SCC predicts video conferencing upsurge in face of travel disruption

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:11:51 GMT

Leading integrator SCC has predicted that businesses across the country are set to urgently upgrade their video conferencing infrastructure as the UK prepares itself for a year of travel chaos.

With the public sector workers' strike on Wednesday November 30th tipped to cause delays of up to 12-hours at Heathrow, Britain's business community is bracing itself for the start of months of travel difficulties. Operating in an environment where a prolonged period of severe winter weather similar to the storms of 2010 remains a strong possibility and amidst predictions that the summer Olympics will lead to widespread transport disruption, many are being forced to consider safer, more reliable and cost-effective alternatives.

“In an era where we are in many ways defined by our mobility, businesses must give due consideration to how they will cope when movement is suddenly restricted. Every year vast sums are lost to the economy when the trains and airports grind to a halt, and with multiple potential issues flagged up for the months ahead, it's hardly surprising that we're seeing a sharp upturn in interest around video conferencing solutions,” said Ian Scott, SCC Director of Audio Visual.

Focusing on the range of hosted video conferencing options within its custom data centre, SCC is currently working to help a range of clients keep their businesses moving even when the traffic isn’t or flights are delayed. Delivering a range of services designed to facilitate internal and external communications and provide communication tools for home-workers or tele-commuting, the company believes that recent developments have underlined video conferencing's viability.

While values such as increased workforce collaboration, reduced travel costs, a decreased carbon footprint and improved efficiency have always driven the practice's adoption, SCC believes that the technology has now matured to provide a real, high definition experience.

Barriers to entry such as bandwidth availability, budgetary restraints, IT resource issues and gaining the necessary in-house skills meanwhile, have been negated by the advent of hosted video conferencing solutions. Such systems remove the need for up-front capital expenditure, providing 24-hour access and ample security without placing further demands on companies' IT departments.

With dedicated concierge services now rendering the use of video conferencing facilities far more user-friendly, the introduction of proper standards has also put an end to the problems many businesses previously encountered while attempting to communicate over disparate platforms. Modern hosted solutions can be integrated with conferencing systems such as Microsoft OCS, Lync, IBM Sametime and Cisco WebEx and have become platform agnostic, allowing users to connect to systems powered by Cisco, Polycom, Lifesize and a range of desktop clients.

Scott added: “The face of video conferencing has changed enormously over the past decade as the industry has worked to make it faster, cheaper and better. As we enter a period in which interrupted business trips and transport delays are widely predicted to become even more commonplace, it's small wonder that smart companies are rediscovering the technology as they move to keep their operations rolling.”

Fasthosts launches new business broadband packages

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:07:52 GMT

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting and Internet services provider, has announced a brand new range of ADSL packages specifically designed for business needs. The Fasthosts Broadband range is now faster and more feature-packed, with a 24Mb entry-level package. A new fibre optic package offers up to 40Mb downloads, over 7 times faster than the UK average, enabling businesses to increase productivity and fully benefit from hosted services and cloud computing.

The Fasthosts Business Broadband range now comprises: the entry-level ADSL Lite (with 20GB monthly usage), alongside unlimited plans ADSL Premium, and ADSL 2 Plus both featuring a download speed of up to 24Mb. Furthermore, Fasthosts' new unlimited flagship VDSL Premium package uses fibre optic technology to deliver up to a massive 40Mb download connection, and up to 10Mb upload speeds. Packages benefit from free set-up, and up to 2 static IP addresses.

Fasthosts Business Broadband is equipped to deliver business users consistently high speed connections and value for money. With unlimited usage, businesses can download whatever they need to at all times, without the need to restrict users. Up to 40Mb speeds better equip firms to efficiently perform data intensive tasks such as sending and receiving large documents, graphics or media files, video conferencing or using web-based software. Faster ADSL can bring to life more flexible working with quicker VPN access to internal systems. By using the inclusive IP addresses, businesses can reduce their communications costs with IP and video calling.

Steve Holford, marketing director, Fasthosts Internet Ltd., said: "Many businesses prefer an all-in-one approach to buying their Internet services. For some, that means making-do with either sub-standard hosting or ADSL bolted-on by their ISP. With Fasthosts firms can benefit from truly business-class broadband alongside high performance and award-winning UK hosting services".

Fasthosts provides UK-based business broadband experts, on hand to provide free support by telephone or online.

As a leading hosting and Internet services provider, and Technology Sponsor of The Great Exhibition 2012, Fasthosts offers a comprehensive range of web solutions including domain name registrations, email solutions (including mobile email services), shared web hosting, virtual servers, dedicated servers, secure online storage, online payment services, reseller web hosting and feature-rich broadband packages. Fasthosts is well placed to deliver a high quality service to businesses.

About Fasthosts:
Fasthosts is a leading web hosting provider. Based in the UK and operating 24x7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 42 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel that provides customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain names registrations, broadband internet, shared web hosting, business-class email, virtual servers, dedicated servers, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts and unlimited broadband. Fasthosts' maintains an award-winning, highly successful reseller channel.

Rackspace hosts over 3 million daily transactions with Vodafone M-PESA

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:38:55 GMT

Rackspace Hosting, the world's leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, has announced that it has been chosen by Vodafone to host and support the M-PESA platform.

M-PESA is a platform designed to provide a fast, safe and easy way to transfer money from person to person and is a valuable service in emerging economies where there is little or no existing banking infrastructure outside the major cities. It is now available in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan and Fiji and boasts over 16 million customers.

