Rise Launches Cloud Services for Channel Partners

Rise, a division of U.K.-based Web hosting company Fasthosts Internet,
announced it has expanded its channel-focused cloud computing offerings for
small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) in North America.
The company also announced its first U.S.-based channel partner, Titanium Ant,
an IT consultancy and technology management company based in Seattle.

Rise has more than 1 million domains under management and hosts over 500,000
Websites. According to a company release, its infrastructure includes more than
8,000 dedicated servers offering more than 5 billion megabytes of storage. Rise
provides white label, infrastructure-as-a-service solutions to channel
partners, and by leveraging its data center-on-demand technique, Rise helps
enable partners to supply, manage and operate virtual data centers for
customers in a secure environment.

The company’s hosted infrastructure services allow partners to provision a
range of managed and unmanaged services, including e-mail, storage, backup,
e-commerce and Web hosting. Rise also announced it plans to expand its service
offerings later this year. Steve Holford, marketing director for Rise and
Fasthosts, said through its extensive product offerings, Rise enables channel
resellers to address the growing demand and expand their IT services to include
cloud computing. He noted worldwide revenue from public IT cloud services
topped $16 billion in 2009 and is expected to reach $55.5 billion by 2014,
citing to a research report released in June by IDC.

"Rise was introduced to provide channel partners with a seamless way to
offer cloud computing infrastructure solutions directly to small and mid-sized
businesses," Holford said. "We see a true opportunity and growing
demand for cloud computing in the SMB market as these companies begin to
understand the real value cloud solutions can have on their business."

The Rise Channel Partner Program for value-added resellers (VARs) and
systems integrators includes technical support, sales and marketing support,
and accreditation. Titanium Ant, the company’s first North American partner,
offers services ranging from general network architecture and implementation to
providing cloud computing and other managed IT solutions.

"By leveraging Rise’s cloud infrastructure, we are able to further
expand our IT solution offerings and quickly enter the cloud computing
market," said Marshall Van Beurden, president of Titanium Ant.
"In the past year, there has been increased interest surrounding cloud
computing among our customers and potential customers. Rise enables us to
address this growing interest and continue working directly with our customers
to offer them the scalability, flexibility and cost-effective benefits of cloud
computing."