February 8, 2002 - With a myriad of hosting choices available, it has become extremely difficult for the corporate consumer to identify specific vendors that cater to their exact needs. Many IT departments spend a tremendous amount of time wading through and evaluating a wide array of service offerings, to determine which one fulfills their specific requirements.
This process is time consuming, because it involves executing due diligence on a wide range of complex hosting firms in order to narrow down suitable candidates for the corporation's requirements. IT departments must hence spend valuable time and financial resources to make sure that the hosting company they select will be a perfect fit with their existing technical infrastructure and business processes.
Once the hosting firm is selected, then the IT department must also utilize its internal resources to ensure that a proper relationship is maintained through service level agreements and other legalistic and technical mechanisms. Once again the process of maintaining the relationship ties up valuable resources.
In order to lessen the drain upon technical corporate staff, smarter companies have begun to deal with hosting brokers or consultants, rather than with individual hosting vendors. By so doing, these organizations not only outsource their Web presence, thereby obtaining cost-savings, but also outsource the process of its discovery, implementation and maintenance, further increasing cost-efficiencies.
Many clients can save up to 65 per cent for their current data center requirements through the use of an independent broker. Mid and large-sized corporations have thus begun to consult with brokers such as CanXCentral (canxcentral.com), which provides a unique, one-stop-shop that assists them in effectively outsourcing their Internet and communications infrastructure.
CanXCentral is Canada's first full service independent agent for collocation and related technology services. Operating as a fully independent broker, CanXCentral leverages informed, independent market research to empower consumers when sourcing multiple providers.
Services offered include collocation, managed hosting, disaster recovery and business continuity, data center analysis and property services. A broker like CanXCentral not only sources and secures qualified collocation, disaster recovery and hosting providers but also oversees the implementation and migration of hardware and data, performance testing, monitoring and technical auditing.
Since the broker works on commission, the cost to the corporation is much less than if the broker went through traditional vendor channels.
"As the complexity of the Internet grows, so does the cost-prohibitive technical infrastructure needed to maintain a successful network," says Christopher Ridabock, Jr., CanXCentral chief executive officer. "By leveraging our knowledge of the collocation and hosting markets, companies can focus on what matters most to them - their core businesses."
The fact that companies need not actually spend inordinate amounts of time and financial resources on selecting a telecommunications carrier or Web hosting vendor, makes the services of a broker quite appealing.
Since the broker is independent, it will make neutral carrier and vendors selections based on a needs-analysis basis, in conjunction with leveraging the high-quality market research and experience of noted industry professionals. Consumers generally like hosting brokers since they find them creative, alternative solutions for networking and communications infrastructure.
"CanXCentral enables us to decrease our costs and improve the reliability and redundancy of our network," says Randy Bucking, senior network architect and IT planner at SwiftTrade Securities, a premier Canadian equity brokerage. "They are a valuable partner assisting us to determine effective solutions quickly and efficiently."
CanXCentral is an especially popular choice because it deals within the Canadian collocation and Web host vendor marketplace. With the Canadian dollar trading at approximately 60 cents US, the hosting broker can find and maintain high-quality connectivity at rates sometimes one-third less the average American price.
Watch for the hosting brokerage model to be widely adopted by corporate customers intent to increase cost-efficiencies surrounding the management of their outsourced Web hosting services.