Neil Dwyer, Vodafone's senior operations manager said: "Rackspace has a long history of being able to meet demand quickly and we are delighted to work with them in order to deliver this important and increasingly popular service. It is essential for us to work with a hosting company that can provide 24/7 support and comprehensive security. Rackspace has proven their ability to deliver and their rapid response times allow us to scale quickly and effectively to meet peaks in demand."

Vodafone has recently announced plans to introduce M-PESA to other countries where the traditional banking infrastructure is low and mobile phone penetration is high.

Rackspace managing director David Kelly commented: "We're excited to be working with Vodafone on this project and look forward to seeing how it develops across the world to support those people who currently do not have access to banks and in turn help them to become more economically active through the application of innovative technology."

As part of the deal, Rackspace utilises satellite streaming technology to send and receive real time transaction data using clustered database servers. It also provides managed back-up and dedicated server hosting of all application and web servers.

- ENDS -

About Rackspace Hosting UK:
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leading specialist in hosting, virtualisation and cloud computing and has been ranked in Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past six years. Rackspace provides Fanatical Support to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing.

About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 347 million proportionate customers as at 30 June 2010. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and over 40 partner networks worldwide.

Fasthosts launches online storage service

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:47:20 GMT

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting provider, has launched a brand new online storage solution especially designed for archiving valuable business data. The service provides secure off-site storage space within a state-of-the-art UK data centre.

The online storage solution is designed for all levels of business user, with multiple methods of uploading data, and functionality for sharing documents between teams on and off the premises. 'Cloud-based' services, such as Fasthosts Secure Online Storage, offer businesses substantial cost, scalability and security benefits. Significantly, new research of 209 UK firms conducted by IDC on behalf of Fasthosts, shows 60% are still not leveraging any cloud-computing and missing out on important benefits.

Fasthosts Secure Online Storage addresses the challenge businesses face in coping with the off-site storage of increasing amounts of valuable electronic data. The solution uses a highly scalable 'cloud-based' model to deliver easy-to-use, fast and highly secure storage on demand. Users can utilise the storage as a primary file store, or as a location for back-up copies. Storage capacity is selected according to requirements and can be increased dynamically from 50 Gigabytes to a massive 2 Terabytes. As a cloud solution, the user is not limited to specific hardware for utilising the service and can upscale or downsize at any time and pay only for their required usage.

All data is transferred using SSL, backed-up automatically and stored securely. The solution offers flexibility in how data is uploaded - Drive Mapping, web browser access, and FTP access. Furthermore, the solution enables users to effortlessly share documents across teams and locations. All storage packages feature the same high level of quality and 100Mbps connectivity and customers are offered flexible contract options and significant discounts for annual payment.

Steve Holford, Marketing Director, Fasthosts Internet Ltd., said: "Our new secure online storage solution is ideal for ensuring that valuable business data is always backed up securely and on-hand 24/7 from any computer. The speedy transfer and flexibility for access means increased efficiencies and easier remote working. There has never been a better business case for cloud-based data storage."

Fasthosts Secure Online Storage utilises its latest server hardware on the Fasthosts' Data Center on Demand (DCoD) platform. Designed in collaboration with Microsoft experts using Microsoft Dynamic Data Centre, DCoD releases the full power of the hardware and is the latest in agile, secure and highly reliable server infrastructure. As a storage provider, Fasthosts guarantees swift transfer for both uploads and downloads from any Internet enabled computer.

Data from Fasthosts' 'Cloud Attitudes' study, conducted by IDC, found that 60% of UK businesses still do not use any type of cloud-computing service and miss out on key benefits such as increased performance, scalability, and cost savings. Whilst 82% of firms recognise the need for data back-up off-site, only 16% use flexible cloud-based storage options for this, and 69% have no plans to explore cloud-computing in this way. A total of 1 in 5 believe they will side-step cloud-computing all-together. A key reason for reluctance is a lack of staff expertise, with 1 in 4 firms admitting this is a primary concern for them.

Notes to Editors:

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is a leading web hosting provider. Based in the UK and operating 24x7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasth

Rackspace Hosting announces general availability of Cloud Servers for Windows

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:35:00 GMT

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the world's leading specialist in hosting and cloud computing, has announced the general availability of its Cloud Servers for Windows offering. The new service delivers a highly scalable environment ideal for Windows-based hosting, testing and developing applications and supporting the high levels of traffic required for launching online gaming platforms or the next social networking phenomenon.

Designed for small to medium businesses, .NET developers, system administrators, IT Pros, and current Rackspace customers, Cloud Servers for Windows features include:
- Custom configurations with full administrator access
- Ability to upgrade server size on-demand
- Add or delete servers on the fly
- Rescue mode
- Management via the Rackspace Cloud Control Panel and the Cloud Servers API
- Ability to add additional IP addresses
- Pay only for what you use with a utility payment model with hourly billing; no contracts or upfront costs
- Backups and Snapshots to Cloud Files™ (coming soon)
- Enterprise-class SLAs
- Support for a broad array of the latest Microsoft Windows Server Images including: Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition 64-bit; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Enterprise Edition 64-bit; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Enterprise Edition 32-bit; Windows Server 2003 R2 Service Pack 2 Enterprise Edition 64-bit and Windows Server 2003 R2 Service Pack 2 Enterprise Edition 32-bit

"Microsoft is committed to delivering a broad set of enterprise-ready products and services that build on the existing capabilities and skill sets of service providers like Rackspace," said John Zanni, general manager of Worldwide Hosting for the Communications Sector at Microsoft Corp. "As a long time partner of one of the industry’s top cloud hosting providers, we are excited that Rackspace's Cloud Servers for Windows offering has exited beta and is now available to the thousands of businesses that have built their infrastructure around Microsoft Windows and Microsoft .NET technologies."

