Most organizations, particularly accounting firms, understand the importance of financial data, loss of which can lead to significant damages. For example, the average ransomware breach costs $4.62 million, while the average data breach costs $4.24 million (Source: IBM). Their alertness towards such financially-damaging instances makes it easy to adopt remotely accessible cloud hosting solutions.
With the easy availability of accounting software hosting and managed IT services, CPAs and accounting firms aim to increase their profitability while also reducing operational expenses with cloud services. These solutions also help reduce the dependency on a single hardware or point of storage that can be highly vulnerable to varying risk levels.
If your accounting tasks rely heavily on QuickBooks software, you would want to know the benefits of QuickBooks hosting solutions to manage fiscal entries remotely. Here, we will discuss the model followed by a QuickBooks hosting provider regarding the backend infrastructure.
Components of QuickBooks Hosting Solutions
Main server
This is the primary cloud server on which your licensed QuickBooks application will be installed. Consider this server as the central point of application/data access. All the data files related to your business – personal or for clients, will be stored on this main server. If you select a dedicated server to host the QuickBooks application, you can exercise better control over the server space allotted for your business needs. In addition, you can perform essential business operations remotely via this server.
Inside the cloud infrastructure, the main server is the most crucial financial data storage/access point to support business decisions.
Backup servers
If you have heard about the data backup facility you get with cloud hosting, you will find it easier to understand how backup servers work. The backend of the main server is connected to several other servers located in geographically distant locations. These backup servers are configured at varied protocols for data storage. In most cases, cloud hosting providers work on two stages of backup servers, which include:
- Backup server A
This type of server works on incremental backup protocol, which is also termed full backup. It is taken at one particular time during the day. When the backup process is initiated daily, it adds the new data since the last backup time and then discards the old backup.
- Backup server B
This backup server is based on the decremental data backup provisions. They commit to capturing all the data changes made to the server before the last data checkpoint. This protocol runs throughout the day or as defined for a specific period during the day.
This server is meant for the security of QuickBooks data. If you lose critical data due to a disaster, you can ask for a backup copy from the last data checkpoint.
Pro Tip: If you want to ensure business continuity during tough times, you can hire a cloud hosting provider that guarantees server uptime backed by an SLA.
Local System
The local system you use to access data and applications can serve as the last layer of backup that you can add for the security of financial data related to your clients. You can save the data on the system and keep it saved for later use if needed. The only problem arises when you allow the clients to work on these files. This will ultimately lead to having multiple copies of the same data files. Doing this may lead to inconsistencies in the financial data when saved in the form of multiple files.
The bottom line
The financial data of your clients is quite crucial for your business. By hosting the QuickBooks application on a cloud server, you can ensure easy data availability and business continuity to deal with issues resulting from accidental losses. Furthermore, you need not invest significantly in in-house infrastructure development by switching to QuickBooks hosting solutions.
Want to know more about Verito’s QuickBooks hosting solutions? Contact our experts at 1-855-583-7486.
