Application Hosting and Maintenance

Summary: This page describes how we host and maintain custom business applications, including ones we did not build. It is for companies that depend on a piece of software every day and have nobody responsible for keeping it running.

Many businesses run on an application that was written for them years ago: a job tracker, a scheduling tool, an ordering portal, an intranet. It works, the person who built it has moved on, and nobody is sure where it is hosted or whether it is backed up.

We take responsibility for applications like that. We host them, keep them patched and backed up, and have developers who can change them when the business changes.

The Kinds of Application We Host

• A project-management application with electrician time entry, for Prime Electric.
• Crew-ordering portals with Microsoft 365 single sign-on, for EMCOR.
• Online stores, membership sites and internal tools built on .NET.

Taking Over an Application

1. Read it. We review the code, the database and the current hosting, and tell you what we find.
2. Secure the basics. Backups, monitoring and access: who can log in, and who should not.
3. Move it, if needed. Onto infrastructure we operate, with the old copy kept until you are satisfied.
4. Keep it current. Platform and framework versions are kept within support.

If the application is too old to maintain sensibly, we say so and set out the options.

What Is Included Every Month

• The platform. Your application runs on Microsoft Azure, on infrastructure we size to what your traffic needs.
• Database backups. We can restore your database to any point in the last 14 days. Weekly backups are kept for four weeks and monthly backups for four months.
• File backups. Uploaded files and images held on a file share are backed up daily.
• Your application code. It is redeployed from source control, so a rebuild does not depend on a server copy.
• Monitoring that reads the page. A site can answer “OK” while showing visitors an error. Our checks confirm the page contains what it should, raise an alert when it does not, and restart the application automatically.
• Load alerts. We are alerted by email and text when processor, memory or database load stays high.
• A monthly malware scan. Every site is scanned each month for malware and card skimmers and compared against a known-good copy.
• Platform patching. Azure patches the operating system and runtime. We handle updates to your application.
• A firewall at the edge, where it fits. A web application firewall that blocks known attack patterns before they reach your site is available.

What Is Billed Separately

• Changes to your site’s code or content.
• Work caused by a sustained increase in traffic, or by an attack on your site.
• Security audits and penetration testing, which are a separate engagement with their own scope.

How Support Works

We respond during Pacific business hours. Outside those hours alerts still reach us, and response is slower. A staging copy is set up when a change needs testing before it goes live.

What It Costs

Hosting for a business application starts from $150 a month. The figure for your site depends on its traffic, its database and what it connects to, and we quote it after the free review. Changes to code or content, and work caused by a traffic increase or an attack, are billed separately.

If Your Site Takes Card Payments

You are the merchant of record, and PCI compliance is assessed against your business, not your host. We are not a PCI assessor. What we do on the hosting side is specific: we keep card data out of your database wherever the payment gateway and your business rules allow it, scan every site monthly for malware and card skimmers, and keep the platform patched. Security audits and penetration testing are a separate engagement.

Talk to Us About an Application You Depend On

We host and maintain applications that businesses use every working day. Tell us your platform, its version, where it is hosted now and what is going wrong. We reply within one business day. Or call (206) 325-5383.