Software-as-a-service providers know the importance of having a good hosting provider for their applications. Ditto for e-commerce providers – both groups know their hosting provider can literally make or break their company.

Tenzing also understands this, and has built itself a reputation as a premier hosting provider specializing in SaaS and e-commerce delivery. With its EVEREST managed hosting platform, Tenzing is able to meet the unique requirements of SaaS and e-commerce providers, including a growing list of managed services offerings to complement its hosting capabilities.

Indeed, over the past six months or so, Tenzing has partnered with a number of vendors to create a robust managed services portfolio, including Alert Logic to offer managed security services, and Apprenda to offer managed application services, and in February 2011 launched its own partner program to enable integrators, VARs and other partners offer its managed hosting services.

Next up for Tenzing: the cloud. The company now offers managed private clouds as part of its hosted services, and Will Childs, SaaS practice director at Tenzing, said it’s a natural evolution for a company so immersed in SaaS. Childs describes the strategy in this FastChat Video interview:

“About two and half years ago when we got into the SaaS and e-commerce segments, we realized there was a bit of a gap in the market. Cloud was very much an emerging paradigm shift, but cloud was very much a technology focus [for us],” he said. “It wasn’t always a great fit for certain types of applications, so we built what we class as an ‘enterprise cloud,’ which has been built on mature ITIL and ITSM segments. … Rather than being just a pure infrastructure-as-a-service offering it’s actually a cloud service delivery platform, so we can … work with that client to ensure it’s really a services delivery platform that can take all facets of the business.”

He noted Tenzing’s history in the SaaS and e-commerce space gives it a unique edge over its competitors. “Our focus really helps our clients to understand what the risks might be downstream … and we can help them de-risk and meet their liabilities downstream with their clients.”