Hosted

Have you heard the term "working in the cloud"? This is the hosted model. The beauty and appeal to this model is that very little upfront capital is required and getting buyoff from your IT team is not a requirement. Instead, you are presented with a very easy to consume model where it is usually user based with a month-to-month commitment. Additionally, you can usually be up and running in minutes.

In case the above does not make sense, keep in mind that deploying business applications can be fraught with danger. If you know this going in, why not use a deployment model that allows you to test it first?

The downside of the test is when you sign up for a particular service for one user for one month and you end making the decision that the application you were so keen on is not the right fit. You terminate the hosting agreement and you are done. This pretty much mitigates 100% of your risk.

The upside of the test is when you love the application. If this is the case, you will have plenty of options. First, if the hosted model is working for you, it is easy to simply start adding users and continue consuming the service. Second, if you are not a big hosting fan and prefer the traditional on-premise model, you can change to an on-premise model at any time. The beauty of having tested it under the hosted model first is that you will now be purchasing and investing in an on-premise solution that you know you like and that your users will leverage. This also pretty much mitigates 100% of your risk.

Environments

Hosted services are available in two environments, shared and dedicated. The environment determines whether individual hardware resources are shared by multiple customers or dedicated to each customer. Each environment of the hosted deployment model has its purpose and fit.

xRM provides both environments to our hosted customers through our xRM tier-IV data center.

For an in-depth explanation of how the dedicated environment works, please read our page about hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a dedicated environment.