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Hosting & Infrastructure

Hosting and infrastructure for business applications, designed and operated around the reliability, security and recovery needs of the software that runs on it.

Applications depend on servers, DNS, certificates, backups and accounts that are easy to forget until something fails. Often the person who set them up has moved on, and nobody is sure how a restore would work or who would be contacted if an alert fires overnight.

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What we offer

  1. Cloud

    Cloud environments for business applications, designed as simply as the requirements allow, with named access, backups, monitoring and a repeatable deployment process.

  2. Architecture

    Practical architecture for software and systems: boundaries, data ownership, interfaces, identity and infrastructure agreed in enough detail to guide implementation.

  3. Managed Hosting

    Ongoing operation of application hosting environments, including monitoring, updates, backups and incident response, with coverage hours and responsibilities agreed in writing.

Infrastructure tied to the software it supports

Hosting decisions follow what the applications need. The people changing an environment should understand what runs on it. An inventory usually comes first: what is running and where, who can log in, and whether recovery has ever been exercised.

The work covers application environments, technical architecture and operational reliability, often alongside software, integration or modernisation work. Help desk and desktop support sit outside it. Cloud migration is recommended where it solves an identifiable problem.

What we design for

These are normal design objectives for application environments. The exact controls, environments and recovery arrangements depend on the software and the engagement.

  • Named access

    People and services should have their own accounts, so access can be removed without changing a shared password.

  • Recovery that has been thought through

    Backups are only useful if they can be restored. Recovery objectives and test arrangements should be explicit, not assumed.

  • Alerts that can reach someone

    Monitoring should send useful failures to people able to act, during the coverage that has been agreed.

  • Change somewhere other than production first

    Where the risk justifies it, changes are tried in a separate environment before they reach the live system.

  • Written operating notes

    How the environment is built, where credentials are kept and how to recover it should be written down.

How a typical engagement works

  1. 01Inventory
  2. 02Design
  3. 03Change
  4. 04Operate or hand over
  5. 05Review

01Inventory

Take an inventory

We list what is running and where, who has access, how deployments happen and whether recovery has ever been tested.

02Design

Design around the application

The environment is designed for what the application needs in reliability, security and recovery, and kept as simple as those needs allow.

03Change

Change in stages

Changes are made in steps and tried outside production first where the risk justifies it, with a way back if something fails.

04Operate or hand over

Monitoring, backups and operating notes are put in place, and the environment is either handed to the organisation's own team or run by Ryoss under agreed coverage hours.

05Review

Review as needs change

Capacity, incidents and the arrangement are reviewed as the application and its needs change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we have to give you production access?

For managed hosting, yes, through named accounts with an agreed scope that can be revoked. Design and review work can often be done with read-only access.

Can you work alongside an existing IT provider?

Yes. Where another provider looks after devices and user support, we can look after the application environments and agree who handles what.

What does hosting and infrastructure work cover?

Application hosting, cloud environments, deployment, networking, monitoring, backup and recovery, and the operating notes that go with them. It supports business applications.

Is this the same as IT support?

It is application-focused. We look after the environments applications run in, rather than laptops, printers or office administration, and work alongside a provider who handles those.

Do we need to move to the cloud?

Only where it solves an identifiable problem. An existing environment may remain appropriate, and a simpler setup is often easier to run.

How do you keep the environment secure?

Through the design: named accounts instead of shared passwords, limited permissions, updates applied in agreed windows and monitoring that reaches someone able to act. The exact controls depend on the application and the engagement.

What happens if something fails overnight?

That depends on the coverage agreed in writing. Alerts go to someone able to act during the agreed hours, and a 24-hour arrangement exists only where it has been explicitly agreed.

Can you take over an environment someone else set up?

Yes, once we have listed what is in it, set up named access and checked that alerts reach someone able to act. We take responsibility for environments we understand and can support.

Which cloud provider do you work with?

Whichever suits the application, the existing agreements and the people who will run it. We can work with an existing cloud account or build a new one.

How do we get started?

Book a free 15 minute discovery call and describe the applications, where they run and what concerns you about them. A sensible first step is often an inventory of the environment.

Start with a conversation

Book a free 15 minute call. Describe the problem, the systems involved and what you already know, and we will tell you plainly whether we can help and what a sensible next step looks like. There is no obligation.

Book a free discovery call