Rackspace Review

Based in San Antonio Texas, Rackspace Managed Hosting provides full-service managed hosting solutions, including state-of-the-art data centers, customized servers, burstable connectivity, server software and 24 x 7 support of all hardware and core software. Rackspace's SmoothScaling capabilities allow e-businesses to add bandwidth, advanced services, or server capacity on demand. Monthly fees range from $300 to $50,000 per month, depending on the complexity required.

Rackspace Managed Hosting
112 E. Pecan, Suite 600
San Antonio, TX 78205
sales@rackspace.com

Website: http://www.rackspace.com

Support
Rackspace technical support has a very strong reputation and nearly everyone we have talked to speaks very highly about their quick responses to problems. It seems that Rackspace puts a great deal of value in technical support as their slogan reads "Fanatical Support". Their standard support response times include 10 minutes for emergencies, 2 hours for priortity and 5 hours for non-critical support requests. They offer various support packages above and beyond the standard that comes with each of their servers. These additional support packages can includes items such as software upgrades, additional monitoring, "remote hands", trouble ticket escalation, etc. The cost for premium support ranges from $100 to several hundred dollars per server.

Services Offered

Opertaing Systems: Windows 2000, Linux, Free BSD, Sun Solaris

Monitoring: Rackspace PrivateNet, Load Balancing

Network: Rackwatch Port Monitoring, Guardian Angel, Site Angel

Software: E-mail, Real Streaming Media, Urchin, Verisign SSL, Real Streaming Media, Hostware

Security: Managed Firewalls, Exterminator, SSL Certificates, Security Auditing

Database: Microsoft SQL Server 2000, MySQL

Backup: Tape Drive, UltraBac

Network Attached Storage

Value
Prices for rackspace services begin at about $300 per month. This puts them at the high end of entry level dedicated servers. As a result, you will find that many other companies have servers starting at lower costs. However, you do get what you pay for and Rackspace is well worth the cost if you need a mission critical server and are willing to pay extra for fast technical support. This is especially true if your server administration skills are limited.

Network Infrastructure

Connectivity
Rackspace utilizes connections to multiple backbones to ensure that data reaches the end-user in the fastest, most efficient manner possible. We also have peering agreements with local ISPs to allow fast delivery of packets when possible.

BGP4 Routing
Rackspace runs the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP4) for best case routing. Our entirely switched, Cisco powered network employs Cisco GSR 12000 class routers running HSRP (N+1 hot failover) to ensure that data can be routed even in the event of a router failure. The BGP4 protocol is a standard that allows for the routing of packets of information sent out from the Rackspace Network. Each packet of information is evaluated and sent over the best route possible. Because of our redundant network architecture, packets may be sent via alternative routes even if they are being delivered to the same end user. Should one of our providers fail, packets leaving our network are automatically redirected through another route via a different provider.

Guaranteed packet Delivery
Rackspace pays providers to make sure that packets of information are delivered to the end user's eyeballs. This offers significant advantages over simply peering with the major backbones. Peering agreements rarely include Service Level Agreements (SLAs) so no one is accountable for lost packets at congested exchange points. Because Rackspace actually has SLAs with all our providers, they are able to guarantee that all packets will leave our network at full speed.