In January 2005 Carlisle was hit by wild weather which plunged half the county into darkness and brought boats on to the city streets. Floods of up to 13 feet deep put Cumbria into headlines worldwide. It is no wonder that in the aftermath of such a disaster, the residents of Carlisle feared any warnings of flooding.Determined not to be defeated by flooding again, Carlisle residents took measures to protect their homes and businesses, so that when heavy rain had caused flood warnings to be issued in October 2008, they could be ready.One such Carlisle-based business, Malcolm Dodds Solicitors, took out a hosting policy with DPS Software in order to protect their IT infrastructure in the face of such disasters.Hosting is the process by which software that is traditionally run from a desktop PC is run over the internet in virtually the same fashion. All that is required is broadband internet access to the DPS data centre, other than that, users go about their work in exactly the same way. As IT infrastructure and maintenance is carried out off site, flooding and other such disasters do not effect IT systems and provided the building is accessible, hosting allows clients to carry on working as normal.Hosting ensures that software is kept up to date while the host carries the burden of keeping hardware performance checked and maintained. In addition, the need for IT staff and expertise is removed to the hosting provider. This allows firms to capitalise on not only a wider variety of software, but also more advanced versions of hardware. This is beneficial for firms as they can use the same software as much larger competitors offering high levels of client service without the major upfront costs. Malcom Dodds commented: “Hosting guarantees a trouble free software system. I no longer have any networking problems and I have not had to call on engineers since I went hosted. This has saved me a considerable amount of money, time, and lowered my blood pressure to acceptable levels!”He added, “Updates were becoming a problem with crime as the LSC introduced contract changes on a regular basis and I was having to install all these on the computer on my network, but these are now dealt with by DPS.”“I have always found the support staff at DPS to be excellent since I became a client over 14 years ago. It also makes the system more mobile and I can access my case management system from anywhere and particularly with the advent of digital dictation working away from the office becomes a viable alternative. It is all worth serious consideration.”
