Daily Archives: February 2, 2009

B2b, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce, Hosting, Internet, Online, Secure Hosting, Services, Web

Rackspace survey releases businesses struggling to understand the cloud

A new survey released by Rackspace has revealed that businesses are in danger of missing out on the cloud revolution because they don’t understand the concept. The findings show that more than half of UK (57%) and US (58%) businesses are unaware of the term cloud hosting.

Organisations’ varied responses when asked to define cloud hosting highlights the current confusion. Most UK businesses (43%) defined it as ‘remote and multiple servers accessed via the internet’. In the US this was also the most popular answer (29%). UK respondents also believed cloud hosting was ‘applications via the internet’ (31%), ‘virtualisation’ (14%) and ‘online storage’ (8%), with a similar pattern being found in the US. However 27% of UK businesses ‘don’t know how they would use cloud hosting as part of their IT mix’. A third of US businesses (33%) agreed with this statement.

Lew Moorman, chief strategy officer, Rackspace Hosting, said: “Cloud technology is ideal for the current economic climate, but it is vital that businesses understand how it can best serve their organisation. At Rackspace we want to provide clearer guidelines on how they can get the most out of this technology as a matter of urgency. That is why we are launching a new cloud clinic web site.”

“Cloud is going to be the hot business topic for 2009 and it is not just IT folk that will need to understand the benefits it brings but people across the business,” added Lew.

Despite the confusion over the definition of cloud hosting, 36% of businesses in the UK and 48% in the US are ‘planning or considering using it’. Reasons for not adopting the cloud in the UK were cited as: cost (25%); ‘untested, new technology’ (14%) and reliability (15%). In the US businesses are twice (20%) as concerned about security and compliance as they are in the UK (10%).

Other key findings from the research included: 15% of UK businesses would use cloud hosting as part of their IT mix for ‘extra servers/to boost processing and distribute workload’; 11% for data back up and 8% for application hosting.

Rackspace has set up a cloud clinic to help demystify the cloud by providing a range of cloud materials and case studies.

About Rackspace Hosting
As the world’s leader and specialist in hosting, Rackspace Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry’s best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable.

A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support, furthering the company’s mission to be one of the world’s greatest service companies.

Rackspace featured in the top 30 of both the Sunday Times 100 Best companies to work for list and the Financial Times Great Place to Work Awards, 2008. Rackspace’s portfolio of hosted services includes managed hosting, email hosting and cloud hosting.

Via EPR Network
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B2C, Internet, Online, Services, Social Networking, Web

ThingsNeverSaid.com is an Internet site that allows you to create a biography and online memorial for your loved one

You can set up a virtual memorial with biographical information, anecdotes, stories, photos, and video clips of your loved one. Friends and family members can share in the building of a virtual memorial by adding their sentiments and memories just by visiting.

Setting up a virtual memorial is simple at Things Never Said: choose the level of membership which suits you best and fill in the information. Membership is inexpensive and gives you the option of a virtual memorial which can be visited for one year, five years, or forever. Visitors to the virtual memorial can leave their comments and memories, send encouraging notes, or send small virtual gifts and leave thoughtful notes.

Things Never Said not only handles the virtual aspects of your loved one’s memorial. Much research has gone into their extensive listings of florists, funeral homes, cemeteries, and other related businesses. These listings have been included to aid you and your loved ones in sending tangible memorial-related items to friends and family members, wherever they may live.

In addition, the creators of the Things Never Said website believe that sharing your memories and voicing expressions you never got a chance to say will help you through the journey of loss and bereavement. To that end, they’ve gone to the trouble of supplying a detailed list of grief counselors, websites, and resources to help those who have suffered the loss of a spouse, child, sibling, parent, or friend.

Their index of support groups include those related to specific diseases and causes of death so you are sure to find someone who can sympathetically relate to how you are feeling. Those who have been through similar circumstances are best able to offer their insight into how they’ve coped with and recovered from their losses.

Articles and blogs about grief, the grieving process, self-help, and recovery contribute to the comforting environment of the Things Never Said site. Each page is clearly titled, readily understood, and easy to navigate.

A great amount of time and effort has also been devoted to finding reputable charitable groups to whom you may wish to make a donation in the memory of your loved one. Many who lose a loved one in the military like to remember them by leaving a donation to their particular branch of service. Those who’ve lost someone to a specific disease often make a donation toward finding a cure.

In addition to personal and individual memorials, Things Never Said plans to create memorials for world tragedies, allowing all who have been affected by such events to leave comments, and virtual gifts to help individuals, families, communities, and the world.

Visit http://www.ThingsNeverSaid.com and help speed the healing process by building a virtual memorial.

About ThingsNeverSaid.com: ThingsNeverSaid.com was founded on the belief that expressing the sentiments you never had the opportunity to say to your loved one during life will get you on the road to recovery after their passing. The compassion of the site creators comes through in each page, offering the grieving a place to find comfort, support, and help. In building their site, they have striven to include resources and information to help the bereaved through the grieving process.

Via EPR Network
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