Cloud Insights

Companies were feeling the shortage of skilled IT workers before the global pandemic, but now the chasm between IT positions and those qualified to fill them has grown even larger. With IT personnel increasingly difficult to find and retain, outsourcing some of your company’s IT tasks can be a smart strategy. IT outsourcing is at a five-year high, with more than one-third of companies outsourcing at least part of their network operations. Outsourcing the hosting of your Sage ERP application is a straightforward way to maximize limited IT resources, freeing your internal IT team to focus on other technology tasks. Below are six ways hosted Sage ERP helps maximize limited IT resources. 1. A Clean Division of Labor When you hire a typical Cloud Services Provider (CSP) to outsource technology, there can sometimes be grey areas of responsibility — “Are they handling that task, or are we?” It’s always easier to outsource a task when you can easily define and contain it. Outsourcing the hosting of Sage ERP is one of those definable tasks — you can put a box around it. As a Private Cloud Services Provider, Cloud at Work specializes in hosting Sage applications. By focusing on this one area of technology, we’ve become the most experienced provider in the nation. With Cloud at Work, you and your Sage business partner have one point of contact for everything regarding your ERP. 2. Secure and Accessible During the pandemic, we all learned how imperative it is to access the ERP system remotely. We’ve spoken with many companies whose IT teams struggled to provide secure, reliable, and fast access to Sage ERP for their remote workers. When you choose a Hosted ERP model like Cloud at Work’s, remote accessibility is built into the solution. And we’re not talking about that window-within-a-window access — we’re talking fast, secure, SaaS-like access to Sage ERP from wherever your teams are working. 3. Experts at the Task By necessity, your internal IT department has to be a jack-of-all-trades. They must know enough about every aspect of your technology infrastructure to keep it running smoothly. However, most companies cannot afford (let alone find) an IT team consisting of experts in each aspect of their technology. By outsourcing the hosting of Sage ERP to Cloud at Work, you’re engaging an entire team of Sage ERP experts and an entire team of cloud infrastructure experts all rolled into one. No one knows Sage ERP and cloud technology like Cloud at Work. No one. 4. Patches, Fixes, Support, and Training It is time-consuming to keep your Sage ERP up to date. Someone needs to continually monitor the application, installing updates, patches, and fixes when they become available. These tasks might fall lower in the priority lists for a busy internal IT team. An outsourced Sage ERP hosting provider like Cloud at Work can install all patches and fixes to your cloud infrastructure. In addition, our environment support services are there to help your IT team and Sage partner with new hire training, ongoing mentoring, and upgrades. 5. World-Class Security Sage ERP is mission-critical to your company’s operations, and security is likely one of your top concerns. Yet modern IT infrastructures are complex and vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks and in-house technology personnel often lack the updated skills and training to help prevent the attacks. Outsourced ERP hosting providers like Cloud at Work host your entire production environment in a stable and secure solution with 24x7x365 monitoring and support. With 99.99% availability and hourly backup snapshots – along with disaster recovery, you can be assured that even in the event of a disaster, your data will be safe. 6. Scalability Built In When Sage ERP is installed on your company’s local server and accessed through your local area network, you are inherently limited by the capacity of those resources. If you need more storage or faster connectivity, it will require a significant and disruptive investment. By outsourcing Sage ERP to a provider like Cloud at Work, you no longer have to worry about the ERP’s operating environment. Our resources are (nearly) infinitely scalable, our equipment is state-of-the-art, and our capacity is continually growing. With Cloud at Work, scalability is built in. Whether you are a small company with no in-house technology staff or a mid-sized organization with a skilled internal team, you can benefit from outsourcing the hosting of Sage ERP. Hosted ERP eliminates the burden of hosting, maintaining, and troubleshooting Sage ERP, providing easy access, robust security, vast scalability, and infinite peace of mind. Questions about hosting Sage ERP? We’ve got answers.

