Company to provide a cost-effective alternative to a managed hosting solution, backed by its data centers, network and support.

The Planet, a privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced addition to its Alpha Advanced Services portfolio. The company says that known as Alpha Professional, this new service offering is designed for private and virtual rack customers. It further states that the solution includes direct contact with the dedicated Alpha Professional team of certified systems administrators, hardware replacement, as well as server monitoring with reaction and daily managed backups.

The company explains that Red Hat certified engineers and Microsoft certified systems engineers comprise the Alpha Professional team, which provides customized technical guidance, troubleshooting and assistance to Alpha Professional customers. It adds that they also remediate servers in the event of a service disruption. The company claims that the new business-class offering delivers services without the added cost of a complete managed hosting solution.

"Virtually every company evaluates IT spending during an economic downturn," said Todd Mitchell, The Planet's general manager for Advanced Services. "For companies with reduced IT staffs, Alpha Professional provides a cost-effective alternative to a fully managed hosting solution, backed by our world-class data centers, network and support. We offer the industry's most comprehensive range of choices, whether it's self-managed servers, additional services, colocation or managed hosting, so customers gain access to the solution that fits their specific business requirements."