOrbit has a number of advantages over an on-site IT infrastructure (it’s more cost-efficient, easy to access, and less vulnerable to downtime and security breaches); it’s also—because of its quick and easy deployment, familiar interface, and compatibility with all devices, file types, and applications—one of the easiest IT solutions to switch to. As a result, regardless of a business’s current IT infrastructure (on-premise or hosted, recently deployed or nearing the end of its lifecycle), it’s never a bad time to sign up for a Hosted Desktop Solution from IronOrbit. However, because the benefits of hosted desktops are amplified in certain situations where their quick deployment, scalability, and anywhere-availability are even more valuable, it’s almost mandatory for businesses in these stages of their development to sign up for IronOrbit Virtual Desktop Hosting:

• New companies. Businesses that sign up for Virtual Desktop Hosting don’t have to maintain any on-premise servers or hire any on-site IT personnel. For established businesses, this makes having an IT infrastructure more cost-effective and less of a hassle, but it also leaves some of them with surplus hardware and personnel. It’s isn’t too difficult to resell or reassign these suddenly-unneeded assets, but new companies that adopt a Hosted Desktop Infrastructure from the get-go are fortunate to not have to undergo this transition. New companies also benefit more than the average business from the scalability of an IronOrbit Virtual Hosted Desktop Solution—instead of having to make immediate, irreversible, and long-term investments in servers and other IT hardware and software, with a Hosted Desktop Infrastructure businesses can add and subtract computing resources on an as-needed basis as they grow or condense.

• Growing businesses. Another type of company that benefits more than the average business from the scalability of a Hosted Desktop Infrastructure is an expanding business. With Virtual Desktop Hosting, expanding businesses can add CPU, RAM, long-term storage capacity, and bandwidth without purchasing any additional hardware or hiring any new personnel. A Hosted Desktop Infrastructure, because it requires little to no training time (Hosted Desktops appear and perform exactly like locally-installed Windows desktop operating systems), also makes it easier for expanding businesses to add users. It also provides a centralized, anywhere-accessible infrastructure for expanding companies that are adding new locations or moving to bigger offices.

• Businesses with an IT infrastructure approaching the end of its lifecycle. It’s always a good idea for a business to switch to a Hosted Desktop Infrastructure when its current on-site IT infrastructure reaches the end of its lifecycle. Otherwise, they will have to wait 3-5 years for the next lifecycle to end to switch to a Virtual Hosted Desktop Solution.

Regardless of what type of business you are, however, you’ll always benefit from signing up for a secure, scalable, and anywhere-available Hosted Desktop Solution from IronOrbit. All of our Virtual Hosted Desktop Solutions come with 24x7x365 technical support, Orbital Security, Atomic Speed Technology, and managed backups. In addition, if you’d prefer a different type of IT solution or one with different features or settings, we also provide a variety of other Hosted Services (Managed Hosted Servers, Hosted Applications, VoIP, etc.) and have the ability to customize our solutions to more perfectly match your IT requirements and preferences. For a 30 day free trial, contact one of our helpful sales representatives today!

To be successful in a fast-paced and highly-competitive economy, you need a flexible hosted IT infrastructure. An adaptable hosted IT infrastructure makes it faster and easier to get a new business up and running; to take advantage of favorable conditions or occurrences in the marketplace such as newly-implemented tax breaks, declining real estate prices, or newly-developed technologies; and to adjust to fluctuations in demand. Usually, it takes less than a week and as little as a few minutes to deploy or make drastic changes to a hosted IT infrastructure.

On the other hand, with an on-site IT infrastructure, a company has to acquire and install a lot of hardware and software and implement and configure a bunch of networks on its own. In the time that it takes to complete this process (1-2 months, usually), whatever conditions or opportunities that prompted the new deployment or adjustment will have passed, and all of the potential benefits will have been squandered—or, even worse, have been seized upon and co-opted by a rival.

It isn’t hard to switch to a more adaptable hosted IT infrastructure—all it takes is to sign up for an IronOrbit Hosted Infrastructure. Simply select your preferred type of hosted infrastructure (among which we offer Hosted VDI, Virtual Private Servers, Terminal Servers, Citrix Servers, and Compliance Hosting) and initiate contact with an IronOrbit sales representative via email, phone, or online form. We will then design a customized Hosted Infrastructure based upon your IT requirements and preferences. In addition, we’ll help you transfer your applications, files, settings, and software licenses to your new Hosted IT Infrastructure. No other hosting provider can match the swiftness, cost-efficiency, and convenience of our setup and migration process.

