Managed Application Hosting: Is It Worth It?

Jim Smith, Co-Founder and COO of LoadSpring Solutions, has spent more than 25 years helping organizations manage the applications and technology that support complex project delivery.

Moving an application to the cloud can feel like the finish line. But where an application runs is only part of the equation.

TL;DR

• Cloud infrastructure gives organizations computing resources only. It doesn't remove the work required to manage enterprise applications.

• Managed application hosting shifts more of that work to a specialized provider.

• Services can include infrastructure, application administration, security patches, monitoring, backups, updates, performance management and user support.

• For organizations in construction, engineering, energy and infrastructure, the value goes beyond renting infrastructure. Managed hosting can reduce the IT burden of supporting specialized, project-critical applications and improve their performance.

• The right provider should understand your applications, security needs, users and performance requirements. It should also provide clear service level agreements and support.

Why Isn't Cloud Hosting Enough?

Enterprise applications in the cloud still need attention.

Someone has to secure them, apply patches and monitor performance.

Backups and upgrades need to be managed.

Users need access and support. Software vendors release new versions. Integrations change.

And when something goes wrong, someone has to figure out why.

Is it the infrastructure? The operating system? The application? The database? The network? Or something happening in the user's environment?

This is where managed hosting services can make a real difference.

For organizations that depend on project-critical software, the question is no longer simply, "Where should we put our applications?"

A better question is, "Who is going to keep this entire environment working?"

What Does Managed Application Hosting Mean?

Managed application hosting is a service in which a provider hosts an organization's applications and manages the environment around them. It is more than just cloud hosting.

That distinction matters.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's definition of cloud computing describes cloud as on-demand access to computing resources. These can include networks, servers, storage, applications and services.

Cloud platforms make those resources available quickly and at scale.

But access to cloud infrastructure does not mean your applications are fully managed.

A company can move an enterprise application out of its own data center and into the cloud. Yet its IT team may still have a long list of responsibilities.

Microsoft's shared responsibility guidance makes this clear. With Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the cloud provider manages the physical infrastructure. The customer still manages its virtual machines, operating systems and applications.

In LoadSpring’s TCO analysis, 76% of the first-year cost of running project applications in a cloud environment like Azure came from internal management and operational costs, not the cloud infrastructure itself.

Managed hosting takes responsibility for more of that work.

Depending on the service, the provider may handle application installation and configuration. It may also manage security patches, upgrades, monitoring, backups, disaster recovery and technical support.

For an IT team, that is different from simply moving servers somewhere else.

Why Is Managed Hosting Becoming More Relevant?

Internal IT teams can manage enterprise applications. The challenge is how many other systems now compete for their time.

This is especially relevant in construction, engineering, energy and infrastructure.

Project teams in these industries may rely on scheduling software, cost management systems and estimating tools alongside GIS, design software, reporting platforms and document management systems.

Project controls teams need these applications to perform reliably. At the same time, IT teams are responsible for keeping an increasingly complex technology environment secure and supported.

Different projects may need different combinations. Some are web applications. Others need more complex infrastructure, databases or integrations.

Every application brings another set of questions:

• Who applies the update?

• When should the team test it?

• What happens if a new version breaks an integration?

• Who monitors performance?

• Who helps a user who can't access the system?

• And who works with the software vendor when the source of a problem isn't clear?

A managed hosting provider can take on much of this work.

Instead of asking internal IT to coordinate infrastructure, hosting, applications and support, organizations can manage the hosting environment as a service.

What Should Managed Hosting Services Actually Include?

Not all application hosting services provide the same level of management.

Organizations should look beyond the location of the servers. They need to understand exactly what the provider will manage.

1. Application Administration

Enterprise applications need attention after deployment.

Teams change configurations. Vendors release updates. New users come onboard. Applications need upgrades.

A provider with experience in the application can handle these tasks while understanding how the software is used.

This matters with specialized project systems.