NEW YORK, NY – June 22, 2021 – Cloud at Work (www.thecloudatwork.com), a purpose-built Sage hosting solution, today announced that Oasis Solutions (Oasis), a leading Sage business partner, has selected it as its exclusive hosting provider for Sage clients. By migrating its Sage clients to Cloud at Work, Oasis enables them to take control of their businesses, and realize the financial benefits of SaaS, supported by the combined Sage application and cloud technology expertise of Oasis and the Cloud at Work team. Oasis Solutions began delivering technology solutions in 1991 and today is a trusted strategic partner for hundreds of clients, ensuring that their information systems are aligned with their business objectives. By choosing Cloud at Work as its exclusive hosting provider, Oasis gives their Sage clients the increased agility needed to successfully compete in a post-pandemic world, while reducing costs, increasing profits, and streamlining processes to gain new efficiencies. “We’re delighted to welcome Oasis Solutions as a Cloud at Work alliance partner,” said Tyler Bower, Director of Cloud at Cloud at Work. “We work hard every day to deliver the best experience for our partners and their Sage clients. When an organization with Oasis’s stellar reputation trusts us to power their cloud strategy, it’s a highly rewarding validation of our efforts. They’ve built a strong team and remarkable company, and we look forward to working with them in helping their Sage clients leverage the power, efficiencies and business benefits of cloud hosting.” “We wanted a hosting partner we could trust to help our clients as they transition their Sage solutions to the cloud,” said Annette Manias, President of Oasis. “We needed someone that was highly technical but also who understood the Sage solutions our clients used. Lastly, we needed to be sure that our corporate cultures would align in putting our clients, people, and process first. In Cloud at Work we found a Sage hosting partner that ticked all these boxes and made the entire process for us and our clients easy.” Cloud at Work’s recently announced Partner Development Fund allocates $1.5 million to Sage Business Partner customers who migrate their application to Cloud at Work. Sage users that sign on to move to Cloud at Work Hosting will receive a certificate of credit to be spent exclusively with their Sage Business Partner of Record. The funds can be used for any service, including upgrades, new software, services and migrations. Learn more about the Cloud at Work Partner Program here. About Cloud at Work Cloud at Work gives users of Sage applications more capabilities and control to increase business performance using their technology investments. With a knowledgeable, highly-responsive team of Sage application experts and advanced cloud hosting solutions personalized to customer strengths, Cloud at Work helps its customers pivot more quickly to capitalize on new business opportunities and resolve issues faster. Businesses using Sage trust Cloud at Work to help them achieve higher levels of business productivity and resiliency that outpace competitors and help them capture more market share. Visit thecloudatwork.com for more information. About Oasis Solutions Oasis Solutions has been recognized as a Best Places To Work award winner for the past four consecutive years. As a fast-growing company, we leverage the best tools and tactics that enable adaptability and growth during these times. Oasis is your local NetSuite, Sage 100, and Workday Adaptive Planning partner that offers expertise in accounting, human resource management, and custom software development. We have your long-term plan and business strategy in mind from the get-go. Oasis Solutions has offices in Louisville and Lexington, KY, TN, and NC. Let us help you set your team up for success by implementing the best tools for your business. Visit oasisky.com for more information.

