A key component of our Managed IT is the hosting of servers. Very early in the computing era, with the advent of servers, in-house server maintenance was required. As technology advanced, offsite Private Hosting options became available.
A Data Center houses not only servers, but associated components such as telecommunications and storage systems. As we stated earlier, it includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices. After all, the main purpose of a Data Center is running the applications that handle the core business and operational data of the organization.
The three main elements of Hosted services are software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). In combination, the three elements encompass software and optimal network capacity, as well as the equipment used to support operations—storage, hardware, servers and networking components.