Rackspace Cloud Library

What are Cloud Services?

Cloud services is an umbrella term for any service that is delivered via the internet — as opposed to being installed on a user’s computer or network server. Popular cloud services include networking, data storage, platforms for ecommerce applications and productivity applications such as email. Cloud-based services are usually offered by a hosting service provider or managed service provider like Rackspace.

Cloud services generally fall into one of these three broad categories of cloud computing:

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides servers and storage

  • Platform as a Service (PaaS), such as Microsoft® Azure®, which enables companies to develop and deploy apps
  • Software as a Service (SaaS), such as Microsoft Office 365®, which facilitates collaboration between remote team members

Companies ranging from startups to Fortune® 100 giants all benefit from cloud services. Almost 50 percent of companies who took part in a North Bridge survey have a cloud-first or cloud-only business strategy, and 40 percent of them receive at least half of their revenue via cloud-based applications. Overall, nearly 80 percent of the companies derive some revenue from the cloud.

Why Use Cloud Services?

Cost Effective

Stay competitive in the global marketplace without having to invest in a costly data center. Cloud technology services are typically much more affordable than building, maintaining and managing your own data center.

Agile

Add new managed servers, storage and other IT resources more easily than if you were running your own data center.

Efficient & Scalable

Access the resources you need, when you need them. Cloud-based services such as email hosting, productivity apps and ecommerce platforms can be easily and rapidly scaled up or down as needed.

Flexible

An abundance of IT assets — including support, multiple clouds and data-crunching supercomputers — can be available on demand.

Why Use Rackspace Cloud Services?

We’ve been providing businesses of all sizes with cloud services for nearly 20 years. Not only do we support and manage the leading cloud platforms, we offer dedicated hosting of infrastructure and solutions for a wide range of applications and cloud environments. All of these cloud services are backed by our industry-leading service and support.

Managed Cloud

We are the world’s largest managed cloud provider, with industry-leading expertise for dedicated serversAmazon Web Services, Microsoft Cloud®, Google Cloud Platform™, OpenStack Cloud® and VMware®.

Managed Security Services

More than half of the Fortune 100 rely on our Managed Security Services to help them comply with regulatory requirements and to protect themselves — and their customers — from data breaches and cyberattacks.

Ecommerce Solutions

As the No. 1 hosting provider for the Internet Retailer™ Top 1,000, we have extensive experience with e-commerce hosting, and support leading eCommerce environments like Magento®, SAP Hybris® and Oracle® Commerce.

Website Hosting

Our website hosting services support the most popular types of e-commerce platforms such as Adobe Experience Manager and Sitecore, content management systems like WordPress and Drupal, and bare metal or virtual cloud servers.

Managed Databases

Our experts will help your company select, architect and deploy the right database for your unique business needs — and provide ongoing support, if you need it.

Email Hosting

Our email hosting and productivity experts are well versed in Microsoft Exchange®, Microsoft Office 365® and offer our own email for small businesses.

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