SaaS Benefits

One item of interest to many of our customers looking into using ARMS within an On Premises server environment or utilizing our MS Azure Cloud SaaS environment is how that decision directly affects them.  Because to an end user, nothing changes, and some may take that to mean they are not gaining anything through choosing a SaaS environment.  The real gains of a SaaS option come from aspects an end user does not see and does not have to worry about

Server Infrastructure

A somewhat expensive aspect of managing a server on your own site, is the hardware itself.  Whether your IT is using a local VM system or physical boxes, the upkeep and maintenance of these machines can become quite costly.    A key part of ARMS SaaS means that your server is always on the latest versions of Windows Server OS, is always powered by the right amount of RAM and CPU to ensure that you are getting the most out of the software; this is accomplished without your department having to spend the time and money upgrading servers every few years.

Backups

Without a proper backup system in place, your department is merely waiting for an event to occur that could completely strip you of all historical data.  While many of our customers that host their own servers do have a backup strategy in place, many are wrought with key problems like the backups being hosted on the same drive as the production data (meaning one drive goes down, you lose both copies) or the backups are not often enough.  We have even seen customers with great backup systems pointing to the wrong files meaning they are backing up the wrong things correctly.  Our backup strategy is built to ensure that our customers that choose us to host their data can sleep comfortably knowing that their server is being backed up every 2 hours, with backups being hosted offsite and maintained for the proper amount of time.  We even undergo tests without interrupting our customer’s usage to ensure that we can get a customer back online if a catastrophe were to occur.

Updates and Upgrades

Within our terminology, we refer to “updates” when talking about MS Windows OS updates and “upgrades” when it refers to upgrading ARMS versions.  However, both of these items are vital to ensuring that your server environment is properly secured, and your ARMS installation is running at top efficiency with the latest features.  Updates to the Windows OS are downloaded and applied monthly along with a server restart that occurs during low usage times for your department along with a call from an ARMS rep to confirm that your department is back online each month.  Upgrades to your ARMS installation can be applied easily using this method, keeping your department on the latest version to keep up with the constant changes in NIBRS and Clery reporting.  We have found that upgrading ARMS SaaS customers takes a third of the time it takes to upgrade an On-Prem system, this means that your department is back online faster and enjoying the latest features.

In review, by moving to ARMS SaaS, your department can know that your data is being stored in the best possible situation and treated with the importance that it needs.  With the above items being maintained and controlled by the ARMS team, your IT has less to manage in the day to day operation of ARMS and will only be needed for user endpoints and workstations while everything else is constantly under our supervision.