Fasthosts has launched a new service: Rise (Rise Partners). The cloud-computing service is an IaaS, or in laymen terms, infrastructure-as-a-service. The new cloudcomputing service provider will allow thousands of their resellers to resell their cloud computing packages.

Andy Burton, Chief-Executive-Officer of Fasthost, declared:

“There is a lot of talk about cloud-computing and much of it is hype right now. Vendors obviously thought that if they made enough noise then consumers would find them but that’s not how many small&mid-sized-businesses in particular buy IT. [Medium-sized businesses and small businesses] are aware of the cloud, but are often confused about what it delivers and how they can utilize it, and usually rely on a third party ‘trusted advisor and supplier’ to guide them. What we’re addressing with this launch is how small-to-mid-sized-businesses buy IT, not just why they should. By providing cloud-services to the channel partners, we’re enabling those companies that have the trusted relationship with the end customer to deliver the benefits in a way that is clearly understood by the customer.”

RisePartners will offer dedicated or cloud-infrastructure for their business partners to resell or even offer as a white label service that they can brand for themselves. The new offering is tempting for many resellers, as it allows them to brand their own “cloud-computing” service to resell to their clients. The market may be slightly saturated with claims of “cloud computing” from web hosting services, but the reseller market certainly lacks that level of offerings, in part to the complicated demands required to manage a cloud.

Bob Tarzey, Director of Quocirca, said:

“Many SMBs look to their resellers for advice on new technology developments, such as cloud based services. The cloud has a lot to offer, especially when it comes to commodity applications like email, backup and webhosting enterprise class capability at SMB [small-to-mid-sized-business] prices. Resellers need to look at how they rebalance their portfolios to include cloud-based-services and continue to help their SMB customers procure the most cost effective IT solutions. To achieve this, resellers need to identify cloud service providers with a strong reseller focus that understand the indirect sales model and are prepared to share the annuity revenue that cloud services generate.”

Fasthosts-Rise will also launch a new platform, “Data-Center-On-Demand”, an InfrastructureasaService (IaaS), utilizing Microsoft’s Dynamic DataCentre. It will use Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology which should result in an amazing level of efficiency, saving precious energy, but more importantly, cutting costs.