Hardly a news day goes by without stories of new ransomware attacks. In 2020, there were an estimated 304 million ransomware attacks worldwide — an increase of 62% from the prior year — at an estimated cost to businesses of $20 billion. For business owners, it’s no longer a matter of considering if security threats will arise, but rather when. While there may be no bulletproof way to prevent a ransomware attack, there are steps you can take to mitigate the danger. Moving your Sage ERP to a hosted private cloud is one of the best steps. Here we look at the roots of the ransomware risk and how Hosted ERP can reduce that risk. Complexity creates risk Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever. For cybercriminals, this complexity represents opportunity in the form of more entry points. Cybercriminals can launch thousands of digital attacks designed to compromise your operations at every turn, only one of which needs to connect to cause severe disruption. The wider the range of possible targets, the easier it is for cybercriminals to find undetected vulnerabilities. It also makes successful penetration more likely and reduces the risk of early detection and thwart. Ransomware attacks come in many forms, but many are launched as email phishing schemes. Someone in your organization clicks on a link in an email that looks legit but isn’t, letting in the bad guys. Other approaches include exploiting software vulnerabilities and remote desktop protocols (RDPs). In fact, during Q1 of 2021, RDP breaches were responsible for the most ransomware attacks — despite reliable tools for securing RDP access. Enormous resources required Preventing a ransomware attack requires a comprehensive approach that is continually bolstered, updated, and adjusted. Prevention and protection involve user education (such as no USB sticks and what not to click on), current antivirus software, updated operating system, a robust firewall and endpoint protection, rigorous backup routines, a proven disaster recovery plan, trustworthy and tested VPNs, and much more. Many companies have a false sense of security that they won’t be the target of a ransomware attack because they are smaller. In reality, perpetrators love to attack small businesses — they comprise between one-half and three-quarters of the victims of ransomware. Yet, according to a recent Keeper Security SMB Cyberthreat Study, 66% of senior decision-makers at small businesses still believe they’re unlikely to be targeted by online criminals. Similarly, 6 in 10 have no digital defense plan in place whatsoever. Keep in mind that it’s no longer that single bad actor who knows a lot about computers that perpetrates these attacks. Instead, now there is a whole underworld web of “cartels” launching increasingly sophisticated, increasingly frequent, and increasingly bold attacks. Defending against these attacks requires an equally sophisticated defense. A secure defense may be outside your capabilities Complex technology infrastructures requiring continual monitoring and updating help fuel the risk of a ransomware attack. Even organizations with robust in-house IT departments are pressed to have the resources necessary to remain out in front of the essential security tasks and protocols. Protecting your business from ransomware requires resources and expertise that go far beyond the capabilities of most companies. That’s why the best ransomware defense is to partner with a trusted technology provider and even consider moving your most valuable business data — including Sage ERP — to a hosted environment accessed through a reputable and secure Private Cloud Services Provider (CSP). Private CSPs are prepared There is general consensus surrounding actions companies can take to reduce the threat of falling victim to a ransomware attack. Four of the top suggestions are: 1. Continually update the operating system 2. Use a next-generation antivirus application — and keep it current 3. Implement backup and disaster and recovery strategies 4. Continual monitoring of your network environment By engaging a Private Cloud Services Provider to host your Sage ERP, you’ve effectively taken all four of those steps at once. Private CSPs, like Cloud at Work, host your Sage ERP in state-of-the-art data centers where redundancy, security, and availability are maintained at the highest level. Cloud at Work’s data centers, for example, are geo diverse, provide 24/7 support and monitoring, perform hourly snapshots and daily backups (stored on separate networks), and offer disaster recovery time guarantees. What’s more, because we specialize in Sage ERP, we can be that one call with your questions and concerns surrounding your mission-critical business application. Effective cybersecurity requires time, vigilance, education, expertise, and tools beyond that available in-house for the vast majority of companies. By partnering with a Hosted ERP provider like Cloud at Work, you gain access to world-class cybersecurity resources and expertise. It’s a dangerous world out there, and while there are no completely safe harbors, it’s your responsibility to take every step possible to ensure your company is defending itself against ransomware attacks. We’re ready to help.

