Rack Space review

General Impression

Fanatical Support has made Rackspace the world's leader in hosting. We deliver enterprise-level hosting services to businesses of all sizes and kinds around the world. We got started in 1998 and since have grown to serve more than 99,000 customers, including over 80,000 cloud computing customers. Rackspace integrates the industry's best technologies for each customer's specific need and delivers it as a service via the company's commitment to Fanatical Support. Our core products include Rackspace Managed Hosting, The Rackspace Cloud and Rackspace Email & Apps. There are currently over 2,900 Rackers around the world serving our customers.

Rackspace Managed Hosting was founded on the principle that Rackspace would be a different kind of company to do business with focusing on the customer, not just technology.

Rackspace clients have achieved significant business results because they realized the benefits of doing business with a specialist. They share similar stories of frustration with hosting providers failing to deliver the highly specialized services needed to manage their mission-critical hosting environments.

Rackspace Managed Hosting Partners enjoy many benefits including financial compensation, Fanatical Support and discounts for their clients. The Rackspace Partner Program helps you focus on what you do best, growing your business. Partnering with the Managed Hosting Specialist will guarantee the best possible experience for your clients.

The Fundamentals
* Founded in 1998
* Based in San Antonio, TX
* Nine (9) Data Centers: San Antonio, TX (2); Dallas, TX; Herndon, VA; Chicago, IL; Ashburn, VA; London, UK; Slough, UK; Hong Kong
* Managed Hosting, Email & Apps and Cloud Hosting; all backed by Fanatical Support

Industry Leadership
* Rackspace is positioned as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting. The full report can be viewed here.
* Industry-Leading Service Level Agreements
* Cisco Powered Network: 100% Network Uptime Guarantee
* Microsoft Gold-Certified Hosting Partner
* Microsoft Hosting Partner of the Year - 2003, 2005, 2007
* Red Hat Premier Hosting Partner
* MySQL Certified Hosting Partner
* Managed Service on Both Dedicated and Cloud Platforms

Focus
* Everything we do is tailored for IT hosting
* Hosting is not an add-on service or loss leader, it's all we do

Expertise
* Systems and processes built exclusively for delivering IT Hosting
* Our support staff is highly trained specifically for supporting complex hosting environments

Flexibility
* We're built to handle highly-customized hosting environments
* Our model is built to adjust to customer needs quickly and efficiently

Passion
* We're passionate about the hosting business and we're here to stay
* We believe what we are doing makes a difference

Rackspace Hosting services are supported by nine (9) data centers located in the U.S., the UK and Hong Kong - to serve global customer needs.

The Rackspace Managed Hosting SLA

Network
Rackspace Guarantees: Network will be available 100% of the time in a given month, excluding scheduled maintenance.
Customer Advantages: A credit of 5% of the monthly fee for each 30 minutes of downtime. A credit of up to 100% of the monthly fee for the affected server.

Infrastructure
Rackspace Guarantees: Critical infrastructure systems, including power and HVAC, will be available 100% of the time in a given month, excluding scheduled maintenance.
Customer Advantages: A credit of 5% of the monthly fee for each 30 minutes of downtime, up to 100% of the monthly fee for the affected server.

Hardware
Rackspace Guarantees: Functioning of all hardware components and replacement of any failed component at no cost to the customer.
Customer Advantages: A credit of 5% of the monthly fee per additional hour of downtime, up to 100% of the monthly fee for the affected server.


Why Rackspace
Rackspace. What Other Hosting Providers Pretend to Be.

Every provider will tell you how they treat their support, uptime, expertise, guarantees, etc. Take a close look. What they're really offering you is nothing close to what Rackspace does. And that's why we're the world's leader in hosting.

Fanatical Support For All
It's our commitment that the last thing any of our customers ever need to worry about is their hosted environment. No matter if you're a one-person shop or a global conglomerate, we do it all, including the worrying, for you.

The World's Leader in Hosting
All we do is hosting. We've set the standard for Cloud, Managed and Email Hosting with our support, expertise and diverse solutions. We're positioned as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.

