10 Hosting Features You Should Ask Your QuickBooks Enterprise Hosting Provider

QuickBooks Enterprise, Intuit’s premium business solution, has been serving diverse companies for nearly two decades now. Its industry-specific solutions help businesses get the right features at budget-friendly prices.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is a conventional software that needs to be installed on your computers or laptops. However, over the years, as technology has flourished, we now have the option of a more advanced platform than the local IT setup – The Cloud.

Since cloud technology has caught the attention of the world, the public cloud service market has been growing exponentially. Even with the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, where the global IT expenditure is predicted to decline by 8% as compared to 2019, the public cloud services is expected to grow by 19 percent in 2020 (Source: Gartner).

However, with a plethora of options, it is an arduous task to find the right cloud service provider to host your QuickBooks Enterprise Solution. Here are some features that will you distinguish the best QuickBooks Enterprise hosting provider from the good ones.

1. Business Continuity

Business continuity is a set of procedures and protocols defined by a company to be followed in the case of a disruptive event. A disruptive event can be anything that hampers the functioning of a business, such as IT failures, cyberattacks, etc.

Ask the QuickBooks Enterprise hosting provider if they deploy a robust business continuity plan. Under the plan, the provider should be able to identify all the risks that can cause the unavailability of QuickBooks Enterprise. Moreover, proactive measures should be taken to mitigate those risks, including clearly defined steps and preventive measures.

2. Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery ensures the protection of your QuickBooks Enterprise and business data from all types of disasters, whether natural or caused by humans. Hence, whether it is an earthquake, flood, or a fire on the premises, you can continue working on your applications.

Ask the QuickBooks Enterprise provider if they have a disaster recovery infrastructure to ensure 24/7 availability of your business. Under the disaster recovery feature, your entire business process is replicated by the provider to geographically distant data centers. Hence, even if an entire data center goes down, your data and apps are safe in another data center.

3. Security

Data security is one of the primary concerns for any business. Any compromise in data security by the hosting provider can lead to data loss or leak, proving disastrous for the company.

Hence, when opting for a QuickBooks Enterprise hosting provider, ask for the security measures taken by them to keep your data protected. The provider must deploy a multi-layered security infrastructure with security safeguards at the physical, network, and endpoint level.

Some of the security measures to look for include data encryption, multi-factor authentication, DDoS protection, Intrusion Detection/Prevention System(IDS/IPS).

4. Support

With an extensive workload, you can never afford to waste your time on IT-related issues. It not only affects your productivity but also leads to mental stress.

A reliable customer support process is one of the vital attributes of a QuickBooks Enterprise hosting provider. The provider should offer round-the-clock customer support, which means 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

You should also ensure that the provider offers multiple platforms of contact- phone, chat, and email. Ask the provider about the certifications that the customer support executives hold.

5. Pricing Plans

The pricing model of a QuickBooks Enterprise cloud provider can sometimes cause confusion to the businesses. So, it is important to analyze and compare the pricing structure of different cloud providers before choosing one.

Ask if the cloud provider offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where you get charged for only the services you use at a particular time. Also, check if the provider charges on an hourly, monthly, or annual basis. The QuickBooks Enterprise hosting provider should not have any hidden charges and should be able to offer you special offers and discounts.

6. Uptime Guarantee

Uptime refers to the total duration of the availability of your business process on the cloud. Since you are accessing the business process remotely, the cloud servers must always be up and running.

A majority of the cloud service providers in the market promise an uptime value to the customers. However, only the best QuickBooks Enterprise hosting providers will guarantee an uptime value as high as 99.99%. Moreover, you should also ensure that the uptime guarantee is a part of their SLA (Service Level Agreement).

7. HPC

When working remotely on your QuickBooks Enterprise, you can encounter the challenges of latency and network issues. Hence, the QuickBooks Enterprise hosting provider should be able to take care of the same and offer you a real-time experience while working on your applications.

The competent QuickBooks Enterprise cloud providers deploy a High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment, which ensures that multiple users can access any number of applications simultaneously on the cloud. You should also check if the provider deploys network and hardware redundancy, so you do not face any performance issues.

8. Backup

Data backup is a common feature provided by almost all cloud service providers. However, some common parameters differentiate between the backup solutions offered by different providers.

You should check the retention and frequency (hourly, daily, or weekly) of the backup solution provided by the QBES hosting provider. Also, the hosting provider should deploy automated backup solutions, so you save time and effort involved in taking a manual backup. You should also ask if the cloud provider can increase the retention period as per your requirement.

9. Customized Cloud

There are a lot of options when it comes to cloud services providers in the market. Some providers offer you their cloud resources and let you choose among their services. However, if you are new to cloud, it can be challenging for you to select the right resources and services for your business.

You should ask the provider if they offer cloud solutions specific to QuickBooks Enterprise software. Some QB Enterprise cloud providers offer customized solutions to host QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, its add-ons, and the data.

Hence, you can just pick the right solution without having to put in many efforts. Moreover, also inquire if the cloud provider can customize their cloud solution to suit your business requirements.

10. Trial

Once you decide to go with a QuickBooks Enterprise hosting provider, you would want to remain with the provider for a considerable time to avoid the constant migration of your QuickBooks Enterprise. Hence, it is recommended that you analyze the services of the provider before you actually pay for it.

When it comes to QuickBooks Enterprise hosting, the best providers in the market offer a free trial of their services. However, you should always inquire if the provider is offering the actual services included in the plan or just a demo.

Final Note

The features of QB Enterprise, when combined with cloud capabilities, offer you a mobile, secure, and flexible business solution for your business. However, choosing the provider that offers the right cloud platform is equally important. These features are a must for every provider if they want to offer customers a complete cloud solution.

Want to know more about QuickBooks Enterprise hosting? Contact our Solutions Consultant at 855-910-6927.