Cloud computing technologies have allowed the small and medium business to usher into the lean and thin IT infrastructure environment where in the costs associated with managing, establishing, and procuring them can be decreased drastically. What this essentially means is that just like Software as a Service, Small and medium business can have Hardware as a service where in they pay for the outsourcing of IT infrastructure provided remotely to them as any other IT service.

The providers of this service are called Third party Application service providers, who host your application on their terminal servers and users access the application just like a desktop interface. The most common application that can be hosted on terminal servers are accounting applications such as QuickBooks and Peachtree, CRM applications such as ACT! by Sage and tax software such as Lacerte, Proseries, ATX and Drake.

The advantages of getting this application Hosted on Terminal servers are:


• Low cost and effective IT solution: With application hosting services, small businesses are able to avoid lot of investments associated with management of IT applications, networks and associated IT infrastructure. With application hosting you are no longer required to invest upfront cost in setting up local network, procurement of servers, backup facilities and security solutions besides local IT support costs. Application hosting dose away with these costs as all these services are provided as a service by the ASP.

• Higher Security: Apart from reducing the IT support costs, Application hosting on Terminal servers also resolves data security and management issues which concerns small and medium business and Accounting professionals. Critical business data is more secure, if it is regularly backed up as well as monitored in real time for security breaches. Application hosting services comes with remote backup of all data in multiple locations and further insured with password protected access and latest online monitoring tools. Also since the actual operations are carried on the latest terminal servers which are highly insured the database is safer.

• Application Management made easy: Installing and running any application and occasional troubleshooting successfully requires expertise which may not be available timely. Application hosting services enables easy and trouble free management of the accounting application as the expertise of the ASP is always available.