SpaBooker, a SaaS scheduling and point-of-sale (POS) application specifically designed for the spa, salon and wellness industry, utilizes Rackspace's hybrid solution by using managed dedicated servers in addition to their cloud computing solution, Cloud Servers for Windows. Daniel Lizio-Katzen, SpaBooker Managing Director, states: "When we set out to look for a cloud computing solution, we didn't hesitate to look at Rackspace Cloud first as we've been very pleased with the high level of support received from their managed dedicated servers. Rackspace Cloud Servers has been the ideal solution to separate our actual application from our public facing website. We currently have our entire staging environment running on the Cloud Servers for Windows Beta and the overall ease of use has been phenomenal. The cost savings compared to traditional dedicated hosting are also substantial."

"We're constantly looking for ways to increase the flexibility and choice customers can find with Rackspace Hosting After several months of successful beta testing with hundreds of customers, we’re excited to remove the beta label and offer Cloud Servers for Windows to the market," said Pat Matthews, VP and GM of Cloud Hosting, Rackspace. "We believe this product will be attractive to new Rackspace customers as well as those we are already serving."

The service provides a full suite of features supported by the industry’s leading Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Rackspace’s hallmark customer service, Fanatical Support. Pricing currently begins at $0.08 an hour for 1GB RAM and 40GB disk.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace announces plans to collaborate with NASA on OpenStack project

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:14:51 GMT

Rackspace Hosting has announced the launch of OpenStack, an open-source cloud platform designed to foster the emergence of technology standards and cloud interoperability.

Rackspace, the leading specialist in the hosting and cloud hosting industry, is donating the code that powers its Cloud Files and Cloud Servers public-cloud offerings to the OpenStack project. The project will also incorporate technology that powers the NASA Nebula Cloud Platform. Rackspace and NASA plan to actively collaborate on joint technology development and leverage the efforts of open-source software developers worldwide.

"Modern scientific computation requires ever increasing storage and processing power delivered on-demand," said Chris Kemp, NASA's Chief Technology Officer for IT. "To serve this demand, we built Nebula, an infrastructure cloud platform designed to meet the needs of our scientific and engineering community. NASA and Rackspace are uniquely positioned to drive this initiative based on our experience in building large scale cloud platforms and our desire to embrace open source."

OpenStack will feature several cloud infrastructure components including a fully distributed object store based on Rackspace Cloud Files. The next component planned for release later this year is a scalable compute-provisioning engine based on the NASA Nebula cloud technology and Rackspace Cloud Servers technology. Using these components, organisations would be able to turn physical hardware into scalable and extensible cloud environments using the same code currently in production serving tens of thousands of customers and large government projects.

"We are founding the OpenStack initiative to help drive industry standards, prevent vendor lock-in and generally increase the velocity of innovation in cloud technologies," said Lew Moorman, president, Cloud and CSO at Rackspace. "We are proud to have NASA's support in this effort. Its Nebula Cloud Platform is a tremendous boost to the OpenStack community. We expect ongoing collaboration with NASA and the rest of the community to drive more-rapid cloud adoption and innovation, in the private and public spheres."

Rackspace and NASA have committed to use OpenStack to power their cloud platforms, and Rackspace will dedicate open-source developers and resources to support adoption of OpenStack among enterprises and service providers. Rackspace recently hosted an OpenStack Design Summit where more than 100 technical advisors, developers and founding members joined to validate the code and ratify the project roadmap. More than 25 companies were represented at the Design Summit including AMD, Autonomic Resources, Citrix, Cloud.com, Cloudkick, Cloudscaling, CloudSwitch, Dell, enStratus, FathomDB, Intel, iomart Group, Limelight, Nicira, NTT DATA, Opscode, PEER 1, Puppet Labs, RightScale, Riptano, Scalr, SoftLayer, Sonian, Spiceworks, Zenoss and Zuora.

"OpenStack provides a solid foundation for promoting the emergence of cloud standards and interoperability," said Peter Levine, SVP and GM, Datacenter and Cloud Division, Citrix Systems. "As a longtime technology partner with Rackspace, Citrix will collaborate closely with the community to provide full support for the XenServer platform and our other cloud-enabling products."

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry and has been ranked in Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past six years. Rackspace provides Fanatical Support ' to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including dedicated Hosting UK provides Fanatical Support to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Dedicated Hosting, cloud hosting and data centre facilities .

Rackspace Hosting Updates Rackspace Hybrid Email for 1.7 Million Users

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:07:57 GMT

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the world leader in the hosting and cloud computing industry, has enhanced its popular Rackspace Hybrid Email offering - a custom mix of Hosted Microsoft Exchange and the business-focused Rackspace Email platform on a single domain. Rackspace Hybrid Email now features easy calendar viewing between Hosted Microsoft Exchange and Rackspace Email, as well as a faster webmail design for Rackspace Email to make businesses using Rackspace Hybrid Email even more productive.

