Rackspace Builds Out Hosted SharePoint with Acquisition

Rackspace Hosting has made its first acquisition of 2012 in the form of SharePoint911, a provider of Microsoft SharePoint consulting, training and quick-start services. Between Rackspace’s hosted SharePoint offerings and the addition of SharePoint911 professional services to its portfolio, Rackspace is hoping this combination makes for a one-stop shop for hosted enterprise collaboration. Financial terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed.

According to a Rackspace spokesperson, two of the biggest hurdles to Microsoft SharePoint adoption are difficulties in customization and in implementation. But with SharePoint911’s eight years of experience and six Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) engineers on its side, Rackspace hopes it can become a trusted adviser to enterprises deploying SharePoint for external consumption or internal use and accelerate adoption.

“SharePoint911 was founded on the principle that the complexities of SharePoint should not limit the solution’s success within an organization. With the support of Rackspace, we look forward to continuing that mission and spreading our capabilities within Fanatical Support to our current and future customers,” said Shane Young, SharePoint MVP and founder of SharePoint911, in a prepared statement.

Hosted SharePoint is one of the faster-growing applications in the enterprise market, despite the availability of cloud solutions such as Microsoft Office 365 that integrates the same into a SaaS delivery model. Acquiring some SharePoint-specific expertise to help enterprises reap the benefits may turn out to be wise for Rackspace Hosting in the long run. Keep watching TalkinCloud for more.