Hosting Services
Easily work from home, the office or anywhere!
No need to synchronise, no need for Sage Remote Data Access (formally Sage Drive), just direct, simple & secure access to your software. Cut out the faff!
Not all systems have functionality for remote workers to access them from home – protect your people and your business by considering a Hosted Server to make this possible.
Speak to our team on 0330 335 0011 or contact them through the Live Chat available here on the website.
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What is a 'Hosted Server'?
A hosted server from Advantage Services offers smaller businesses a secure platform without the need for a large capital investment in server technology and resources. A typical organisation requiring its own server might spend thousands of pounds buying hardware, installing it onsite, equipping it with proper security and redundancy measures, as well as paying an IT provider to ensure its ongoing function and an insurance company in case anything untoward should happen.
By switching to use a hosted server, businesses remove the need for keeping server programs, data and resources onsite. They don’t have to maintain the hardware, ensure its upkeep or even worry about troubleshooting in moments of crisis. The hosting service takes care of everything to ensure the server is always available when a company needs it.
Advantage Services specialise in working with companies wanting to run Sage Accounts and/or Sage Payroll on hosted servers. Users have a remote-accessible desktop work environment to access these programs and also have Microsoft 365 (including Outlook, Word and Excel etc) integrated to give them all the functionality they require.
A smarter way of working
These days almost every software designer is developing for a cloud environment. Major vendors such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google are all committed to cloud technologies. Investment in on-site server technologies is reducing with time.
The days of having a large capital outlay to install on-site servers, ensuring changing compliance with data protection laws, worrying about Windows updates, Anti-virus protection and on-going server upgrades as new versions of software are released have long gone.
Advantage Services' Hosted Server vs Sage Remote Data Access (Sage Drive)
Sage Accounts/Payroll and Act! software is stored directly on the server and accessed via an internet connection - there's no synchronisation needed. No other machines need the software installed.
Work from anywhere and from any computer with internet access and Remote Access.
Continue to use third party add-ons that enhance the functionality of your software.
Choose to have Microsoft 365 programs (Outlook & Excel etc).
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is available as an additional option providing security benefits.
Sage Accounts is installed on every user machine and on the server. A snapshot of Sage data is then uploaded from the master data and downloaded to each user's computer. The data snapshot synchronises with the master set of accounts data via the Sage Data service.
You must work on the computer that Sage is installed on.
You are advised not to use some third party add-ons if using Sage Remote Data Access (formally Sage Drive).
There is no Sage remote working solution for Sage 50cloud Payroll.
Sage Remote Access Drive requires software Version 27 or later.
Key benefits of using a hosted server
| BENEFIT | |
|---|---|
| Scalability | Hosted servers are customisable and scalable enough to fulfil the growing requirements of any business. Add/remove users or access whenever you need to. |
| Save time and money | Once a program is installed on a hosted server, all users with access can use it. For example, if you have a 5 user Sage Accounts licence you just install the program once then all users who have been given access to the hosted server can login and work. You don't don't need to install Sage Accounts each user's computer as well as the server. This saves a lot of time when upgrading and therefore the IT time required for such tasks is significantly less - saving you money. |
| Backups | Daily backups with up 30 day retention. Your data is securely backed-up and away from your premises. You also have the option to back up data locally if you'd like a copy with you. |
| Work from anywhere | Work directly on live data from any location, no need to synchronise data sets. |
| Flexible with work hours | Hosted servers increase accessibility to information with 24 hour functioning. Users don't need to be bound to office hours to access their programs and data, they can work whenever they want. |
How do I access my programs?
Once the hosted server is setup, all you will require is access to an internet connection and any of the following devices:
- Windows PCs or Laptops
- Apple MACs/Airbooks (using the free Microsoft Remote Desktop from the MAC App Store)
- Chromebooks* (using the free Chrome Remote Desktop App. You would first need a Windows or MAC Remote Desktop Connection to set this up.)
- Android tablets/phones**
- Apple tablets/phones**
- Windows tablets/phones**
*This connection method might not have as good image quality or smoothness of control as the Windows or MAC Remote Desktop connection methods.
** These devices are only suitable if you needed to make a small important/urgent change, they are not suitable for normal working practice.
Your programs and data are safely accessed over the internet rather than being installed on your own computers. The server is secure, backed up and accessed via Remote Desktop Connection. You don't need to install your work programs on every computer used in your business as you just connect to the hosted server and use your work programs and data there.
We would also recommend that the machine you use to connect to the hosted server runs a supported operating system and has adequate antivirus installed.
How safe is my data?
The hosted server is sited at a purpose built facility with on-site security of the highest standard, which is welcomed by insurance providers. Access to the site has to be pre-approved with photo identification on entry before any hardware upgrade work can take place. The facility has backup power, cooling systems and can withstand low level earth tremors.
The server environment itself is protected by sophisticated firewalls, the cost of which would be difficult for any one business to justify. Also, our clients data is always held in the UK to ensure compliancy with the GDPR.
Your data is in safe hands:
- We use UK (Manchester) sited servers behind managed firewalls which scan all traffic.
- We use industry standard “VEEAM” for backing up the servers
- We can restore the entire VM (Virtual Machine) back to its original host, which will overwrite the existing one, affectively rolling it back to the day the chosen restore point was taken.
- We can restore the entire VM as above but onto a different host, which would leave the original copy intact A restore of the one of more the files that make up the virtual machine can be restored to a folder We can restore files from the virtual machine itself, e.g. if someone deleted a file from the C drive of the VM we can restore just that file.
- Servers are backed up every night with a 30 day backup retention
- Take local backups of your Sage (or other program) data whenever you wish.
- The Data Centre is highly protected with the Fortigate UTM device. This solution provides multi-level, unified threat management (UTM) capabilities against malware attacks.
- Windows Updates - we can ensure all updates are installed when required. We try to minimise how often this is done as most updates require reboots and this would affect the availability of the servers.
- As standard we do not install anti-virus software on our servers but this can be provided or the customer can install their own.
