Rackspace Opens the Power of Hybrid Computing to More Customers Globally

Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the service leader in cloud computing, today unveiled several enhancements to its RackConnect™ service, which offers unified integration of the Rackspace Cloud and dedicated hosting in a hybrid environment.

RackConnect is designed for customers who require the flexibility and quick scalability of the cloud, as well as the security and performance of dedicated hardware – the best of both worlds. Customers who have had to settle for one form of technology or the other can now take advantage of an integrated solution to unlock the power of Hybrid Hosting. With hybrid, customers can integrate Rackspace Cloud and Dedicated Hosting in one solution, as well as burst workloads from their own data center into Rackspace. Hybrid strikes the elusive balance of performance, cost and security, eliminating or reducing trade-offs that a single platform would require.

“RackConnect has proven to be a high impact product that is facilitating the adoption of cloud services across the board. We have seen significant growth in the adoption of RackConnect over the past year, particularly for those customers that are existing hybrid customers,” said John Engates, chief technology officer, Rackspace. “RackConnect helps facilitate the adoption of cloud by our customers, including many enterprise companies, while giving them an easy-to-use product that is affordable and allows for automation. We are seeing the market react positively to the availability of a product that gives customers a hybrid computing solution, which allows them to use cloud and dedicated computing together more seamlessly. In fact, many of our more technically sophisticated customers are using RackConnect as a part of their computing architecture today.”

RackConnect, which first launched in November 2010, allows customers to mix and match their computing platforms in a configuration that best meets their specific needs by providing a customized combination of public cloud, private cloud, virtualized and dedicated servers, as well as networking and security products. RackConnect allows customers to span their configuration across a multitude of enterprise grade technologies such as Storage Area Network (SAN), highly available database clusters, high performance dedicated firewalls and load balancers, and flexible cloud instances. RackConnect provides an enhanced infrastructure, allowing customers to rapidly flex compute and storage capacity quickly in order to react to unexpected spikes in demand or seasonal business trends.

In addition, the enhanced version of RackConnect gives customers more flexibility and a lower barrier to entry through an increased choice of available “RackConnect-ready” networking platforms. The enhanced features for RackConnect were developed after months of feedback from Rackspace customers and incorporate enhancements in three key areas:

• More automation – servers provisioned in the cloud will be automatically configured to connect to the dedicated environment and can also be added to load balancers instantly. Network security policies, cloud and dedicated configuration details are all accessible on the Rackspace customer portal, allowing instant access to information and self-service capabilities for customers.
• More security features – adds the ability for a customer to configure network security policies, including physical firewall and cloud server-based software firewalls, without having to wait for managed server technicians to apply the changes. Instead, security choices can be automatically applied across the environment, even as servers are removed or added in the cloud.
• More options – including cost effective hybrid, enterprise hybrid, load balancing, and VPN cloud bursting services. When paired with private leased lines, RackConnect can also support high quality private connectivity between customer datacenters and the Rackspace Hybrid Hosting environment. In addition, RackConnect now supports a single dedicated firewall for Cloud Servers, which can provide the peace-of-mind of a dedicated firewall along with a managed security perimeter.

“RackConnect has been an important part of VEVO’s infrastructure at Rackspace,” said Allan Parsons, senior systems engineer, VEVO. “It allows us to rapidly scale up or down servers with a short-term commitment. We're able to add additional capacity within minutes instead of one to two weeks, which allows VEVO to get videos to our fans faster. From an engineering perspective, we're able to shorten the amount of time it takes to get our video catalog on new platforms.”

To learn more about RackConnect: http://www.rackspace.com/hosting_solutions/hybrid_hosting/rackconnect/

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.”

For more information, visit www.rackspace.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with Rackspace services and products, including RackConnect; anticipated operational and financial benefits from Rackspace services and products, including RackConnect; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions including the possibility that expected benefits from RackConnect may not materialize because this product is not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the product cost effectively, differentiate the product from competitive products or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, security, quality or compatibility associated with the product, (iii) changes in technology which adversely affect the product's benefit, (iv) slowdowns in the general economy or technology industry that impact consumer spending habits, (v) internal strategy decisions that impact the product, and (vi) other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, filed with the SEC on August 8, 2011. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.