Support Attracts Customers to NaviSite
By Yvonne L. Lee
You would expect that an "application services provider" would get its reputation primarily from the applications it provides. But customers say it's the network support that drives them to NaviSite. (See "
Online
Resources" for a list of related URLs.) With facilities in Andover, MA and both Scotts Valley and San Jose, CA, NaviSite hosts applications for sites as familiar as AltaVista and myfamily.com, as well as startups like books24x7.com and CyBuy.
"We provide three types of application service: We host applications, we manage them for customers, and provide rental of applications," says Jay Seaton, vice president of marketing for NaviSite. The company offers services to ensure application availability, including database clustering, load balancing, and tape backup. The company's service level agreements guarantee no more than five minutes of down-time per month for all elements of service, not just the Web server. NaviSite offers its customers rebates if its downtime exceeds contractually specified levels.
"The thing that typically drives customers to us is that they're concerned that their Web sites will go down or won't be available," Seaton says.
A Tale of Two Customers
Catalogcity of Pacific Grove, CA, and New York-based CyBuy both rely on NaviSite for hosting services. Catalogcity is a large firm with relationships to many other companies that do business on the Web.