"We've learned from our customers that, on average, only a small percentage of employees really need and use the advanced features of Microsoft Exchange, yet many businesses are paying a lot more to run Exchange for every single user," said Kirk Averett, director of product for cloud applications at Rackspace. "With Rackspace Hybrid Email, companies can purchase a combination of Exchange and low cost Rackspace Email accounts on a single domain, without sacrificing features for any employee. Most businesses can realise a significant cost savings by utilising this model because they have different types of email users."

Rackspace Hybrid Email has been a key attraction for Rackspace solution partners and resellers because it provides another unique selling point, in addition to Rackspace's Fanatical Support. Businesses can reduce total costs by substituting even one Exchange user with Rackspace Email. For example, using an average 80/20 ratio of Rackspace Email to Hosted Exchange, businesses can save more than 60 percent on email with Rackspace Hybrid Email compared to Hosted Exchange alone, and significantly more than hosting their own email in-house.

With the recent updates, Rackspace Hybrid Email now features:

- Viewable Calendars - Now users can share and view calendars across the entire organisation, whether it's an Exchange user or a Rackspace Email user, for easier scheduling and coordination.
- Improved Webmail - The new webmail interface for Rackspace Email is easy to learn and faster to navigate. New features include improved search quality and speed, and simplified customisation of company logos and background images for private label resellers.
- Simple Control Panel - Administrators can easily manage Hosted Exchange and Rackspace Email accounts and settings from one dashboard.
- Microsoft SharePoint - All Rackspace cloud email accounts have access to free hosted SharePoint, with up to 250MB of storage, for improved document management and team collaboration. More storage is easily purchased with low utility pricing.
- Compatibility - Both Hosted Exchange and Rackspace Email are compatible with the Microsoft Outlook desktop client, and provide mobile support for Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Mobile.

About Rackspace Hosting UK
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leader in the hosting and cloud computing industry and has been ranked in Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past six years. Rackspace provides its customers with Fanatical Support by delivering a portfolio of hosted IT services, including dedicated servers, managed hosting, cloud hosting and email and apps.

Rackspace data centres offer a full suite of cloud computing applications including email, collaboration and storage solutions. Rackspace hosts more than 1.7 million paid email accounts through its email platform that includes Rackspace Email, Hosted Microsoft Excha

Rackspace Named IT Operator of the Year at the Green IT Awards

Thu, 27 May 2010 10:58:24 GMT

Rackspace, the world's leader in the hosting and cloud computing industry has been announced as the winner of the coveted title of IT Operator of the Year in the prestigious Green IT Awards.

"We're absolutely thrilled to be recognised as IT Operator of the Year by The Green IT Awards," said Rackspace Managing Director Brian Thomson. "We've worked hard not only to make our customer offering sustainable, but also introduce internal initiatives such as employee education and recycling. We're also very proud of our energy efficiency technology in our Slough data centre that uses energy efficient measures including dual-core AMD Opteron processors and ambient cooling technology. We plan to continue to introduce even more initiatives over the coming years and work harder than ever to be green."

Over 75 organisations were nominated for The Green IT Awards and winners were selected by readers of the Green IT magazine and its website. The Green IT Awards are a benchmark by which IT companies are measured for environmental performance. The awards also showcase the role played by green marketing and sustainability communications in informing people about green issues, products and lifestyle choices, and provide examples of excellence and best practice in communicating sustainability and green issues.

Rackspace's overall 'green' activity is designed to support its commitment to contributing towards the larger environmental solution. The company believes that "green" activity makes business sense as well as environmental sense. Rackspace has adopted several initiatives over the past two years to help reduce its environmental impact:

- The Slough data centre (DC), designed to use energy efficient technology, provides 55,000 square foot of net technical space, and has been built to help ensure efficient use of energy. Cooling is a key element of energy use in all data centres and Rackspace has deployed ambient cooling technology
- Through International Tree Foundation (ITF), Rackspace has agreed to have a tree planted for every new customer, as a way to mitigate some of the carbon generated through its hosting solutions.
- Internal initiatives promoting the use of paper from sustainable sources, recycling of aluminium cans, paper, cardboard and plastic, and the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products.

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leader in the hosting and cloud computing industry and has been ranked in the Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past six years. Rackspace provides Fanatical Support to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including managed, green hosting, dedicated servers and Cloud Computing.

Rackspace urges UK businesses to update legacy IT to stay ahead

Tue, 11 May 2010 09:48:22 GMT

Rackspace, the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing, has released the findings of its latest commissioned research which indicates that UK businesses may be missing opportunities around new approaches to technology and continuing to over-invest in legacy IT.

The research, surveying over 400 IT decision makers, including 218 from the UK, revealed that 93% of the UK companies surveyed do not believe that they have a cutting-edge approach to adopting new technology.

The survey also highlighted that less than a third (28%) believe they are 'early adopters' of new technology approaches, such as on-demand computing, which may indicate a need for better education on the benefits of moving to new IT systems. This finding is reinforced by Forrester's report* that around half of IT software budgets are spent on maintaining or upgrading old solutions. Therefore, it appears that companies are not investigating how new technologies can support and evolve their business.

Brian Thomson, EMEA Rackspace Managing Director commented: "Organisations are under intense pressure to innovate, but the majority simply don't have enough time to do this. IT staff seem to be tearing their hair out, with almost half (48%) of the (UK) survey respondents keen to get involved in more proactive, strategic initiatives, but UK respondents indicated that less than a third (27%) of their IT team's time is spent on them. However, we are starting to see an evolution in the way IT is managed for everything from servers to social media, with many organisations looking to external experts to free up time that will enable them to focus on developing the business.