Global Presence
We're not a local or regional telecom provider. We're a business with customers, offices and data centers across the globe. That means we see the big picture knowing, understanding and creating solutions that will impact your global IT needs for the future.

The Safe Hosting Choice
There's a confidence that comes with trusting your business to the hosting provider that is stable and secure. We're financially sound and have the expertise, support, services and solutions you'll need now and ten years down the road.

A Toolbox of Hosted IT Solutions
For every business and budget there's a unique need. That's why we deliver a portfolio of solutions like Managed Hosting, Cloud Hosting and Email Hosting, each with a diverse mix or products.

Experts by Any Definition
Hundreds of certified experts, consistent industry awards and recognition and strong technology partnerships all translate into one thing we are the experts who can help tech savvy customers or those who are just starting to learn.

100% Network Uptime Guarantee
Our Network guarantees you get nothing less than 100% Network Uptime.

A Greener Way of Doing Business
From cost-effective green servers to company-wide conservation programs, our Greenspace initiative is dedicated to doing business in an eco-friendly way. Not to mention in a budget-friendly way for our customers.

Reliability

Network Uptime Isn't Wishful Thinking

We know that every second your network is down you're losing opportunities, revenue and the confidence of your users and visitors. So with that in mind, we designed and built our network to focus on uptime, and created aggressive Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to show just how much we believe in our network.

Our Network:
- We use the network only for our customers' hosting needs, never sharing it with telecom services or cable TV services that would negatively affect your service.
- The only bandwidth we use is high performance bandwidth, which usually isn't the case with cheaper hosting providers.
- To provide multiple redundancies in the flow of information to and from our data centers, we partner with nine network providers.
- Every fiber carrier must enter our data centers at separate points. This is to protect you from complete service failures caused by an unlikely network cut.
- You get fast and reliable network connections because our Proactive Network Management methodology monitors route efficiency and end-user performance, automatically improving the network's topology and configuration in real-time.
- The network's configuration, co-developed with Cisco, guards against any single points of failure at the shared network level. We even provide you with the option to extend it to your VLAN environment.
- Cisco and Arbor Networks continually work with us, creating ever-improving ways of monitoring and securing our network.

Data Center

Physical Security
Keycard protocols, biometric scanning protocols and round-the-clock interior and exterior surveillance monitor access to every one of our data centers.
Only authorized data center personnel are granted access credentials to our data centers. No one else can enter the production area of the datacenter without prior clearance and an appropriate escort.
Every data center employee undergoes multiple and thorough background security checks before they're hired.

Precision Environment
Every data center's HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) system is N+1 redundant. This ensures that a duplicate system immediately comes online should there be an HVAC system failure.
Every 90 seconds, all the air in our data centers are circulated and filtered to remove dust and contaminants.
Our advanced fire suppression systems are designed to stop fires from spreading in the unlikely event one should occur.

Conditioned Power
Should a total utility power outage ever occur, all of our data centers' power systems are designed to run uninterrupted, with every server receiving conditioned UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) power.
Our UPS power subsystem is N+1 redundant, with instantaneous failover if the primary UPS fails.
If an extended utility power outage occurs, our routinely tested, on-site diesel generators can run indefinitely.

Core Routing Equipment
Only fully redundant, enterprise-class routing equipment is used in Rackspace data centers.
Fiber carriers enter our data centers at disparate points to guard against service failure.

Network Technicians
We require that the networking and security teams working in our data centers be certified. We also require that they be thoroughly experienced in managing and monitoring enterprise level networks.
Our Certified Network Technicians are trained to the highest industry standards.

Rackspace is prepared for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.
To make sure you have all the information you need to understand and navigate the switch, we've created the IPv6 Deployment and Readiness Headquarters to share all of our IPv6 resources. You can also use this page to follow Rackspace IPv6 activities and continued progress.

To get you started and ensure that you have a clear understanding of what IPv6 is and why its deployment is so important, we've created a video to provide you with more information about IPv6, our readiness plans here at Rackspace and our suggestions on how you can prepare for your own deployment efforts.

Conclusion

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