Today businesses have a several choices when it comes to their IT infrastructure, including do-it-yourself (DIY), traditional colocation, cloud computing and managed hosting. Because there are so many offerings on the market, the decision-making process can be overwhelming. As a business leader, it's important to determine which solution for your business's strategy and needs. Managed Colocation, one such infrastructure option, is the hosting choice of many businesses because it provides the desired level of control while offloading some of the inconvenience, financial risk and upfront capital.
Managed Colocation Posted on: February 15, 2010 by Charles Hotchkin, Rackspace Business Development Consultant
When is Managed Colocation a Good Fit? Today businesses have a several choices when it comes to their IT infrastructure, including do-it-yourself (DIY), traditional colocation, cloud computing and managed hosting. Because there are so many offerings on the market, the decision-making process can be overwhelming. As a business leader, it's important to determine which solution for your business's strategy and needs. Managed Colocation, one such infrastructure option, is the hosting choice of many businesses because it provides the desired level of control while offloading some of the inconvenience, financial risk and upfront capital. Businesses that choose Managed Colocation often have similar concerns: "I have already a great staff that understands our applications and operating systems, but I don't want to burden them with the day-to-day management of servers and networking devices." Technical directors who want to retain full administrative control of their environment, but don't want to manage the infrastructure often choose Managed Colocation. This allows their staff to add value in their key areas of expertise without saddling them with everyday server management. And while your experts are adding uniquely IT value to your business, our experts will manage the tedious break/fixes. "I like the control of managing my infrastructure myself, but there are a lot of continuously moving parts that distract me from my core business." The beauty of Managed Colocation is that it offers simplicity. Dealing with all the vendors and agents who are involved in traditional colocation can be overwhelming and time consuming. With Rackspace Managed Colocation you have a single point of contact who is an expert at managing the tactical side of your IT infrastructure. "I'm concerned about the operational and financial risks potentially involved with choosing a hosting provider versus managing servers in-house." The Managed Colocation hosting option offers limited financial risk compared to a DIY solution. Upfront costs can be reallocated to other business differentiators and operations can be fully focused on driving innovation. With your technicians managing the operating system and mission-critical apps, you are still able to maintain the desired level of control. And because the provider handles the infrastructure, you no longer have to commit to a large capital outlay simply to have that level of control. An important consideration, however, is to look at the Service Level Agreement that your provider offers. An aggressive SLA-such as those that Rackspace offers - will give you further peace of mind when it comes to mitigating risk.
INTERNATIONAL: 1.210.312.4000 | FAX: 1.210.312.4100 | WWW.RACKSPACE.COM ®RACKSPACE HOSTING | 5000 WALZEM ROAD | SAN ANTONIO, TX 78218 U.S.A.
"Which industries choose Managed Colocation?" Managed Colocation has varied clients in a number of different business markets. Some examples:
E-commerce SaaS Advertising Media IT Consulting "I need help managing my growing IT footprint." One of the many benefits of Managed Colocation is that you are provided with a team that can provide consultation around space planning and growth. Since the provider is responsible to for the data center, they also help manage and plan for your growth needs and deployments. "We want to transition from a total in-house scenario. Colocation is the logical first step, but I need some help." Fanatical Support®, which is our can-do, no-excuses way of thinking, has made Rackspace the world's leader in hosting. Since our beginning in 1998, we have grown to more than 80,000 customers and 2,800 employees-we call them Rackers-around the world serving our customers. Fanatical Support is what drives our industry-leading SLAs so that you can focus on your core business, not on managing servers. For more information on the Rackspace® Managed Colocation offering, please click here.
®RACKSPACE HOSTING | 5000 WALZEM ROAD | SAN ANTONIO, TX 78218 U.S.A. INTERNATIONAL: 1.210.312.4000 | FAX: 1.210.312.4100 | WWW.RACKSPACE.COM
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