The benefits of application outsourcing are numerous—faster time to market, inexpensive access to best-in-class technology, and lower equipment overhead—to name a few. However, the idea of farming out an ecommerce venture can tend to make web merchants new to application outsourcing a bit jittery. Fear not! This article debunks some popular myths about outsourced ecommerce.
Myth #1 -- Hosted Applications Are Not Secure
Outsourced application solutions have an inherent responsibility to provide maximum security because of the size and scale of operations. Consequently, all respectable hosted solutions are offered via a highly secure environment. In addition, applications hosted in a tier 1 data center typically provide advanced network and physical security. Physical data center security features might include video surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and biometric identification systems dedicated security personnel. Network security typically integrates firewall protection, availability monitoring, and full support for secure sockets layer (SSL) and digital certificates. (Note: GoECart offers all of these security features and more.)
Myth #2 -- Hosted Applications Are Not Reliable
In fact, the opposite is often true. In most cases, hosted applications are even more reliable than traditional applications because of their shared best-in-class infrastructure. Hosted ecommerce software often provides a level of reliability that can support even advanced requirements. Since hosted applications are designed to serve a broad range of needs, you can frequently find well-managed service in a variety of key areas. And the most credible hosted solutions guarantee certain levels of uptime. (Note: GoECart provides a 99.9 percent or greater uptime guarantee.)
Myth #3 -- You Give Up Control Over Your Data
While it is true that your data will be stored at the data center and not at your home office, this is a good thing! The data center provides increased integrity and security, and ensures that data is backed up on a regular basis, among other things. Moreover, properly hosted ecommerce services provide you with the capability to securely access, retrieve or delete the data from anywhere via Internet, VPN or other methods. As far the privacy issues are concerned, ASP applications are governed by strict laws that help keep your data totally safe.
Myth #4 -- Hosted Applications Are Not Flexible
It may have been true a decade ago that some flexibility got lost through application outsourcing, but the same is no longer true today. The prevalence of high-speed Internet connections combined with the improvements in web software architecture have made web applications more modular, robust, and easy to customize. The hosted web applications of today are as flexible as their shrink wrapped counterparts.
Myth #5 -- Hosted Applications Save Costs, Nothing Else
Merchants who opt to outsource their Web ecommerce endeavors can expect to reap significant cost benefits. However, there is a common misconception that “cost savings” is what hosted applications are all about. There are significant tangential benefits as well. These include the speed to market and increased uptime mentioned earlier as well as increased focus on the business instead of technology, reduced impact from upgrades, and improved technical support. While these benefits are harder to quantity, they are significant, contribute to the cost savings formula, and ultimately translate into increased customer satisfaction.
