2017 Review of Abacus Private Cloud

Abacus Private Cloud (APC)is a good fit for accounting firms of 10+ employees that are looking for a private hosting solution with top of the line security offered. Traditionally offered to legal offices, AbacusNext has expanded its market to include accounting and professional service firms, primarily due to its recent acquisition of Office Tools, Results CRM and Cloudnine Realtime.  AbacusNext offers a variety of services including Desktop as a Service(Daas), which is a virtual desktop.  Also available are hybrid clouds, along with practice management software, email hosting, and security services. 

APC is billed as a Technology as a Service (TaaS) company, and provides a private, virtual workspace for both legal and accounting firms, with users able to access their data from anywhere, at any time, using any kind of device, with users owning all of their data.  For quick access to the virtual server, users can add a desktop shortcut that allows for quick connection by following the step-by-step instructions that are available in the Abacus Private Cloud Knowledge Base, located on the AbacusNext website.

APC offers users a service agreement with a 99.999% uptime guaranteed.  The product also offers 256-bit encryption and offers 14 different compliance certificates.  Additional security options include two-tier authentication, and five tiers of physical, network and data security including Arbor Networks PeakFlow traffic protection and management system, a Digitus Biometric locking system, 24/7/365 monitoring and data centers in 3 countries. 4

APC utilizes multiple data centers, with three data centers in the western U.S. (California, Arizona, Nevada), two in Canada, and one in the United Kingdom. Two additional data centers in Michigan and New Jersey are due to come online in 2018.

APC is a licensed commercial host for Intuit products, enabling them to handle all related IT issues and system updates.  Along with QuickBooks, the product also offers hosting for Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Results CRM, and Office Tools, which Abacus recently purchased. 

For accounting firms in particular, APC hosts a variety of accounting applications including Wolters Kluwer ATX and CCH ProSystem fx applications, Drake Software, Intuit Lacerte and ProSeries, Thomson Reuters applications such as Planner CS, Practice CS, UltraTax CS, and Workpapers CS, as well as Sage 50, Sage 100, and Sage 300.   Accounting firms can also have other applications hosted by APC if desired.

Subscribers are also provided with a dedicated I.P. address and a dedicated virtual server, exclusive to their firm. And as a private cloud host, APC offers full IT management for all applications, along with flexibility and scalability, as users can easily add additional applications or system users at any time. 

All product support is handled from the San Diego office, with support available seven days a week.  After hours support is also available with no additional charge assessed.  Users can contact support via the toll-free number, via email, or by using the contact form on the website. Help options are numerous on the AbacusNext website, including the Knowledge Base, where users can browse common issues and solutions, ask a question or enter a search term to look up a specific issue.   A series of training videos are also available on the website to access at any time.

For larger accounting firms that are concerned about security and data breaches, a private cloud server is a good option, and Abacus Private Cloud fits the bill perfectly.  Monthly subscription costs are generally less than $150.00 per user, with a price guarantee of up to 60 months.  Firms can pay month to month, with no long-term contract required. 

2017 Rating: 5 Stars