We’ve compared our cloud solutions to some of the major players in the cloud space. Curious how we stack up? Let’s take a look at RapidScale vs. the competition.
RapidScale vs. Amazon Web Services
AWS is obviously a major player in the raw compute cloud space, with thousands of customers across the globe. It has five times the compute capacity in use than the total 14 other leading providers. Similar to RapidScale, AWS has geographically diverse data centers, and has attained the majority of industry standard compliance certifications. It is a popular platform for developers, and is a self-controlled environment.
However, customers that appreciate guidance, management and support won’t find what they need with Amazon Web Services. AWS is unable to share the same attention given to its largest clients with small to mid-size organizations. It also doesn’t include enterprise-grade support by default, but rather, customers must upgrade their plan to receive higher levels of support. AWS also maintains a “DIY” model, meaning that if an organization doesn’t have staff that knows how to build their cloud system on their own, they won’t get much guidance from the provider side. Additionally, AWS has experienced its fair share of high-profile outages in recent years, which is something that most businesses just can’t afford. In the past year, with its 99.9% uptime SLA, Amazon had 56 outages. (CloudHarmony)
Comparatively, RapidScale offers full management for cloud solutions and a 100% uptime SLA guarantee. Our 24x7x365 enterprise-grade support is free with our managed solutions and covers infrastructure, patches, updates, licensing management, user help and setup, and more. We maintain a “We Care” mentality for all of our customers and can work with a business from the planning phase and onward.
RapidScale vs. Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is another huge player in the cloud world, especially because so many businesses today require use of the Microsoft Office products. With Microsoft 365, businesses maintain access to the most up-to-date versions of the Office products and other included productivity services. These apps remain familiar, even in their online versions, and are generally easy to use.
However, Microsoft 365 is a set-in-stone solution with no customization options, no custom application integration, and no compatibility with products other than the Microsoft Office Suite. It’s designed for individual and small businesses, not mid-market or enterprise-level users. Additionally, only the top-tier plans include desktop versions of the applications, meaning only select customers are able to work offline. Internet connectivity is required to install, activate and manage Microsoft 365 plans, as well as access the Microsoft 365 cloud productivity services. Additionally, businesses must set up, add user accounts, install Office and move existing email to Microsoft 365 themselves, or hire an MSP or the like to handle implementation and ongoing support.
Overall, Microsoft 365 lacks the management, implementation and support capabilities offered by a provider like RapidScale. In comparison, we offer access to all business data on any device, anywhere in the world, and the ability to virtualize 97% of today’s business applications. We have a 100% uptime SLA guarantee in comparison to Microsoft 365’s 99% uptime SLA, and offer full management, while Microsoft 365 requires a business’ IT staff to manage the solution. Microsoft 365 also explicitly maintains the caveat that they can move your data “outside the primary storage region,” while all RapidScale data is kept domestic and at a location selected by the customer.
RapidScale vs. Rackspace
Though it is smaller than the above competitors, Rackspace is a cloud company with global data centers and comparable cloud services. It claims ownership on uptime, architectural guidance and SLAs. In terms of support, Rackspace offers various avenues of communication, including phone, online ticket, email, live chat, community bases and knowledgebase support.
However, Rackspace is considered to be expensive compared to other offerings. And despite its claim of providing “fanatical” support, there are many reports of poor support. Rackspace is a managed cloud company, but it doesn’t provide management to the same level as RapidScale. It also varies support based on the customer plan or service level, in contrast to RapidScale’s around-the-clock support for all managed customers. Compared to RapidScale’s 100%, Rackspace’s uptime SLA is 99% and the organization experienced 12.5 hours of downtime last year. (CloudHarmony)
We get asked all the time how RapidScale compares to competitors like AWS, Microsoft 365 and Rackspace. Here, we’ve stacked RapidScale side-by-side with these competitors. What do you think of the comparisons?
