Project Hosts, Inc: Delivering Microsoft PPM, CRM and SharePoint Clouds

Scott Chapman, President, CEO & Co-founder
Scott Chapman is a pioneer and marketmaker in cloudbased Microsoft applications hosting. After tasting success with his initial venture focused on enabling Microsoft partners to leverage the cloud, he launched Project Hosts—a managed service provider hosting Microsoft Project Server, SharePoint and Dynamics CRM applications. Enterprise customers and government agencies are searching for ways to provide their users with access to cloud-based Microsoft solutions, without using their own capital budgets for equipment and software acquisition or their IT staff resources for deployment and maintenance. Partner-managed private cloud solutions, as opposed to on-premise environments, make sense for these customers from both a productivity and financial perspective. “However, the real challenge is how these organizations can move to a cloud solution while still being able to use their critical applications, integration and customizations, dynamic business intelligence, and the security they expect from their traditional onpremise solutions. That is where Project Hosts comes in—helping enterprises and government agencies understand the difference between standard public cloud offerings and private cloud solutions,” says Chapman.

Project Hosts has hosted multiple generations of Microsoft Project Server, Dynamics CRM, and SharePoint solutions and has amassed a tremendous knowledge base and experience in delivering SAAS and cloud-based versions of these solutions. Project Hosts has also achieved a Gold Competency from Microsoft in Hosting and Project and Portfolio Management, distinguishing itself in the top one percent of the Microsoft partner ecosystem. Private clouds, or Custom Clouds, as the company calls them, extend a public cloud’s capabilities by providing dedicated IT infrastructure, 3rd party app support, integration with on-site systems, more partner control, advanced security, and real-time BI reporting. “We like to think of it as delivering the best of both worlds—the ease and flexibility of a public cloud, with the added value of a dedicated and highly integrated solution gained from a private or hybrid cloud,” notes Chapman.
Not only is Project Hosts data center infrastructure SSAE 16 certified and FedRAMP authorized, it also supports dedicated physical and virtual options for servers, domains, and networks. This enables customers to achieve the strictest security audits required by enterprise IT governance bodies, as well as U.S. government regulatory agencies. The company also gives the customers and their solution providers the option to have administrative access, and have custom-code or 3rd party applications installed to provide a highly-tuned solution for their specific business needs. Unlike public clouds, Project Hosts’ customers get to decide when they want to upgrade to a newer version of a Microsoft application, giving them time to coordinate the appropriate user training.

Project Hosts works with top clients in pharmaceutical, finance, Hi-tech and electronics, telecom and utilities, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors. Autotrader, a company that deals with buying and selling cars online is a classic example of a customer who chose Project Hosts for a hosted Microsoft Project Server private cloud. Project Hosts enabled the client to integrate the PPM solution with their onsite applications, provided access to real-time reports and business intelligence to improve their decision making process and gave them a holistic view of their systems. The Environmental Protection Agency is another client who needed a trusted, secure private cloud provider that was on track to support the government’s Cloud-First initiative, and have the necessary FedRAMP authorization when required. They opted for Project Hosts, and the latter assisted EPA to build their core Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solution, so that they can do a better job of finishing software development projects on time and within budget.

Going forward, Project Hosts aims to continue to support the move to cloud computing, while gaining FedRAMP SaaS authorization to help U.S. Government agencies meet regulatory requirements. “With enterprises demanding improved integration with on-premise applications, custom security requirements, and the need for real-time business reporting, we’ll continue to see heavy demand for private clouds and invest heavily in this sector,” Chapman concludes.

Company
Project Hosts, Inc.

Headquarters
Sunnyvale, CA

Management
Scott Chapman, President, CEO & Co-founder

Description
Provides private cloud-hosting of Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management (PPM), Dynamics CRM and SharePoint solutions