Content management systems are real power tools when it comes to creating and managing technical documentation. The question of whether it is better to host the system internally or externally has strategic implications – with a direct impact on factors such as data availability, cost and security.
In the following article, we briefly and succinctly show you why external hosting of a content management system can be a worthwhile option.
In a nutshell, when it comes to internal hosting, a company operates the content management system on its own servers and within its own IT infrastructure. By contrast, external hosting outsources system operation and infrastructure to specialised third-party providers – such as full-service providers for technical documentation.
In our customer projects, every now and then we receive inquiries as to whether we can also take over hosting of the customer system. There can be various reasons for deciding to hand over system hosting to an external partner. The most common three are:
External hosting eliminates the sometimes high investment in your own server hardware and network infrastructure. Instead, you typically pay monthly or annual fees, which are scalable depending on the capacity and performance you need. In other words, you only pay for the resources you actually need.
This dynamic approach offers a high degree of flexibility, which pays off especially in rapidly changing business environments like technical writing.
Professional third-party hosting solution providers have dedicated, redundant infrastructures and fail-safe data centres. This minimises the risk of downtime and maximises the availability of data.
Up-to-date and secure: regular updates are essential to maintain the performance and functionality of the content management system. Providers of hosting solutions ensure that the systems and applications used are always up to date and patched.
This ensures stable performance and high system reliability.
A professional hosting provider typically offers strict security protocols and standards that often go beyond what an internal team can provide. This includes, among other things, state-of-the-art security technologies, firewalls and encryption methods.
When they outsource system hosting, companies also relinquish a certain degree of control. In the event of any failures or malfunctions, they are therefore always dependent on the support of the external partner.
External hosting solutions offer less freedom in customising the system environment. This results in limitations compared to an internally hosted system, which can be configured entirely at your discretion.
Even if a professional hosting partner offers high security standards, there may still be concerns about data protection in the company. It is important here to communicate with the external partner at an early stage in order to clarify critical questions about physical and digital security. In the event that systems and data are hosted using a stand-alone data centre, it is worth taking a closer look at the following aspects:
“How does the configuration work again?”
“Who actually carried out the last system update and when exactly was that?”
If questions like these are part of your everyday technical writer life, it is usually time to rethink your current hosting strategy. In fact, our experience in a wide range of different customer projects and system introductions has shown that many companies are able to benefit from external hosting of their content management system. Whether this step also makes sense for your technical writing team depends, of course, on individual factors and your specific situation.
As a partner and consultant for content management systems, kothes is also at your side when it comes to system hosting.
Want to know more or have questions? Then feel free to contact us.