FileMaker licensing is changing
As of FileMaker 15, the commercial hosting model, where separate businesses share the same copy of FileMaker server, is no longer allowed. (You can read more about that here: FileMaker commercial hosting FAQ). Plus, with support for FileMaker 14 ending on September 21, 2018, commercial hosting companies will no longer be able to offer you a shared server in a supported version of FileMaker.
FileMaker Cloud is maturing
With version 1.16 of FileMaker Cloud (FMCloud), the built-for-cloud version of FileMaker server has matured into a fully capable server product since launch. Now, with support for generating PDFs, OAuth security, scheduling tasks and a cloud-centric approach to backups, FMCloud continues to grow in step with FileMaker’s product line as an easy-to-deploy, lower-cost server option for teams with as few as five users.
Moving removes risk
One of the major concerns in shared hosting with commercial hosting providers is that you’re also sharing resources with other businesses, which may cause your system to perform poorly. Say, for instance, you’re an office of five users and your shared hosting provider is hosting 250 users total on a shared server. In this configuration, you are potentially at risk from the other 245 users of that server. If any of those users run a high-demand operation, or suffer a security breach, the entire server could be affected. If this happens, you’re also at risk for waiting for the hosting provider to provide service to fix issues. This could lead to costly downtime at no fault of your own.
The answer: dedicated hosting
Whether it’s on your own physical office server, a cloud based virtual server, or a dedicated server from a hosting provider, dedicated hosting is the way forward for both protecting your system and supporting the latest features of the FileMaker platform. If you’ve felt that dedicated hosting was too expensive, complex or otherwise out of reach for your business, fortunately, modern server offerings have grown to allow for affordable, reliable and easy to manage options.
You can count on MainSpring’s FileMaker expertise to help you make the right choices for hosting, as well as providing expert service in configuring and managing servers. Contact us today to get started.