"Our business is a good example of this evolution in outsourcing servers, where we deployed more than 2,000 servers in the last three months of 2009, taking the total number of servers we manage to almost 57,000."

When considering server solutions, respondents stated reliability (78%) and utilisation (76%) as the most important, indicating that uptime and efficiency are top of today's server management needs.

Almost half of the UK IT decision makers (41%) stated a lack of knowledge or experience as the biggest concern when calling IT supplier helplines, followed by time taken to access support (36%) a lack of overnight assistance (36%), and rude, unhelpful staff (30%). This indicates a real need for IT organisations to review the level of support they are providing, which can help to avoid customer churn.

Brian Thomson concluded: "These findings indicate to us that organisations are being hindered by in-house IT systems and that there is a real need to focus on strategic initiatives to help the business. We believe this means a new approach to technology is on the horizon as organisations look to hosting, cloud computing and SaaS to power corporate computing and boost competitive edge."

-ENDS -

Notes to editors

* As reported by itpro.com.uk on February 18, 2010

About the Survey:
Rackspace's survey research was conducted in October through online surveys. It involved 441 US and UK-based IT decision-makers at companies with 100-500 employees. Detailed information, methodology and the full survey report is available on the Rackspace website.

About Rackspace Hosting:
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing and has been ranked in Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past five years. Rackspace provides its customers with Fanatical Support (R) by delivering a portfolio of hosted IT services, including Personal Hosting packages comprise the Standard package (5GB web space), and the Premium package (25GB web space). Both solutions include all the tools needed to maintain a professional-quality website with free SiteBuilder, Blog tool and MatrixStats. The Premium package boasts 10 FTP accounts, 10 x 1GB anti- virus/SPAM mailboxes and 1 free .UK domain.

Fasthosts' new Business Hosting Packages are the Business Standard package (25GB web space), and Business Premium package (50GB web space) . The flagship Business Premium delivers unlimited FTP accounts, up to 10 MYSQL databases and Load Balancing – which shares visitors over multiple web servers to maximise the uptime and speed of a website. All hosting packages are available in either Linux or Windows at no additional cost, an approach unique to Fasthosts.

A prominent feature is the powerful template-driven SiteBuilder tool, which benefits from 98 brand new design templates, faster editing and publishing, new site add-ons, RSS and Site Search. The tool is a highly effective way to build an impressive website within minutes, and is particularly well suited to small businesses. As eCommerce continues to be a key issue for all sizes of UK business, Fasthosts today launches a highly effective solution for starting an online store. The new optional SiteBuilder eShop, included within the Business Premium package, offers the functionality of specialist ecommerce software with unmatched ease of use and convenience of SiteBuilder. The shop pages are seamlessly integrated within an existing SiteBuilder website. Advanced features include unlimited product categories, 2-click PayPal integration, multiple currency support and advanced image handling.

Steve Holford, CMO Fasthosts Internet Ltd., said, "Our latest range of hosting packages sets a new benchmark for performance and value. We have built-in as much power as we can with no hidden fees or limitations. It has never been easier or more affordable to launch web project, and Fasthosts packages are designed to flex and adapt in line with our customers' success”.

Fasthosts' unlimited website traffic on all shared hosting means no caps or extra fees to pay that could limit traffic to your website. Unlimited traffic provides peace of mind to businesses or users who experience higher levels of traffic or fluctuations in visitors throughout the year. For UK SMEs, the ability to accept unlimited website visitors at times of high demand is essential for capitalising on peak consumer spending periods.

As a leading web host, Fasthosts is well placed to deliver a high quality service. Customers receive 24/7 technical support by phone or email. All data is hosted in Fasthosts' state-of-the-art UK based data centre. Fasthosts offers a comprehensive range of web solutions including domain name registrations, email solutions (including mobile email services), shared web hosting, virtual servers, dedic

Fasthosts unveils all new dedicated servers

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:32:55 GMT

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting provider, debuts its new range of high-performance dedicated servers for IT professionals.

The new Fasthosts dedicated servers feature the latest Intel Xeon quad core processors, 100Mbps connection and Fasthosts' unlimited bandwidth. Deployed in minutes and available in either Linux or Microsoft operating systems, the servers provide a reliable, secure and highly flexible server platform. Fasthosts' robust network and unlimited data transfer can further benefit individuals and enterprises that generate or process large volumes of data.

Dedicated servers represent a cost effective and reliable solution for hosting core IT infrastructure such as websites or business application software. They provide a secure and private environment for the user's applications to be operated and data to be stored. Business users can enjoy the full power of the hardware and guaranteed access to bandwidth, and retain complete hands on (KVM) remote control of their server at all times.

The latest Fasthosts Dedicated Server packages provide IT professionals and businesses with reliable server operations without the capital expenditure investment in the servers or in the physical space associated with running hardware on their premises 24/7. The latest-spec Intel processor in Fasthosts servers delivers powerful, energy-efficient performance so users can run several intensive programs at once without slowing down. Each server is maintained with the latest operating system updates to maximise efficiency and security.

Fasthosts' brand new range of Dedicated Server packages comprises the DS300 (Dual Core & 2GB RAM), DS500 (Dual Core & 4GB RAM), the DS700 (Quad Core & 8GB RAM), DS900X (Xeon Quad Core & 8GB RAM), and the DS1000XX (2x Xeon Quad Core & 16GB RAM). Servers are available in either Linux or Windows configurations and feature full admin control as well as Fasthosts' unlimited bandwidth and 100Mbps high-speed virtual data pipe. Businesses are assured that Fasthosts guarantees 99.9% server uptime. Technical support is provided 24/7 from UK by email or online.

