One of the major decisions organizations have to make when implementing an LMS is whether to go with DIY (do-it-yourself), or outsourced hosting. Cloud-based hosting is an advanced form of hosting that incorporates greater support and service levels, and offloads the aforementioned duties to the managed hosting firm.
One of the most popular open-source learning management systems is Moodle, which we will use as the primary example in this article. When you outsource hosting for your Moodle site, data is stored online in the 'cloud' by the hosting vendor, where users have access to it through a web browser. Here are 5 reasons why organizations are choosing cloud based Moodle hosting:
1. Having a cloud based hosted system means that the company you are hosting with is taking on the responsibility of storing your system's data. In simple terms, you are able to allocate less people, time, and resources to managing your Moodle site. The hosting company has a support team whose sole responsibility is to technically manage your Moodle system to ensure that it runs optimally.
2. Managed Cloud Hosting saves you the headache of dealing with implementation. Your hosting vendor uploads your course to your Moodle site, where all of your users have immediate access to it.
3. With Managed Cloud Hosting support and monitoring is available 24/7 for your convenience. There is a support team ready to help you at any time, whether it’s to answer your questions, give you step by step guidance, or whatever it may be.
4. Cloud based hosting has a wider reach. This means a couple of things, the first being that you are not limited to partnering with companies who are in close proximity to you. If you are implementing cloud-based hosting, you are free to work with companies accross the globe as your data is backed-up in many locations. Second, if you are a global company, you can easily manage your employees access to data - all they need is Internet access.
5. Not only is it effective, it’s also cost efficient. There are no up-front costs since you aren’t purchasing any software, so you save money that you can allocate elsewhere (like hosting).
If you want to learn more about the advantages of cloud managed hosting over DIY hosting, check out our whitepaper. It outlines in further depth with proven evidence, why outsourcing your organization’s LMS hosting is crucial for your company’s success.
