Things To Consider Before Picking A ERP Cloud Hosting Provider

As a business grows, the complexity of the systems and resources involved increases. An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool is paramount to ensure the budgeting and allocation of resources are done optimally and efficiently. That is the reason why traditional ERP tools are in tremendous demand despite the fact that they cost several hundred thousand dollars in implementation, have a long implementation cycle and also have high failure rates.

Over the past decade, cloud hosted ERP solutions have become extremely popular. The advantage of using a cloud hosted ERP over traditional systems is immense – firstly, the cloud based solutions cost only a fraction of traditional ERP systems. In addition to this, the implementation timelines are quick, collaboration between teams across various geographies is easy and most importantly, they help businesses scale up their systems in a fast and timely manner.

So how do you pick the right cloud hosting platform for your ERP? To begin with, ERP is one of those mission-critical applications that cannot go down. So one of the first things to look for is a web hosting provider that can offer high reliability on their uptimes. The next most important factor when it comes to ERP is data security. ERP modules like those for financial accounting are extremely confidential and should not be made accessible to third parties (primarily hackers) at any cost.

It is here that hybrid cloud systems come into play. Unlike the traditional public cloud systems where all data is stored on a third party server, hybrid clouds enable the customer to take advantage of a third party cloud host while ensuring that critical private information is stored securely on a private cloud.

Private clouds need not necessarily mean a native implementation of cloud architecture. Instead, they are cloud hosting platforms provided by third parties which are setup within the firewalls of your organization. As the various testimonials for NetSuite ERP show, hybrid cloud setups have been proven to be extremely effective in keeping data secure while bringing all the benefits of cloud. NetSuite, along with SAP and Epicor is among the leading providers of cloud ERP solutions worldwide.

Although private clouds are extremely effective in protecting data, one important factor to consider while picking a cloud hosting provider for your ERP system is intrusion detection systems. Given the wealth of information available in an ERP system, they are among the most targeted applications among hackers. It is apparent that a sophisticated intrusion detection system is necessary for an organization to be aware when their data security gets compromised.

Finding a cloud host for your ERP system is not very different from finding one for your other mission critical confidential needs. By picking a provider who abides by all the best-practices and one who has a good track record, one can be sure that their decision to pick a cloud ERP over a traditional system was indeed a smart move.