Steve Holford, CMO Fasthosts Internet Ltd., said "We have upgraded and invested in our Dedicated Server range to ensure unbeatable service delivery and excellent ROI for business users. In an increasingly digital economy, success often begins with a robust and reliable server access that you have confidence will be working for you round the clock, day in day out, with all the benefits, but none of the high costs of running it as an internal operation".

Fasthosts offer a range of powerful control panels enabling the user to set up websites and applications quickly and easily, meaning more time to focus on running their business. The award-winning Plesk 9 control panel interface provides ultra-intuitive server maintenance and control.

- ends -

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts has been providing industry leading technology for over 10 years. Based in the UK and operating 24x7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 6 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel that provides customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain registrations, shared web hosting, business-class email, dedicated servers, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts and unlimited broadband.

Rackspace reports success at National Customer Service Awards

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:08:13 GMT

Rackspace Hosting, the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing, has announced it has won 'Customer Service Team of the Year for B2B' and the highest honour 'Customer Service Team of the Year' at the annual National Customer Service Awards.

Brian Thomson, EMEA Managing Director at Rackspace, commented: "We are pleased to win an award that highlights our complete dedication to our customers. It is a great testament to our Fanatical Support promise and the relentless work our 'Rackers' do to exceed customer expectations every single day."

Rackspace's 'Intensive Team' beat stiff competition from Telefonica O2 UK Limited, Virgin Holidays and the Isle of Man Bank to win the coveted awards, which recognise commitment to high standards of customer service, both through personal dealings with customers and by contributing to the overall customer care policy via the company's involvement in communications, problem solving and innovation.

The team, managed by George Bray, looks after the most complex hosting solutions, including multiple server configurations, and has helped maintain customer retention and the Fanatical Support promise.

Thomson concluded: "2009 has been a great year for recognition of Rackspace's commitment to customers and employees as it has been named as a top 10 company for customer focus in Europe, voted 15th best company to work for by the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies Awards and presented with a Financial Times Laureate Award for being one of the Best Places to Work in the UK for five years running."

About Rackspace Hosting:
Rackspace Hosting UK is the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing and has been ranked in the Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past five years. Rackspace provides its customers with Fanatical Support by delivering a portfolio of hosted IT services, including Green Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting, Email and Apps.

Rackspace received the award for Customer Focus in the National Business Awards in November 2008 and has been nominated for the customer service excellence awards for four consecutive years, winning its category for the past three years. Rackspace was also named by Microsoft as the winner of the Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions Partner of the Year in the annual Microsoft Certified Partner Awards 2007. The Partner of the Year Award in Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions, recognises the top Microsoft partner delivering market-leading, Microsoft-based solutions. Rackspace were also winners of the award in 2005 and 2003.

Rackspace Hosting Launches Enhanced Partner Network

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:40:46 GMT

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE:RAX), the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing, has restructured its global Rackspace Partner Network to help partner companies grow their business, better serve customers and realise a competitive advantage. Rackspace actively solicited feedback from its partners to make enhancements to the Rackspace Partner Network, which include a new tiered structure, highly competitive financial incentives, greater access to training and marketing resources.

To add more structure and clarity to the program, Rackspace created four levels of commitment based on company size and level of sales: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Member. Additionally, Rackspace is offering partners aggressive commissions and, at certain partnership levels, will even pay commissions on upgrades and renewals, a significant benefit many competitors fail to match.

"We regard partners as an extension of the Rackspace family and have updated the Rackspace Partner Network to help ensure they receive the services and support necessary for long-term success," said Robert Fuller, vice president of Rackspace's Worldwide Channel. "Rackers worked closely with our partners to develop a program that creates the biggest impact and provides the best experience for them, which we believe will in turn impact the broader customer experience."

Rackspace's enhanced partner program includes several features available for partner companies at any level of membership, including:
- Access to a dedicated sales representative
- Sales and technical training
- OnBoarding support
- Access to the Rackspace Partner Network portal with exclusive marketing, sales and industry information as well as networking opportunities with other Rackspace partners

As companies move along the continuum from Member Partnership to Platinum Partnership, the new Rackspace program offers additional benefits including:
- Access to a dedicated channel manager
- Access to the searchable partner database on Rackspace.com as well as the database on the Rackspace Partner Network portal
- An opportunity to participate in partner company and/or Rackspace generated marketing activities
- Inclusion in promotions to Rackspace customer and partner base
- Discounts/commissions on upgrades and renewal contracts

"Sitecore has built its foundation on providing partners and customers with the best Web CMS platform, so it's a natural extension to partner with Rackspace for its unmatched service and reliable hosting solutions," said Jason Crea, VP, Client and Partner Engagement Sitecore, a new member of the Rackspace Partner Network. "Performance, security, scalability and price are critical elements for our customers in building and hosting websites, blogs, and other Web applications. Based on Rackspace's past successes we anticipate a valued experience for our joint customers."

"Q just entered its second decade of designing, building and enhancing brands online. Rackspace has been with us since the beginning, and we're excited to re-launch our partnership in the program and reaffirm our shared commitment to support," said Sean Breen, Founder and CTO, Q-Industries, a longstanding and valued Rackspace partner. "Rackspace continues to provide the critical infrastructure that both Q and our clients need to maximize ROI and minimize capital expenditures."

