Hosting is the new way of managing your computing needs. It is the alternative to doing it yourself or completely outsourcing, both of which can be expensive options for a company. Hosting is an attractive alternative because it has lower costs and doesn't involve a high initial capital investment incurred by doing it yourself, whilst also giving greater control and flexibility than completely outsourcing operations.
Alternatives to Managing IT Systems and Computing
Do-it-Yourself:
Do-it-yourself is an approach to managing IT systems where a business retains complete ownership and responsibility for maintenance and support. Companies may choose to house their IT systems in their own facilities or may use a co-location vendor for data centre space and network access.
Outsourcing:
Businesses may also choose to outsource their IT systems and computing operations. Outsourcers typically provide an end-to-end, custom solution for their customers. The outsourcer also assumes responsibility for management of a customer's IT systems, computing operations, and employees.
Hosting:
Hosting providers offer services to support IT systems and computing ranging from simple to very complex. The equipment required (servers, routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, cabinets, software, wiring, etc.) to deliver their services is typically purchased and managed by the hosting providers. The Hosting provider is set up for and experienced in, the delivery of hosting solutions with expert support staff available to resolve issues as quickly as possible. Customers also benefit from the often large network capabilities of hosting providers, as well as the economies of scale of their infrastructure, with the costs spread across their client base e.g. back up and storage infrastructures, making it a more affordable option.
Rackspace® offers a full suite of hosting services, including dedicated hosting, managed hosting, and email hosting, as well as emerging services such as platform hosting and cloud hosting.
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