Why Off-Site Hosting is Good for E-Commerce Businesses

To save time and money, businesses across the world are relying on companies that host information technology (IT) to store their e-mails, data, websites and applications on off-site servers.

These hosting companies eliminate the need for businesses to purchase, manage and maintain pricey – and often complicated – computing infrastructures.

Christopher Rajiah, Rackspace Hosting’s vice president of North American channel sales, said hosting is increasingly playing an important role, particularly for e-commerce businesses. Rajiah spoke with BusinessNewsDaily about the latest hosting trends, reasons businesses shouldn’t be afraid of hosting services and Rackspace’s similarities to a certain superhero.

BusinessNewsDaily: What trends are you seeing in the e-commerce and technology industries? Any major concerns?

Christopher Rajiah: We are seeing e-commerce platforms and cloud computing solutions work together and more in sync than ever before.

What’s driving this trend is really the need for speed and compute resources to run a successful e-commerce platform. As data traffic increases, the availability of these resources dwindles.

In the cloud, e-commerce organizations can scale resources as they need them, on demand, meaning when there’s a peak in service or shopping —such as Cyber Monday — e-commerce companies utilizing cloud computing can quickly spin up servers in the cloud to handle additional requests and spin them down when the need is gone.

One major concern for e-commerce companies is downtime. Sometimes it happens, but for organizations that fail to properly plan their hosting needs, it can happen a lot. And in e-commerce, that inability to process transactions means lost revenue for every minute that goes by. By adjusting the computing resources on the fly and using a hosting solution that provides advanced monitoring and support to fix problems when they occur, e-commerce companies can be assured that their transactions won't be compromised by a lack of resources.

BND: Why should businesses consider hosting services?

C.R.: By working with a hosting provider, businesses can get an increase their scalability and lower their costs and the need for lost of internal on-staff experts.

Whether they choose to host their e-mail, data, website or applications — like the ones that process online payment transactions — businesses can tap into additional resources when they need it without having to buy more physical servers or hire internal IT support to run them.

Businesses should consider hosting because it provides a wealth of benefits, including both saved money and time, as well as support from experts who know exactly how to effectively manage these environments.

This helps organizations focus on their business, instead of on the IT infrastructure that powers it.

BND: If Rackspace were a superhero, which one would it be and why?

C.R.: Definitely Superman.  Rackspace employees – called Rackers – are the everyday heroes who come to the rescue of clients day in and day out whenever they need help. They act with super speed in response to fixing problems and answering questions, they have super-strong knowledge in their fields and the vision to see what customers need before they need it.

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Follow BusinessNewsDaily staff writer Brian Anthony Hernandez on Twitter: @BAHjournalist.