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting UK is the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing and has been ranked in Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past five years. Rackspace provides its customers with Fanatical Support by delivering a portfolio of hosted IT services, including Green Hosting, Managed Hosting, hosting company has hired renowned hosting industry strategist Andrew Schroepfer. In his role, Schroepfer will cover the trend in depth from how providers are evolving to how real businesses are making this trend pay off.

"A new way to run business computing is emerging," said Lanham Napier, president and CEO of Rackspace. "We have countless business customers tell us they are finished buying servers and are looking for a computing partner. People don't want to buy standalone computing, they want computing as a service with Fanatical Support. This trend will have major implications on the entire IT industry, and there is no one more qualified to cover it day-to-day than Andy."

NoMoreServers.com will feature daily and unique commentary explaining the next era in computing. In addition to filtering and reviewing interesting developments and third-party content about the NoMoreServers computing era, the site will feature daily commentary and a live community portal for visitors to engage on the topic and offers a white paper on the subject for community members.

Schroepfer has been a key analyst in the hosting industry since its inception in the late 1990s. From his beginnings at Piper Jaffray where he developed and managed the VoIP (Voice-over-Internet-Protocol) industry's primary market statistics, Schroepfer published a 270-page report on the dis-aggregation of communications which sparked his coverage of the Web hosting industry. He then joined Goldman Sachs as VP and senior equity analyst on the Internet Infrastructure Services industry during the time when Equinix, Loudcloud (now HP), and Webex (now Cisco) were executing their IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). In late 2000, Schroepfer founded, led, and later sold Tier1 Research, the leading specialist research firm on the hosting and data centre industry whose insights and data remain highly relevant.

"Having covered the hosting industry since its inception, and having strongly recommended Rackspace since 2001, I am excited to now become a Racker," said Andy Schroepfer. "I have always said Rackspace will be more than just a leader in hosting, and I am honoured to join the 2,700-strong Fanatical Support team tasked with sustaining and evolving our leadership role as the IT value chain is recast."

Notes to Editors:
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. 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.

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing and has been ranked in Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past five years. Rackspace provides its customers with Fanatical Support by delivering a portfolio of hosted IT services, including virtualisation, hosted exchange, dedicated server, cloud hosting and Email and Apps.

Rackspace Cloud to stream Keta Keta viral videos

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:49:05 GMT

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE:RAX), the world's leader in hosting and cloud computing, has announced that leading viral video advertising agency, Keta Keta, will be hosting its video portfolio and movie previews in the Rackspace Cloud.

Ronen Lefler, CEO, Keta Keta said: "Effectively showcasing our viral videos has become a real challenge as the amount of content that we have to stream has grown. Moving to the Rackspace Cloud has enabled us to showcase videos to a global audience without interruption. We chose Rackspace due to its focus on customer service and support, as well as the flexibility and efficiency of The Rackspace Cloud Files solution."

As the viral video market continues to explode, with traffic increasing 178% over the last 12 months (Source: Econsultancy's 2009 Internet Statistics report), Keta Keta needed to maximize opportunities across consumer brands by promoting its videos to a global audience. It launched a new corporate website in March 2009 to support this need and turned to Rackspace Hosting to provide a reliable and cost-effective hosting solution to stream multiple movies to over 100 different countries.

Brian Thomson, EMEA Managing Director at Rackspace Hosting said: "Hosting business critical applications in the cloud is something we do on a regular basis and we are delighted that Keta Keta has chosen us to support its corporate awareness drive. We understand the demands placed on websites by streaming rich media content and believe the cloud's flexible, pay-as-you go structure makes it an ideal choice to meet these new media needs."

The Rackspace Cloud Files provides unlimited online storage for media, including backups, video files, or user content. Its benefits include:
- Scalable, dynamic storage. Enabling users to use as much or little as they want and only pay for what they use
- Easy file management through an online control panel
- Lightning speed file sharing through Limelight Networks CDN technology

Keta Keta, the viral video partner of ad:tech 2009, is an advertising agency with in-house creative, production, seeding and tracking departments. It has launched hundreds of successful viral video campaigns that have entertained and engaged people around the world for customers including LG, Fiat, MSN, L'Oreal and Orange.

- ENDS -

Notes to editors

About Rackspace
As the world's leader and specialist in hosting, Rackspace Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable.
A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective.

Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support, furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace was voted in the top 10 for Customer Focus in the European Business Awards, 2009 and was awarded the FT Laureate Award in 2009 for being one of the best places to work in the UK for five years running. It also featured in the top 30 of both the Sunday Times 100 Best companies to work for list and the Financial Times Great Place to Work Awards, 2009.

Rackspace's portfolio of hosted services includes hosted exchange, managed hosting, dedicated servers, cloud hosting, virtualisation and managed exchange.

Rackspace wins joint server farm tender to support MoD websites

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:24:01 GMT

Rackspace Hosting, the world's leader in hosting, has announced it has won a three year, competitive deal to provide fully managed support to the Joint Server Farm (JSF), a secure hosting environment for Ministry of Defence (MoD) websites. The partnership will see MoD, Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force websites consolidated onto a single, virtualised infrastructure to enable easier management, greater efficiencies and scalability.

Rackspace beat 18 other companies to win the contract to support the JSF following a European Journal Competition and tender for contract. Through the deal Rackspace will provide MoD partners with the flexibility to manage and change websites quickly to meet user demand. It will also provide enhanced security from firewalls and intrusion detection devices, which constantly monitor for threats, round-the-clock access to certified engineers and a 100% network uptime guarantee, backed by its service level agreement.

