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By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com
September 18, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Rackspace (rackspace.com) announced on Thursday that it has introduced a new service the company calls "platform hosting."
Adding a new distinction to the ever-expanding list of hosting varieties. According to the company, the new offering is "created as a unique alternative to colocation" in that it allows customers to "control and manage all aspects of their hosting environments," while still providing the hardware management and service level agreements and network support for which Rackspace is known.
More specifically, Rackspace says that with platform hosting, it provides 24/7 management of equipment, network infrastructure and data center, while the customer retains "everyday administrative responsibility" for the environment. That includes the operating system, networking devices, monitoring, storage and applications.
Like so many other hosting providers, Rackspace appears to be expanding the scope of its services. While many dedicated hosts are moving to more Rackspace-like managed solutions, Rackspace's offering moves in a less-managed direction, though the customer segment Rackspace appears to have identified - "customers that require more control and flexibility and the ability to administer their environment, without the burden of managing the hardware infrastructure," according to the announcement - has a decidedly up-market feel to it.
Rackspace isn't getting into the unmanaged dedicated market, or the colocation business. Just last week, In the company's September earnings call, CEO Lanham Napier favorably described the per-square-foot value of managed services in comparison to those lower-margin services. With platform hosting, Rackspace seems more set to compete with IT service providers more along the lines of IBM.
"For years, colocation has been the only viable option for companies that have the technical expertise on staff to administer their infrastructure but don't want the added expense or burden of managing their own data center facility," says Lew Moorman, Rackspace chief strategy officer, quoted in the press release. "However, colocation still requires having resources close by and an inventory of hardware in the event of a failure - which can be a huge burden for IT departments. As a service company, we know that customers value our fanatical support and wanted a solution where the hardware burden still rests with Rackspace but full control of the applications and systems reside with them; thus Platform Hosting was born."
While neither the press release or the company's website offers a basic description of the pricing for the service, the exhaustive platform hosting info section on the Rackspace website does provide a link to a sales contact form, or a chat window with a live sales assistant.
Read Back Issues of WHIR Magazine
October 2009 - Web Hosting's All Star Team
This has been, for us, one of the most interesting, exciting and challenging build-ups to an issue of the magazine yet, Web Hosting's All Star Team. The balloting process was our first experiment with a kind of user participation we're planning to do a lot more with in the months to come. We had thousands of ballots submitted, with hundreds of write-in suggestions and a demonstration of user engagement that has us feeling super positive about the project.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
July 2009 - What am I Worth?
One of the interesting luxuries of working on a project like the printed WHIR magazine is that it allows us to play with things like our point of view from one issue to the next. In recent months we've been giving added attention to the kind of practical and applicable advice aimed at smaller hosts and resellers. This issue carries on with that point of view, asking, in our cover story, "what am I worth?" It's a complicated question without a clear-cut answer.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
I was a little surprised by how difficult it became to see this idea through. We set out to assemble a blueprint for a small hosting business, but butted up pretty quickly against the general impossibility of covering all the territory that was out there to be covered. The basic constraints of a printed magazine, and the less-than-infinite amount of time we had available forced us to face the fact that we could never produce an exhaustive guide to starting a hosting company.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
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