Comparing Cloud Computing Providers: 3tera, RackSpace, GoGrid
This paper evaluates three cloud computing service providers — 3tera, RackSpace Cloud, and GoGrid — across functionality and security dimensions. It examines 3tera's acquisition by Computer Associates and the strategic implications for its AppLogic platform, RackSpace's strengths in managed hosting and customer service, and GoGrid's hybrid cloud architecture and uptime guarantees. Based on this comparative analysis, the paper recommends RackSpace as the strongest overall vendor due to its vertical integration, security support, and ongoing engineering investment.
- Introduction: Overview of three cloud vendors under review
- Functionality Assessment: Feature and platform analysis of each provider
- Security Considerations: Encryption, audits, and SLA security provisions
- Recommendation: RackSpace selected as best overall vendor
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What makes this paper effective
- Applies a consistent two-part evaluative framework — functionality and security — to all three vendors, making comparisons systematic and fair.
- Grounds vendor claims in real-world business context, such as the CA acquisition of 3tera and its strategic implications for competing with IBM.
- Closes with a clear, justified recommendation rather than leaving the analysis open-ended, satisfying the applied purpose of the paper.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative vendor analysis, a standard technique in applied business and technology writing. By organizing each provider's strengths and weaknesses around shared criteria (functionality, security, scalability, and SLA support), the author creates a structured basis for the final recommendation rather than relying on subjective preference.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief framing statement identifying all three vendors as viable competitors. The functionality assessment covers each vendor in turn, moving from 3tera to RackSpace to GoGrid. Security considerations are woven into each vendor's profile rather than treated as a separate section. A short recommendation section follows, naming RackSpace as the preferred vendor with supporting rationale. Three citations anchor the claims to contemporary trade publications.
Introduction
This paper analyzes 3tera, RackSpace Cloud, and GoGrid to determine which is the best cloud computing vendor. Their relative strengths and weaknesses — both from a functional and a security standpoint — have been taken into account. All three are considered viable competitors in the cloud computing and hosted cloud system infrastructure and services market.
Functionality Assessment
Of the three, 3tera has the best potential for continued research and development investment. Following its acquisition by Computer Associates (CA) in February 2010 (CA Buys 3Tera Cloud Startup, 2010), the company gained resources to scale beyond North America — a weakness shared by all three vendors. 3tera offers hosting and co-location globally and has invested heavily in its AppLogic platform, which is well suited for creating private clouds within an organization's own infrastructure. The CA acquisition also positioned 3tera to develop the online marketplace it launched in 2009 (Krill, 2009). CA acquired the smaller company to compete more aggressively in enterprise accounts that IBM was capturing through its expanded SaaS and cloud computing offerings — making the acquisition a defensive strategic move. 3tera's global operations and the primarily internal use of AppLogic have contributed to exceptional security levels relative to the company's size (Information Management, 2009).
RackSpace Cloud — often referred to simply as RackSpace — is considered a market leader due to its focus on scalable managed hosting and cloud infrastructure services. The company has also invested heavily in customer service; it is common for smaller accounts to have a dedicated personal account manager. The use of open-source technologies and self-managed platform applications keeps costs down. Despite these advantages, RackSpace's rapid growth has brought scalability and reliability challenges over time.
GoGrid is distinctive in that it openly promises 100% uptime in its Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and employs a hybrid cloud approach that combines virtual and dedicated database servers to maintain a high level of security between systems. GoGrid also offers a series of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for managing connections to other clouds securely. The platform is widely used for self-managed applications and has found particular favor with startups attracted to its pay-as-you-go pricing model.
References
How to keep your head in the clouds: Cloud computing concepts are giving developers freedom and flexibility in application deployments. (2009). Information Management, 19(3), 18.
CA buys 3Tera cloud startup. (2010, February). InformationWeek — Online.
Krill, P. (2009, May). 3Tera launches cloud marketplace. InfoWorld.com.
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