Rackspace's EMEA managing director Brian Thomson said: "We are delighted to have extended our relationship with the MoD by winning this tender in what was a hard fought pitch by lots of companies. At a time when costs and efficiencies are being brought to the forefront, we know we can truly help simplify the MoD infrastructure to meet these challenges."

The JSF is a single infrastructure for all services, websites and applications. It currently supports a number of well-known MoD campaigns, such as the recruiting website for the Army, Start Thinking Soldier as well as the Army Pathfinder programme. It also supports Navy and Air Force recruitment campaigns, all of the cadets' sites, a number of admin sites and facilitates small short-term public information campaign sites.

The MoD created the JSF because it had lots of disparate sites on different infrastructures, which were hard to maintain, inefficient and unscalable. With the growing influence of the internet it was also decided that a central hosting UK resource that departments could tap into for their web requirements was needed. In addition to this, the MoD was bound to meet the Transformational Government Agenda (TGA), which requires rationalisation of websites across all government departments. The MoD also moved to virtual servers for its consolidated infrastructure to provide greater flexibility when managing the sites.

Around 70% of MoD websites are currently hosted on Rackspace infrastructure and this deal extends the company's partnership with ArmyNET, the award-winning portal which allows soldiers to keep in touch with their families.

Rackspace consolidated 67 servers to 12 physical hypervisors and 72 virtual servers by implementing virtualisation across the MoD infrastructure. This solution when combined with a raft of changes to the contract cost model, including a reduction in SAN spindle storage costs, resulted in a reduction of overall costs. It also provides greater efficiencies for power and space, with a lower number of overall servers.

About Rackspace Hosting:
As the world's leader and specialist in hosting, Rackspace Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable.

A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support, furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace featured in the top 30 of both the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For list and the Financial Times Great Place to Work Awards, 2008.

Rackspace's portfolio of hosted services includes Fasthosts partners can customize the interface to perform tasks that are best suited to their needs. Most importantly, its automated performance leaves business leaders with more time and energy to put towards things like marketing and sales.

For Fasthosts, this is an important step in boosting the company's appeal within such a competitive market. Stephen Holford, Chief Marketing Officer for Fasthosts, highlighted that the company is committed to providing a world class service for its resellers and believes this API will be an extremely valuable reseller tool to Fasthosts partners.

"Fasthosts understands how important an API is to its reseller partners. Having an administrative tool such as this significantly increases the productivity and opportunities for our resellers", Holford said. "The Fasthosts team is confident that current and potential resellers will be very satisfied with the functionality and new capabilities this interface will offer them. Not only will the API make their reseller business easier to manage, but it will provide our resellers with more options that they can implement into their customer care strategy."

The API allows resellers to automate new customer signups, create admin tools for end-customers, and process customer orders automatically. Resellers using the API can have their customers set up hosting directly from their website and secure domain names in real-time. What's more is the potential for resellers to increase their profit margins - this API is an efficient mechanism for running a smooth and profitable business operation.

Fasthosts is automatically including the API into its reseller control panels. It is accessible using any server side language, and provides full documentation and examples for all API functions. Resellers are also given test scripts as another way to customize the API for their business needs.

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is the UK's leading web hosting company. Based in the UK and operating 24x7 from its dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 6 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel that provides customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain registrations, shared web hosting, business-class email, dedicated servers, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts and unlimited broadband. Fasthosts' highly successful reseller channel has recently been rated Number 1 for reseller hosting by industry portal Web Host Directory.

Fasthosts finds business owners want greater involvement in IT procurement

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:06:52 GMT

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting provider, has released a study showing that 53 per cent of US business owners seek more involvement in the purchasing of their IT services, such as hosting, than ever before.

The survey of 132 US business* owners found that in the past year, over half (53 per cent) have purposefully sought a greater understanding of the IT services they use as a direct result of economic pressures, and intend to be more involved in selecting their IT service providers going forward.

From those businesses that use dedicated hosting services, 1 in 4 owners wish to renegotiate associated costs this year. As businesses worldwide scrutinize IT costs, Fasthosts is encouraging UK companies to review their hosting costs and seek out the best possible technology for their money. Fasthosts is also helping UK businesses to lower their server costs by reducing its dedicated server prices with discounts of up to £480 per annum for the life of the contract.

Steve Holford, CMO Fasthosts commented, "Every business owner understands the importance of procurement. One should review their web solutions periodically, and push through necessary changes. In a challenging operating environment, it is imperative that every business gets what it pays for and pays only for what it needs".

Fasthosts dedicated server solutions have been tailored to support business needs with high-speed performance and connectivity, no bandwidth charges and 24/7 UK-based support. All dedicated servers are housed within a state-of-the-art data centre in Gloucester and designed to provide demanding users with high specifications and excellent service levels. Business owners can contact advisors at Fasthosts to discuss their requirements and potential cost savings for their business.

- ends -

Notes to editors:
*132 US enterprises that pay for a dedicated server solution via electronic feedback form

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is the UK's number one web hosting company. Based in the UK and operating 24x7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 6 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel which provides customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain names, shared web hosting, business-class email, dedicated servers, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts and unlimited broadband. Fasthosts' highly successful reseller channel has recently been rated Number 1 for reseller hosting by industry portal Web Host Directory.

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