LoadSpring, for example, supports more than 200 project-critical applications. They span scheduling, cost and estimating, analytics, engineering and design, document management, GIS and other project workflows.

This type of managed application support lets companies keep the tools their teams know while reducing the effort required to maintain them.

2. Security and Monitoring

Security requires ongoing attention.

A managed cloud environment should cover security patches, access controls, monitoring, backups and recovery.  

But a list of security features only tells part of the story.

Organizations also need to know who is responsible for them.

Who monitors the environment? Who responds to an alert? Who makes sure a critical patch gets applied?

Clear ownership can be as important as the technology itself.

3. Performance Management

A high-performing application depends on more than processor speed and storage.

Database settings matter. So do network conditions, application design, user location and workload.

Real-time monitoring can help teams spot changes before a slow application becomes a larger problem.

That matters for project teams working across offices, regions and job sites. Poor performance doesn't just frustrate users. It can affect whether teams use the systems meant to support project delivery.

4. Support Across Technology Boundaries

Enterprise technology problems don't always stay neatly inside one system.

The infrastructure provider may say its environment is healthy. The software vendor may say the application is working. Internal IT can then get stuck in the middle.

A managed application provider can help close that gap.

Instead of looking at one component, it can investigate the wider environment. It can also coordinate with other technology vendors when needed.

Consider Oracle Primavera P6. Its performance can depend on the database, application configuration, infrastructure and other factors.

A specialized P6 hosting environment provides a different model from placing P6 on generic cloud infrastructure and leaving the rest to internal IT.

How Is Managed Hosting Different from SaaS?

Managed hosting and Software as a Service solve different problems.

With SaaS, the software vendor generally controls the application and the environment beneath it. Customers gain simplicity, but they may have less control over versions, data ownership and access, architecture, integrations or configurations.

Enterprise application hosting offers another approach.

Organizations can continue using applications they have selected while shifting much of the management work to a hosting provider.

That can be valuable when a company depends on software from many vendors.

It doesn't have to force every workflow into one vendor's ecosystem. Instead, it can keep application choice while creating a more consistent way to host, access, secure and support those applications.

What Should You Ask a Managed Hosting Provider?

A provider should be able to answer practical questions without falling back on generic cloud terminology.

Start with these:

• Which of our applications do you already support?

• Who handles application administration and upgrades?

• How do you manage security patches?

• What monitoring happens outside normal business hours?

• What do your service level agreements cover?

• How do you manage backups and recovery?

• How do you troubleshoot problems that involve several vendors?

• Can the environment scale as our projects, users or applications change?

• How do users in different regions access their applications?

• What responsibilities stay with our internal IT team?

The answers tell you what you're really buying.

Is it infrastructure with some support attached?

Or is it a genuinely managed service?

The Real Value Is Clear Ownership

Cloud computing changed where organizations can run technology.

Managed hosting changes who handles the work required to keep that technology running.

That difference matters.

IT teams now support cloud services, cybersecurity, data, AI, integrations and everyday business technology. At the same time, project teams still need reliable access to the applications they use to plan and deliver work.

For organizations running project-critical systems, cloud application hosting is therefore more than an infrastructure decision.

It's a decision about ownership.

That is the model behind LoadSpring Managed Hosting™. LoadSpring provides a secure, fully managed environment for project-critical applications, with infrastructure, applications, security, access, monitoring, administration, updates, backups and support managed as part of the environment.

For IT teams, that means fewer technology layers to manage internally. For project and project controls teams, it means reliable access to the applications they depend on without having to manage the technology behind them.

The goal isn't simply to put an application in somebody else's data center.

It’s to give people a secure, reliable and well-managed place to work—and make sure someone is accountable for keeping it that way.

See If Managed Hosting Makes Sense for You

Talk with LoadSpring about your current applications, environment and support needs to see where managed hosting could reduce the burden on your IT team while improving application performance.