To sell or to hold is the age-old question in investing. Either an asset has peaked (or tanked!) and it’s time to offload it, or it’s worth retaining to maximize its value in the future. Very rarely, though, you get one of those investments that pays dividends now and continues delivering a return on your investment for years to come.  Cloud Hosted Sage ERP is one such asset. Advantages of SaaS without the sacrifices The average company changes its ERP software every seven years. If your Sage ERP application has been in place for several years, you may be feeling the pressure to begin looking for a new application. Often, pressure comes from internal stakeholders or colleagues who “heard that XYZ Cloud ERP is the best.” Perhaps you’re even putting some pressure on yourself by wondering if you should switch to a Cloud-based SaaS ERP application to minimize your IT burden and support better remote access. In truth, it’s likely that Sage ERP continues to serve your company well, providing a rich feature set and broad functionality continually expanded by Sage. Additionally, you may have invested in third-party applications or custom development that increase the value of your Sage ERP and makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) to duplicate in a SaaS ERP. Switching to a Hosted Sage ERP model delivers the benefits of a SaaS application — including automated backups, easy remote access, and minimal IT requirements — while still retaining the deep functionality you’ve spent years refining. Taking the lid off your technology ceiling In our experience working with our clients and those of other Sage business partners, we find that Sage ERP is rarely a limiting factor in the growth and success of these companies. The software is robust, modern, and highly capable of scaling to accommodate additional entities and more transactions. Instead, it’s the technology infrastructure within these companies that’s the problem. As network systems, server configurations, and security protocols become increasingly complex, it can be difficult for companies to stay out in front of technology. As a result, many experience slow network speeds, clumsy remote access, and inconsistent backup routines. Without a highly robust technology infrastructure, companies will find it difficult to scale, as they lack the agility to quickly respond to changes in the marketplace. A Hosted ERP model, where you access Sage ERP through a Private Cloud, can eliminate barriers to scale by providing a state-of-the-art platform to build and grow a business. Private Cloud extends the life of Sage ERP Switching to a Private Cloud Hosted Sage ERP model can further extend the life of Sage ERP through improved remote access, built-in redundancy and backups, faster speeds, and better consistency of data and reporting. Private cloud infrastructure, when designed correctly, is highly scalable, providing horsepower far beyond what individual companies can typically build in-house. And the best private cloud service providers are agile enough to expand and extend their offerings quickly to meet increased demands. You may be wondering why private cloud over public cloud hosting? Private Cloud hosting offers companies more control, more flexibility, enhanced security, and better service. Some Private Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), like Cloud at Work, specialize in hosting Sage ERP. A Sage ERP hosting specialist delivers benefits that typical private cloud service providers cannot through a deep understanding of the application. Maximize your investment Your Sage ERP investment remains a smart one — one worth holding onto. By shifting its deployment to a Hosted ERP model on a Private Cloud, Hosted Sage ERP is an investment that will deliver long-term gains far into the future.

NEW YORK, NY – June 08, 2021 – Cloud at Work (www.thecloudatwork.com), a purpose-built Sage hosting solution, today announced that e2b teknologies (e2b tek), a leading Sage business partner, and software application integrator and developer, has selected it as its exclusive hosting provider for Sage clients. By migrating its Sage clients to Cloud at Work, e2b enables them to take control of their businesses, and realize the financial benefits of SaaS, supported by the combined Sage application and cloud technology expertise of e2b and the Cloud at Work team. e2b teknologies has been delivering technology solutions since the 1990s and is a trusted partner for hundreds of clients in supporting their Sage 100, Sage 500 and Sage Intacct applications. By choosing Cloud at Work as its exclusive hosting provider, e2b gives their Sage clients the increased agility needed to successfully compete in a post-pandemic world, while reducing costs, increasing profits, and streamlining processes to gain new efficiencies. “We’re proud to welcome e2b teknologies as a Cloud at Work alliance partner, which is a resounding validation of our value proposition and our reputation for delivering a world-class cloud experience,” said Tyler Bower, Director of Cloud at Cloud at Work. “When a partner as respected as e2b in the Sage community, entrusts us to power their cloud strategy, we must be doing something right. Lynne and her team have built an amazing company, and we look forward to closely working with them in enabling their Sage clients to realize the efficiencies and business benefits of cloud hosting.” “A large part of our post-COVID business strategy was moving our Sage clients to the cloud to give them the flexibility they need to meet the challenges of managing their increasingly remote and hybrid workforces,” said Lynne Henslee, President of e2b tek. “We selected Cloud at Work because of their cloud and Sage application expertise and their stellar reputation for delivering a world-class cloud experience. We wanted a true partner that could integrate seamlessly into our own processes, and one that we could trust to maintain the level of customer service that we’ve built our reputation on. We look forward to a fruitful partnership that will benefit our Sage clients for many years to come.” Cloud at Work’s recently announced Partner Development Fund allocates $1.5 million to Sage Business Partner customers who migrate their application to Cloud at Work. Sage users that sign on to move to Cloud at Work Hosting will receive a certificate of credit to be spent exclusively with their Sage Business Partner of Record. The funds can be used for any service, including upgrades, new software, services and migrations. Learn more about the Cloud at Work Partner Program here. About Cloud at Work Cloud at Work gives users of Sage applications more capabilities and control to increase business performance using their technology investments. With a knowledgeable, highly-responsive team of Sage application experts and advanced cloud hosting solutions personalized to customer strengths, Cloud at Work helps its customers pivot more quickly to capitalize on new business opportunities and resolve issues faster. Businesses using Sage trust Cloud at Work to help them achieve higher levels of business productivity and resiliency that outpace competitors and help them capture more market share. Visit thecloudatwork.com for more information. About e2b teknologies e2b teknologies is a passionate and experienced team of industry leaders and business advisers providing high quality, uncomplicated, and innovative business applications built on modern technology platforms with turn-key consulting and custom development services. e2b teknologies develops custom cloud-based business applications as well as custom integrations and resells leading ERP accounting software including Sage 100 ERP, Sage 500 ERP, and Sage Intacct cloud accounting.

