Hosting Service Concerns
Whenever a company moves its IT infrastructure to an outside location, managed by a 3rd party, there are always legitimate areas of concern. We are happy to address these concerns head on. If there are further issues that remain unanswered, please call us directly.
What if Fifosys ceases to trade?
- All clients’ data is wholly and exclusively owned by our clients.
- Fifosys builds on standard platforms, so all data is easily transferable to another provider at any time, subject to contract.
- Clients who have outright purchased dedicated equipment will have title of that equipment and will have full access to the data centre to recover the servers and other hardware.
Will the systems be available 24/7?
- To ensure availability, all that is really needed is a reliable internet connection. Fifosys can arrange dedicated leased lines although for many businesses ADSL connection is fine (and can be used as a backup option as well). The data centres have multiple dedicated lines, complete backups of power and equipment.
- Indeed, our experience suggests the availability will be far higher with a hosted solution than a standard onsite infrastructure set up.
- We have a service level agreement detailing availability and what you can expect and what happens if we don’t perform, which is available on request.
What is the capacity of the data centre?
- There is no issue with the capacity of the data centre: Fifosys has plenty of room for expansion
Who owns my data and is it kept private?
- All data is wholly owned by client. Data is encrypted so only the client can read it and it is not readable by data centre staff.
- Your data is stored in secure UK warehouses, not in an unknown public cloud outside the EU. We are in the process of qualifying for ISO27001-2005 showing that we take reasonable and effective steps to secure your data in compliance with UK data laws.
What about data security?
- Despite the importance of data to a business, it can be lost or stolen pretty easily – from a dropped USB drive, a laptop left on a train or with a disgruntled employee passing data on from home. Fifosys can help reduce this: a data management policy will include rules on where data can be stored – clients who have a hosted exchange service know that emails and their attachments are not kept on laptops but as part of the secure storage facility; the data is fully encrypted; military grade firewalls keep out viruses, physical security keeps out everything else.