After you’ve deployed your IronOrbit Hosted Infrastructure or Hosted VDI, you can also take advantage of the unprecedented scalability of our solutions and adjust its allotment of users, processing power, storage capacity, and bandwidth. Utilize this feature whenever you need to add new employees to the infrastructure; when your website experiences a spike in traffic; to prepare your e-commerce platform and inventory management system for what is typically your busy season; etc.

IronOrbit Hosted Solutions, including Hosted VDI, are flexible and scalable enough to make quick changes and support businesses of any size. Though customized, they are also one-size-fits-all Hosted Infrastructures that have the adaptability and stability to support your business in the long term, while having the agility to adjust to contingencies in the short term. Our multifaceted Hosted Solutions come with 24x7x365 technical support, around-the-clock performance monitoring, Atomic Speed Technology, Orbital Security, and managed data backups. There aren’t any long-term expenses (you don’t have to purchase any on-premise servers or hire any on-site IT personnel) or surprise costs, either; our Hosted Solutions require a low, flat monthly fee. All you have to do to get yourself ahead of the curve is to start your 30 day free trial of IronOrbit Hosted Solutions today!

QuickBooks Enterprise is a reliable and easy-to-use accounting program for larger businesses, as well as for small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with larger-than-average inventories or voluminous financial records. It provides organizations with an integrated financial solution that covers not only purchases and sales, but also inventory tracking, lead management, taxes, and statistical analysis. QuickBooks Enterprise also improves on the technical capabilities of QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier, giving users the ability to open two files within the program at once and raising the maximum number of simultaneous users from 5 to 30 and the maximum number of inventory items from 14,500 to 100,000.

Whether a business is switching from the Pro or Premier version of QuickBooks or doesn’t have existing accounting software and wants to start off using QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Hosting from IronOrbit is always the best option.

The advantages that Hosted QuickBooks from IronOrbit has over a locally-installed version of QuickBooks include:

• Anywhere-accessible. Hosted QuickBooks can be accessed from anywhere with any Internet-connected device. Using this feature, accountants can continue their work (for example) from home or a coffee shop; executives, even while traveling or otherwise out of the office, can monitor the real-time finances of their company; and businesses can avoid costly and distracting on-site visits from financial services contractors by giving them temporary access to the web-based software.

• Less hassles and costs. You don’t have to purchase or manage any on-site servers with QuickBooks Hosting. Maintaining and securing the Hosted QuickBooks isn’t your responsibility, either. Everything that’s required to keep your Hosted QuickBooks deployment up and running will be handled by IronOrbit’s highly-skilled team of technicians.

• Managed, supported, and protected. IronOrbit Hosted QuickBooks comes with 24x7x365 technical support, around-the-clock performance monitoring, Orbital Security (firewall, file encryption, antivirus, SPAM blocker, IPS/IDS, patch management, and content filter), and managed backups. You don’t have to pay anything additional for these services; they’re all included in the low, flat monthly fee that you pay for your Hosted QuickBooks.

• Same features as the desktop version. It’s common for developers to remove features and processes from a desktop application when converting it to a hosted application. The reasoning behind this is that, typically, aspects of software that require a lot of processing power or storage space can’t be delivered in an effective way over a network. The Hosted QuickBooks Enterprise of IronOrbit is the full desktop version, however, and thanks to Atomic Speed Technology it’s as fast and reliable as a locally-installed deployment.

Upgrade your IT by signing up for IronOrbit QuickBooks Enterprise Hosting today!

In general, hosted IT solutions are more cost-efficient than on-premise IT solutions. A lot of the cost-efficiency associated with hosted solutions can be traced to a technology called virtualization, which increases the flexibility and efficiency of IT hardware. With virtualization, a single physical server can be divided into multiple virtual servers. In the past, a physical server would be limited to supporting only a single hosted solution (an arrangement that results in a 10-15% server utilization rate), but virtualization makes it possible to support multiple solutions on a single physical server. As a result, businesses that couldn’t afford to purchase or rent a physical server now have the ability to rent virtual servers (or virtual server-based hosted solutions) that are a much better fit for their IT requirements and budget.

Virtual servers don’t make financial or logistical sense for every company, however. For certain companies, a single physical server (also known as a dedicated server) is more in line with their IT requirements and budget. For example, there are businesses that want to be able to select their server’s hardware and operating system; that are prohibited by data security regulations from sharing a server with any other business; and/or that, because they have a frequently-visited website or frequently-used application, need the abundant resources and centralization of a private physical server.

Just because hosted dedicated servers don’t have the flexibility or multi-tenant architecture of virtual private servers doesn’t mean that they aren’t still preferable to on-site servers, however. The Hosted Dedicated Servers of IronOrbit, in particular, are more cost-efficient and valuable than on-site servers because of:

• Economy of scale. IronOrbit has an economy of scale advantage over on-site IT personnel because we have more than 50 technicians spread out among our six offices (including one international location). Aside from that, our sizable customer base also enhances our operational efficiency by providing our personnel with a steady stream of assignments; it also decreases the amount that each customer has to pay to cover our operating expenses.