Fund allocates $1.5 million to Sage Business Partner customers who migrate their application to Cloud at Work; funds used for a range of services that are provided by their Sage business partner of record. NEW YORK, NY – May 24, 2021 – Cloud at Work (www.thecloudatwork.com), a purpose-built Sage hosting solution, today announced the formal launch of its Partner Development Fund, which makes a total of $1.5 million available for Sage users to spend exclusively with their Sage Business Partner of Record, once they choose Cloud at Work to host their applications. The fund is designed to support Sage’s cloud initiative and incent customers to migrate their Sage applications to Cloud at Work hosting, enabling them to take control of their businesses while fully maximizing Sage application functionality, performance, and availability. The program allows Sage Business Partners to offer their customers a world-class cloud solution, generate recurring revenue within 45 days through a Quick Start Program, and realize the highest margins in the industry. The formal launch of the Partner Development Fund is based on the successful completion of a pilot program that allocated $200K in development funds to Sage Business Partner customers. Sage users that sign on to move to Cloud at Work Hosting will receive a certificate of credit to be spent exclusively with their Sage Business Partner of Record. The funds can be used for any service, including upgrades, new software, services, and migrations. “The Partner Development Fund demonstrates our commitment to, and investment in, the growth of our Partner channel,” said Tyler Bower, Director of Cloud at Cloud at Work. “Our successful pilot was met with great enthusiasm and success, and we’re confident that the $1.5 million in available credits will go a long way in accelerating and increasing recurring revenue among our partners, while providing their customers with a first-rate cloud experience.” The Partner Development Fund is an especially timely program considering how many companies are looking to trusted business partners for solutions that give them increased business productivity and greater  agility as we enter a post-pandemic world, making Cloud at Work’s Sage hosting expertise, the expertise of its Sage Business Partners, and the funds made available for a range of business technology services such a powerful combination. To learn more about the Cloud at Work Partner Program visit thecloudatwork.com/PartnerProgram. About Cloud at Work Cloud at Work gives users of Sage applications more capabilities and control to increase business performance using their technology investments. With a knowledgeable, highly-responsive team of Sage application experts and advanced cloud hosting solutions personalized to customer strengths, Cloud at Work helps its customers pivot more quickly to capitalize on new business opportunities and resolve issues faster. Businesses using Sage trust Cloud at Work to help them achieve higher levels of business productivity and resiliency that outpace competitors and help them capture more market share. Visit thecloudatwork.com for more information.

