Whitepapers

Curing the Migration Migraine with SharePoint Hosting
Microsoft ® SharePoint ® is a remarkable success, with more than 70% of all enterprises currently using some version of the product. Adoption rates for SharePoint 2010 are equally robust: According to Forrester Research, 57% of the companies surveyed had upgraded by the fourth quarter of 2011.

2012 Sharepoint FAQ E-book
It’s inevitable that SharePoint users will have questions as they learn how to take full advantage of its capabilities. We took a look back at the 2012 Rackspace SharePoint webinars, and asked our own team of SharePoint experts to weigh in here on the most common questions users ask about how best to develop, deploy and manage SharePoint sites and applications.

6 Things Every Manager Should Know About SharePoint
Would you like to quickly find information that you know your company has in its files... somewhere? You can do that with Microsoft® SharePoint®. If you’re thinking of adopting SharePoint in your enterprise, here are six key concepts that every manager should know.

The Case for Hosted Exchange
Because email and other messaging capabilities are so critical to the communication, collaboration and file transport capabilities of most organizations , they have in some respects become a utility like electricity. For example, the typical information worker spends 165 minutes per day doing work in their email client/interface, making it the most important single tool that the typical user employs.

101 Guide to the Cloud
You may have heard the term cloud computing or 'the Cloud', but could you describe what it is? There are so many definitions flying around that you wouldn't be alone if you struggled to define it. Therein lies the problem - the Cloud has all the hallmarks of being a disruptive, game-changing technology that will revolutionize the way that businesses operate. But if confusion exists, how can businesses actually reap the rewards that the Cloud promises?

Moving your infrastructure to the Cloud - How to maximize benefits and avoid pitfalls
With Cloud Computing becoming more widely utilized, it is important for organizations to understand ways to maximize benefits and minimize risks of a move to the cloud. This paper details the significant benefits that Cloud Computing brings and provides guidance to IT decision makers to help their decision making process.

Enterprise Cloud Implementation Guide
More enterprises are moving applications to the cloud every day, seeking faster implementation, more flexibility, and lower cost. But not everyone has a master plan; these decisions are sometimes made on the fly with little forethought. To help you succeed, this white paper presents a step-by-step guide to moving to the cloud.

Five Reasons Why the Cloud is Ready for the Enterprise
Is your enterprise still dragging its anchor, not taking off in the cloud? Are you still saying that the cloud is fine for tiny startups, but not for large enterprises? Here are five good reasons why the cloud is ready for your enterprise... and why you can’t afford not to use it any longer.

Unlocking the Enterprise Cloud
This Whitepaper discusses the lock-in enterprises face with cloud computing and how the OpenStack open-source platform can help to eliminate that conundrum. Next, it defines in detail the components and inner workings of OpenStack technology. It concludes by providing basic guidance on how to help successfully evaluate the value of OpenStack technology for the enterprise.

Virtualization Is Not the Cloud
If you’re considering extending your use of virtualization technology to improve utilization of your computing resources, you may have heard that virtualization accomplishes the same goals as cloud computing. Not true. This paper analyzes the benefits of cloud computing, side-by-side with virtualization, and establishes why they are not interchangeable. If you want user empowerment, scalability, and relief from the burdens of maintaining hardware and software yourself, you want the cloud.

How the Cloud Accelerates Innovation
How can IT effectively support innovation? The right way to support innovation varies dramatically depending on the context. Innovation in medicine or oil exploration begins with research and proceeds through a lengthy process of development and testing. IT can support this sort of innovation, but the basic research is the main event. In this paper, we’ll show you the many ways the cloud makes IT more responsive to innovation in different parts of the innovation cycle.

Big Data on the Open Cloud
Rackspace ® Enterprise Business Intelligence group (EBI) is a central team that aggregates, manages and provides business intelligence on data from several business-critical data sources. This white paper highlights how EBI used Rackspace Private Cloud Software to power a cloud-based big data solution while reducing costs and improving operational efficiency.

Consideration for the Cloud
Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in enterprise IT today. However, amidst all the hype and misinformation, it is critical that enterprise decision makers consider the Cloud as a viable strategic resource for their IT environment. This whitepaper discusses the IT challenges enterprises face and how the Cloud can help overcome these challenges.

A decision maker's guide to Hybrid and Cloud Computing
In recent years Cloud Computing has made the difficult transition from marketing buzzword to credible technology. More and more IT organisations are achieving real cost efficiencies from cloud and hybrid solutions while improving their business agility. At the same time, the wave of high-tech firms rebranding their products as “cloud-enabled” shows no signs of abating, resulting in a complex and sometimes confusing vendor landscape. The purpose of this guide is to cut through the jargon, give a straightforward explanation of cloud services, and help buyers find a solution that fits their organisations’ needs.

The Future of Cloud is Hybrid over Distance
In the evolution of cloud computing, hybrid cloud has made its mark; by changing the way businesses consume cloud resources, to fill gaps in the workload functionality of their dedicated technology. As the computing industry has advanced, the need to be able to connect multi-site hybrid clouds over distance has become more prominent. With distance comes lack of control over geography, increased latency, and concerns about connection reliability. Imagine the possibilities if an organization could use multi- site hybrid clouds seamlessly, without concern for these inefficiencies.

Getting on the right side of the Capex Vs Opex Divide
If you’re like most CIOs, you’re being asked to do more with less. Support more applications, more websites and more devices for more people... with less budget than last year. This white paper can help, by explaining why CIOs must think more like CFOs, dhowing the difference between capital expenses and operating expenses and suggesting an area where you can clearly do more with less.

How the Cloud Reshapes TCO analysis
As you evaluate the computing landscape at your company, you’ve probably become used to calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) of computing assets based on buying and owning a piece of hardware or software. This CITO Research paper will help you enter this new frontier by illuminating benefits to cloud TCO and important issues to consider before moving applications to the cloud

Understanding Cloud ROI Factors
The cloud can save you money. That’s a statement almost everyone agrees with. But exactly how does that work? CITO Research has been examining the ROI of the cloud for several years. In this paper, we share the insights from our research so far, helping you understand the factors that influence the ROI of the cloud and its implications for your organization.

Is your Ecommerce site ready for business
Anyone can put up a website and start doing business online. But for an e-commerce website to support your business effectively, it must provide bulletproof security, 24x7x365 availability and ready-for-anything scalability. This white paper defines what today’s online buyers expect in terms of security, availability, and scalability, then describes four options for managing a website, including one you may not have considered: managed e-commerce hosting.

5 Survival tips for Holiday Rush
While consumers are thinking about which gifts to buy their friends and family, businesses are crossing their fingers hoping that their web platform will survive the holiday rush. Did you know that 40 percent of customers abandon an e-commerce website that takes more than three seconds to load?