What does hosting in a data centre mean?
With hosting, your servers and applications no longer run in your own office but in a professional data centre. Power supply, cooling, access control and internet connectivity there are designed for continuous, secure operation. You work as usual.
Own servers, hosting or cloud?
- Own servers in the office: full control, but also full responsibility for power, cooling, backups and replacement.
- Hosting in a data centre: your systems run in a professional environment, looked after by a partner you know.
- Public cloud: flexible services from large providers. Where the data is stored depends on the chosen region and the contract.
A combination often makes sense, for example ERP and file storage in a Swiss data centre and Microsoft 365 for email and collaboration.
When is the move worthwhile?
- Your own servers are outdated or stand unprotected in the office.
- Backups run irregularly or are never tested.
- An outage would bring operations to a standstill.
- There is no time or know-how for maintenance and updates.
- Your data should stay in Switzerland.
Why a data location in Switzerland?
If the data is in Switzerland, Swiss law and the Swiss Data Protection Act apply to storage and operation. Some customers, industries or contracts explicitly require this. There are also short distances: contacts, language and time zone are the same.
What do Tier III and Tier IV mean?
Tier III means the infrastructure is designed so that components can be maintained without shutting down IT operations. Tier IV adds protection against individual technical failures. According to Netrics, the hub Biel of our data centre partner was built to Tier III, with certain sections built to Tier IV. This construction specification dates from 2018 and is not current proof of certification.
Does geo-redundancy replace backups?
No. With geo-redundancy, data or systems are kept at geographically separate sites. If one site fails, the other can take over depending on the solution. It does not replace backups. Switchover time and possible data loss are agreed for each solution.
What do RPO and RTO mean?
Two metrics help to agree on resilience in concrete terms. The RPO (recovery point objective) defines the maximum tolerable data loss, for example the last hour of work. The RTO (recovery time objective) defines how quickly a system must be running again. The shorter both values, the more complex the solution. It makes sense to set them for each application.
How many backups are needed?
The 3-2-1 rule has proven itself: three copies of the data, on two different storage media, one of them at another location. It is important to have one copy that is protected from access from the live network, because ransomware also encrypts reachable backups. How often data is backed up and how long backups are kept is defined per application via the RPO.
How do hosting and Microsoft 365 work together?
The hybrid IT infrastructure, which includes modern Office 365 cloud services, enables us to work from anywhere at any time.
This is how many SMEs combine the strengths of both worlds: business applications such as the ERP in the Swiss data centre, email and collaboration in Microsoft 365, all looked after through our IT services.
And security in operation?
A good data centre protects the infrastructure, but not against stolen login details or phishing. That is why clear access rules, updates and monitoring of suspicious activity are part of the package. A Security Operations Center complements firewalls, device protection and backups. Find out more on our security page.
Checklist for choosing a hosting partner
- The location and operator of the data centre are known.
- Information security can be demonstrated, for example with ISO 27001.
- There is a backup concept, and recovery is tested.
- Availability, response times and support hours are agreed in writing.
- It is clear how you get your data back if you switch provider.
- You have a personal point of contact.
How does the move to the data centre work?
- Understand: record systems, data and requirements together.
- Plan: define sites, access, backup and recovery.
- Move: prepare the move and agree on the right time window.
- Test: test access, applications and recovery.
- Support: support operations and further development according to the agreed services.