News | August 17, 2010

Rackspace Hosting Announces General Availability Of Cloud Servers For Windows

Expanding Capabilities with Full Windows Support, New Features

Rackspace Hosting, the world's leading specialist in hosting and cloud computing, recently 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 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. 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.

For more information visit http://www.rackspacecloud.com/windows

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the world's leading specialist in hosting and cloud computing. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support (r) to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

SOURCE: Rackspace Hosting