Rackspace Adds Virtualization to IT Hosting Portfolio

Rackspace Focus on Hosted IT Solutions Transforms Traditional IT
Functions into Consumable Services via the Web
SAN ANTONIO--(Business Wire)--Rackspace(R), a leading provider of hosted IT services, today
announced its virtualization initiative, starting with the
enterprise-class support of dedicated virtualized servers.
Virtualization is the newest service offering signaling Rackspace's
shift to IT hosting, transforming traditional IT functions into
consumable services via the web. As more enterprises transition from
purchasing in-house computing assets to leveraging service providers,
Rackspace now offers a suite of hosted IT services that are more
reliable and provide better value, including virtualization, hosted
mail, custom application support, back-end IT and storage.

Rackspace's virtualization platform, built on VMware's
third-generation virtualization software suite, pushes virtualization
to the next level in order to support mission-critical, production
systems. Customers using virtualization can gain flexibility and
scalability in their infrastructure, as well as simplified
infrastructure management with new data protection options and
on-demand provisioning. Additionally, server consolidation can be a
benefit with the Rackspace virtualization offering.

"Our product development approach focuses first and foremost on
Fanatical Support(R) readiness," said John Engates, chief technology
officer, Rackspace. "We also ask, 'Is the technology ready to use in a
production environment?' We believe that our new virtualization
offering now meets these requirements and pushes the envelope, giving
customers a virtualized environment ready for mission-critical
applications, supported by our wealth of experience, expertise and
Fanatical Support."

Rackspace today has nearly 300 virtual machines under management,
using the virtualization infrastructure for internal IT operations as
well as Rackspace's venture company infrastructures, Mosso(R) cloud
computing and Mailtrust(TM) hosted email solutions. Virtualization is
a highly-complex technology, but Rackspace's team of VMware Certified
Engineers provides customers the technical expertise needed to design
and leverage a virtualized system in the new era of provisioning,
networking, monitoring, disaster recovery and more.

"Our ShopLocal Index, which tracks the influence of the Internet
on in-store shopping across major US retailers, grew by 60 percent
this past holiday season compared to the year before. There are days,
like Thanksgiving, when consumers look to us for in-store deals for
the big shopping day (dubbed Black Friday) where we see traffic 30
times that of a normal day. While we serve millions of shoppers and
over 100 retailers, we don't want to disappoint one shopper or one
retailer with a faulty website," said Ted Westerheide, Consumer
Intelligence at ShopLocal. "Rackspace's virtualization platform
coupled with the predictive capabilities of the ShopLocal Index
provides our company with a scalable architecture that seamlessly
supports our busy shopping seasons, even when we see large, short-term
spikes in traffic."

Rackspace's new virtualization platform will be based on dedicated
physical hardware for each customer and will include the option of
hybrid virtual and physical hosted environments. According to a recent
Rackspace customer survey, 51 percent of customer respondents were not
willing to share a physical server with other virtualization hosting
customers, and only 13 percent were certain they were willing to share
a physical server with other customers.

Rackspace's Engates added, "Virtualization is still an evolving
technology, and we believe this is just the beginning for Rackspace.
Our RackLabs research and development department plans to continue to
work with partners like VMware, Microsoft and XenSource to make
generational leaps in the virtualization hosting arena. We expect
future releases of Rackspace Virtualization Hosting to include
enhanced disaster recovery, storage and scaling capabilities."

About Rackspace

A recognized leader in the global IT marketplace, Rackspace(R)
delivers a diverse suite of enterprise-class hosted IT services
to businesses of all sizes. Customers choose Rackspace for its hosting
specialization and expertise, backed by the company's award-winning
Fanatical Support(R). By integrating the industry's best technologies
and delivering them as services, Rackspace serves as an extension of
its customers' IT departments. Because Rackspace removes the burden of
infrastructure maintenance and management, customers can focus on
their core business. Rackspace's portfolio of companies also includes
the Mosso(R) (www.mosso.com) cloud computing platform and
Mailtrust(TM) (www.mailtrust.com) a provider of business-class hosted
email solutions. For more information on Rackspace, please visit
www.rackspace.com, or call 800-961-2888.

Rackspace Managed Hosting, San Antonio
Halli Hollimon, 210-312-4617
hhollimo@rackspace.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008