Moving IT infrastructures to the cloud is gaining popularity, but some companies remain on the fence whether to make the switch or continue with an on-premise system. There are many benefits to consider that may tip the scales in favor of migrating to the cloud, especially now that the power of Sage 100 and Sage 300 is available with Cloud at Work for a solution to help you move to cloud on your own terms. How cloud will improve your business Invest in your business, not hardware. When you have a traditional, in-house data center, you become beholden to maintaining hardware. While updates will help keep everything current for a short time, eventually the hardware will become too aged to continue. Replacing hardware gets expensive, and there will be a need to budget for new equipment on a regular basis. The result is you must balance investing in hardware versus other areas that could grow your business Focus on growing your business. Managing existing IT infrastructure is time-consuming, at times unpredictable, and requires specialized personnel to manage it. With cloud computing, you enable a trusted cloud service provider to manage the complexities of security, upgrades, and maintenance freeing your team up to run the business. Leverage the latest technology. As the company grows, a traditional system can be difficult to expand as needed. You may not have the storage capacity, available users, or even new functionality and compliance that the latest release offers you. Moving to the cloud better enables the scalability that you will need to keep up with the network growth demands. A cloud-based system eliminates that problem by offering scalability in a flash. The Cloud at Work Virtual Private Cloud is a 100% Virtual Private environment geared towards organizations who place extreme value on redundancy, security, and availability. This 100% SLA backed solution provides the most economical way to securely host your Sage software. Now is the time for a cloud-based solution Making a move like this is a lot to think about for your business and your customers, but we’re here to help. We can answer any questions you and your team may have about the transition.

For the past nearly 50 (yes, really) years, businesses building and maintaining their own onsite IT infrastructure was the only game in town. Cloud computing has changed all that. A whopping 61% of businesses migrated at least some of their workloads to the cloud in 2020. Likely your business is already running more than one SaaS hosted application (Microsoft 365 or Dropbox, anyone?), and it’s a guarantee that your employees are. However, many Sage ERP users remain tied to the onsite deployment and the heavy IT burden and costs that go with it. Now is an excellent time to move your Sage ERP to a hosted model. Here are three reasons why you shouldn’t wait any longer to make the move. 1. Take control of your business Sage ERP is likely the backbone of your business operations, with all accounting, sales, inventory, purchasing, manufacturing, project management, and other functions managed through the application. Even short periods of downtime can be devastating, impacting your ability to service customers and zapping employee productivity. Should your server crash, it could take days or weeks to repair or replace it, costing tens of thousands (or more) in expenses and lost revenue. If resiliency, system performance, or security breaches become issues, your organization risks losing ground — and customers — to the competition. In short, Sage ERP is mission-critical, which makes the cloud an ideal place to protect it. With a hosted ERP model, your company’s instance of Sage ERP is hosted on a private cloud services provider’s (CSP) server in a highly secure environment. Private CSPs host your entire production environment in a stable and secure location with 24x7x365 monitoring and support. With near 100% availability guarantees, hourly backup snapshots, and professional disaster recovery services, your Sage ERP data will be safe, and your organization can continue operations, even in the event of a disaster. 2. Increase the value of your company If you are considering merger and acquisition opportunities, an IPO, or a business continuity strategy, you’ll want to maximize your company’s value in every possible way. A company with a bulky in-house computer system — especially when it runs the ERP — could be seen as risky by potential investors. There’s some mystery surrounding an internally hosted IT infrastructure that makes it more difficult for investors to access, understand, value, and maintain going forward. In short, investors demand visibility and accessibility — two things most in-house ERP deployments lack. With the vast majority of workloads either in the cloud or moving to the cloud, the cloud becomes the place to park your Sage ERP. With your hosting company handling all maintenance and support of the system, a budgetable monthly cost, and the cloud deployment providing anytime, anywhere access, investors have a clearer, more concise vision of your operation that’s extremely valuable. 3. Improve employee productivity Labor is the single largest expense for most companies, so it’s of strategic advantage when you can optimize every hour worked. Is it really in your company’s best interest to continue to host and maintain Sage ERP on premise? In addition to the staff time required to keep it running optimally, there’s also the “window within a window” remote access inconvenience that zaps performance and wastes time. Also, in this tight labor market, it’s increasingly difficult (and expensive) to hire and retain talented IT professionals. In short, your human capital may be better spent on activities other than maintaining your ERP application in house. Moving your Sage ERP to a hosted cloud deployment model allows you reallocate IT resources to focus more on growing the business and less on maintaining and updating technology. In addition, cloud deployments provide convenient anytime/anywhere access for your staff — something that proved invaluable during the pandemic. The flexibility, reliability, security, and accessibility provided through a hosted ERP scenario can boost overall productivity and allow you to focus resources more strategically. Your company’s investment in Sage ERP is significant, spans many years — and will perform well for many years to come. But your method of deployment could use an update. Cloud Hosted ERP offers numerous benefits to growing companies, including improved security and backup, better visibility and accessibility, and enhanced employee productivity. As a Sage Cloud Hosting specialist, Cloud at Work understands Sage ERP and will work with you and your Sage partner to make the transition to hosting simple, straightforward, and seamless. Contact us with your questions.