• Better performance, security, and reliability. IronOrbit Hosted Dedicated Servers are faster and more secure and reliable than on-site servers because we utilize state-of-the-art hosting technologies and provide in-depth support. Our Dedicated Servers are built and hosted using our ultra-fast Atomic Speed Technology and highly-protective Orbital Security, as well as backed by an industry-best 100% uptime guarantee. They are monitored and maintained around-the-clock by our knowledgeable and experienced technicians.

• No hassles. IronOrbit purchases the servers, storage devices, and datacenter networking equipment; manages the infrastructure; and maintains the solution, all for a flat, monthly fee. Our Virtual Dedicated Server customers don’t have to do anything but sign up and sign on.

To switch to a more cost-efficient and valuable IT infrastructure, sign up for Hosted Dedicated Servers from IronOrbit today. Businesses looking for a different kind of hosted IT infrastructure (for example, Virtual Private Servers, Citrix Servers, or Terminal Servers) should visit our main site or contact one of our helpful sales representatives for more information on our other Managed Server Hosting solutions.

It was announced last week that the United States economy added 165,000 jobs in April. In February, it was reported that American businesses had spent triple the amount on mergers and acquisitions ($219 billion) in the first month and a half of 2013 that they did in the same period of 2012. In 2008, businesses with a staff size larger than 500 employed 50.6% of the national workforce, a 5% increase from 1988.

As U.S. businesses continue to grow, so will their on-site IT infrastructures and IT departments. Large on-site infrastructures and IT departments can be complicated, expensive, and difficult to manage, however. The costs of purchasing hardware and software and hiring IT personnel by themselves can be enough to impede or reverse the growth of a business, for example.

Another problem with on-site infrastructures and personnel is that they aren’t flexible enough to keep up with rapidly growing businesses. When expanding an on-site IT infrastructure, for example, a big company has to redesign and recalibrate its systems and networks; research, purchase, and transport a sizable amount of hardware; and perform a large number of installations and integrations. As a result, it can take several months to upgrade or alter the on-site IT infrastructure of a large business. Meanwhile, adding new personnel to an on-site IT department takes an average of 7.7 weeks and costs $4,000 per hire. From these examples, it’s easy to see how a slow-to-adapt on-site IT infrastructure can hold back a rapidly-growing business.

Businesses that want an IT infrastructure that can quickly and easily expand and support any level of growth should sign up for a hosted IT infrastructure from IronOrbit. A hosted IT infrastructure from IronOrbit is the best option for a large or growing business because:

-It’s capable of completely replacing an enterprise-level, on-site IT infrastructure. Though many businesses utilize a hosted IT infrastructure from IronOrbit just to deploy a specialty application or two, our hosted IT infrastructure is capable of a lot more. It can replace an entire on-site IT infrastructure. Anything that can be hosted on an on-site IT infrastructure—applications, virtual desktops, email, SharePoint, VoIP, etc.—can be hosted on an IronOrbit hosted IT infrastructure, as well.

-It doesn’t require any on-site IT personnel. Businesses that sign up for infrastructure hosting from IronOrbit don’t need to hire any on-site IT personnel. We provide all the monitoring, maintenance, management, security, and technical support required by the hosted IT infrastructure. Our personnel are available 24x7x365 and work around-the-clock to maintain the speed, security, and reliability of a business’s hosted IT infrastructure at its highest levels.

-IronOrbit hosted IT infrastructures are highly scalable. A business can add any amount of users and computing resources (processing power, storage capacity, and bandwidth) to its hosted IT infrastructure at any time. Also, it generally only takes a few seconds to deploy an application with an IronOrbit hosted IT infrastructure. In addition, if a business wants to streamline its IT infrastructure, our hosted IT infrastructure can also be scaled down.

An IronOrbit hosted IT infrastructure is an infrastructure that a large or rapidly-expanding businesses can depend on. The scalability of our infrastructure hosting allows it to support any type of business—no matter how sizable or complex—and any rate of change—no matter how fast or in what direction. Along with our hosted IT infrastructures, businesses of all sizes can benefit from a wide variety of hosted solutions offered by IronOrbit including hosted desktop infrastructures, application hosting, SharePoint hosting, QuickBooks hosting, EMR hosting, and VoIP. All of these solutions include 24x7x365 technical support, around-the-clock performance monitoring, Orbital Security, AST Speed Technology, managed backups, and low, flat monthly fees. To sign up today, contact a helpful IronOrbit sales representative.