Rackspace says its short-term hosting is primarily targeted at marketing, advertising and graphic design agencies where campaign-specific and seasonal Web sites are driving the advertising industry.

"Advertising campaigns move quickly and agencies need fast access to a flexible hosting platform, so they can begin their work immediately and bring down a site when the campaign is complete without being tied into a year-long contract or the more expensive month-to-month option," says Scott White, director of channel sales and verticals at Rackspace. "After hearing from our advertising customers about these specific needs, we developed short-term hosting to offer them abbreviated project solutions that can be deployed within a matter of days, not weeks."

Rackspace short-term hosting offers a three-month hosting contract for customers' Web-based campaigns and the flexibility to change or even bring down the account while avoiding termination penalties typically associated with long-term contracts, says the company. In addition, short-term hosting customers have access to three configuration options to best suit their project needs, including Web servers, a firewall and the option for a load-balancer.

Rackspace also recently announced it has launched its second annual Rackspace on the Road tour to promote its services to both current and prospective customers outside of the traditional channels.