September 21, 2004 - (HostReview.com) - Rackspace Managed Hosting ( www.rackspace.com ), the fastest-growing managed hosting company, today announced Intensive Hosting for ASPsT, a new offering from its Intensive Hosting division tailored specifically for Application Service Providers.

The ASP market is growing steadily and more software vendors plan to transition to the Software-as-a-Service model to deliver products to their end users. As published in a recent issue of Network World, IDC expects the ASP market to more than double from $1.6 billion in 2003 to $3.5 billion by 2008.

"The ASP market is experiencing a revival as many developers add or shift to a hosted software model," said Ben Pring, principle analyst, Gartner. "ASPs need a stable infrastructure on which they can build their business. However, building out an infrastructure is not a viable option for most. ASPs need to focus on their own software development and outsource the infrastructure to a trusted hosting provider."

Many ASPs already trust Rackspace with the mission-critical applications their customers use every day. Examples include Advectis (Paperless Mortgage Transactions), AngelPoints (Corporate Community Programs) and Excedent (Email Hosting).

"Rackspace offers the ideal solution for ASPs who must cater to the stringent SLA requirements of their customers," said Mike Shutt, chief technology officer, Advectis. "Rackspace's application availability guarantees, advanced security protections, capacity planning and monitoring capabilities help to specifically address the needs of companies like ours who offer hosted software applications."

"We provide ASPs an infrastructure that was previously only available to very large providers who could build out their own data center and IT department. By hosting with Rackspace, software delivery can be transitioned more easily to a hosted model and can free up resources to focus on application development," said John Engates, chief technology officer, Rackspace Managed Hosting.

"Rackspace's new Intensive Hosting for ASPs can decrease costs an average of 40 percent while mitigating the risks associated with managing the application infrastructure on your own."

Rackspace Managed HostingT is the fastest-growing managed hosting provider for enterprise-class web applications. Founded in 1998, Rackspace has built a world-class service organization based on its philosophy of Fanatical SupportT.