When making the decision to host Sage ERP, you have two main options — hosting by a Public Cloud Services Provider (CSP) or by a Private CSP. We highlighted the differences and why private cloud is the best way to host Sage ERP in this article. But even among private clouds, you have options. You can choose a  “generalist” private CSP that simply offers an alternative to the giant public cloud providers or a “specialist” that focuses on hosting your applications. Choosing a Sage ERP hosting specialist delivers distinct advantages that others simply can’t. 1. Specialists understand Sage Cloud-based ERP applications deployed as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are designed from the ground up to be hosted remotely. For the CSP, there’s little mystery, little risk, and few surprises with SaaS. In fact, hosting a SaaS application is pretty simple for a CSP — the software publisher handles all the technical nuances required to make it “hostable.” Your Sage ERP application is not a SaaS application, even if it’s hosted remotely. It was not designed to run natively in the cloud. To configure Sage ERP as a Hosted ERP requires knowledge and understanding of the software — attributes a “generalist” private CSP will not possess. Without this knowledge and familiarity, you risk being marooned when something stops working correctly (or never gets started working correctly). Your CSP will refer you to the software publisher or your managed services provider — both of whom may refer you right back to the CSP. It’s a consequence of layers of bureaucracy that define many hosting arrangements. 2. Eliminate the layers You can effectively eliminate the layers and speak straight to the source with a specialist private cloud hosting provider. Cloud at Work is a private CSP specializing in hosting Sage ERP (and CRM and HRMS too). Armed with extensive knowledge and experience about Sage solutions along with unsurpassed cloud expertise, Cloud at Work serves as your single resource for all things hosted. When you have a question about your Hosted ERP, Cloud at Work can be your one call. Working with you and your Sage business partner, we will quickly troubleshoot issues with no runaround and no passing the buck. 3. No compromises There are many myths and misconceptions surrounding private cloud. One of those myths is that private cloud hosting is less secure than hosting offered by the big public cloud guys. Not all private cloud providers provide the same level of security, so you certainly need to evaluate carefully, but in general, hosting Sage ERP on a private cloud is every bit as secure as hosting on a public cloud. Cloud at Work, for example, utilizes identical security protocols as public clouds — and in some instances, even more robust protocols. Cloud at Work’s Tier 4 (highest classification) data centers have 24 x7 x 365 support and monitoring, are geo-diverse, and deliver one to four-hour disaster recovery time objectives. You will not be compromising security (or anything else) when choosing Cloud at Work for Sage ERP hosting. 4. Increased value proposition You may be considering hosting Sage ERP for several reasons, including support for remote work, to reduce operating expenses, to minimize IT costs and burden, and to ensure business continuity. Combined, these reasons form a strong value proposition for hosting, and one only a private cloud specialists like Cloud at Work can fully deliver. There are hidden costs in public cloud deployments and in generalist private cloud deployments — extras that are not included. Support, backups, and remote connections are not included. Software updates, bug fixes, disaster recovery options also are not typically included. These costs will all be your responsibility — which subtracts from the overall value proposition. With a Sage specialist like Cloud at Work responsible for hosting, these critical functions are part of our offering, providing the value and ROI you expect from the cloud. Making the decision to host your Sage ERP application is a smart move. Maximize the benefits of that decision by selecting a Sage specialist like Cloud at Work. One call. No runaround. No compromises.