Rackspace Email & Apps Blog

Rackspace Archiving Version 2 – Built on Racker Core Values

Tom Duscheid on September 1, 2011 | No Comments

Recently, I wrote about our excitement around the move to Rackspace Archiving Version 2. I also briefly mentioned the challenges of the product’s rapid growth. In order to move our customer base to a new version and new environment, we’ve relied on Rackspace Core Values – our special recipe that allows us to be different and pushes us to be fanatical. How did Core Values foster the success of Rackspace Archiving Version 2?

Fanatical Support^® in All We Do

Our frontline support representatives are our stars. They truly represent what it means to be fanatical. As a result of their contagious fanaticism, Fanatical Support spreads throughout our organization. If our customers have a bad day, so do our Support Team, Operations Team, Product Team, etc. Despite Blacksburg being a 1,000 miles away from our Support team, I feel the emotions of our support team on a bad day.

Results First, Substance Over Flash

We recognized early on that we were growin – fast. A simple band-aid approach could have been implemented. However, we knew that the right approach would involve taking the hard road. This meant rebuilding much of our Archiving platform and carefully migrating customers over. Results? Substance – no flash.

Committed to Greatness

Rackspace CEO, Lanham Napier, once said, “Greatness is achieved when our customers say we are great.” What is our measurement stick? By heavily tracking our Net Promoter score, a measure of customer satisfaction, we can confirm that we are performing at or above our customers’ expectations. We’re seeing an upward move in our scores due to the recent improvements, and we continue to work toward earning and maintaining a 10 from each of our customers.

Full Disclosure and Transparency

As they say, communication is half the battle. We notified customers two days in advance that they would be moving to Version 2 and the changes being made. We then followed up with our customers after the migration to let them know that they were now on Version 2. Plus, Resellers and Enterprise customers also received special information packets to share with their users.

Passion for Our Work

This Core Value shined during this project with engineering, product, and frontline support working tirelessly to ensure that our course of action was in customers’ best interest and that everyone involved had the proper information to understand, inform, and reassure customers throughout the transition. I am especially proud of our main support subject matter expert, Chester Mann. Not only did Chester work ardulously to support our customers, but he also spoke up on behalf of the customers and the support team, and helped us to implement new processes to further improve the customer experience.

Treat Fellow Rackers Like Friends and Family

Can you tell I think very highly of our support, operations, and R&D teams for all their amazing work? Not only do I appreciate them for their passion and knowledge, but they are also my friends and family too. Every couple months, I travel to San Antonio to see them. It’s always like seeing distant family members where I can catch up with them at dinner and talk about old times. Building a product on cloud technology brings many advantages. But our real differentiator is Rackers and the Core Values that we live by. And I am proud now more than ever to be a part of this differentiator.

Read more about Rackspace Core Values on the RackerTalent site. Get more information about Rackspace Archiving online now.

Data Center Evolution: 1960 to 2000

Angela Bartels on August 30, 2011 | No Comments

During the 1960s, computers were large mainframes stored in rooms– what we call a “data center” today. They were costly and businesses could rent out space on the mainframe to fulfill specific functions. During the 1980s, the computer industry experienced the boom of the microcomputer era and computers were being widely used in the office. When the dot-com bubble occurred in the 1990s, so did the boom of data centers. Businesses needed a quick way to establish presence on the Internet and companies like Rackspace were fulfilling that need by opening up data centers. Check out this infographic to see how data centers have evolved over time.

Embed This Graphic – Copy Source Code Below:

<a href="http://www.rackspace.com/whyrackspace/network/datacenters/"> Data Center <iframe style="height: 700px; width: 525px;" src="http://broadcast.rackspace.com/blog/InfographicDatacenter/timeline.html" frameborder="0" width="320" height="240"></iframe>

To view the enlarged version, click here.

________________________________________________________

Timeline:

1960s

Prior to 1960 (1945), the Army developed a huge machine called ENIAC (Electronic Numerator, Integrator, Analyzer, and Computer):

Weighed 30 tons
Took up 1,800 sq ft of floor space
Required 6 full-time technicians to keep it running
Did 5000 operations per second

Up until the early 1960s, computers were primarily used by government agencies. They were large mainframes stored in rooms– what we call a “datacenter” today. Starting in 1960, computers converted from vacuum tube to solid state devices such as the transistor, which last much longer, are smaller, more efficient, more reliable, and cheaper than equivalent vacuum tube devices. In the early 1960s many computers cost about $5 million each and time on one of these computers could be rented for $17,000 per month. By the mid 1960s, computer use developed commercially and was shared by multiple parties. American Airlines and IBM teamed up to develop a reservation program termed the Sabre® system. It was installed on 2 IBM 7090 computers, located in a specially designed computer center in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The system processed 84,000 telephone calls per day. Computer memory slowly moved away from magnetic core devices to solid-state static and dynamic semiconductor memory, which greatly reduced the cost, size and power consumption of computing devices.

1970s

In 1971, Intel released the world’s first commercial microprocessor: the 4004. Datacenters in the US began documenting formal disaster recovery plans in 1973. If disaster did strike, it wouldn’t necessarily affect business operations, as most functions handled by computers were after-the-fact bookkeeping duties. These functions were batch operations and not complex in nature. In 1978, SunGuard™ developed the first commercial disaster recovery business, a leased 30,000 square feet of space at 401 Broad Street, where they’re still located. In 1973, the minicomputer Xerox Alto was a landmark step in the development of personal computers because of its graphical user interface, bit-mapped high-resolution screen, large internal and external memory storage, mouse, and special software. In 1977, the world’s first commercially available local area network, ARCnet was first put into service at Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, as a beta-site. It was the simplest, and least expensive type of local area network using token-ring architecture, supporting data rates of 2.5 Mbps, and connecting up to 255 computers. Mainframes required special cooling and in the late 1970s, air-cooled computers moved into offices. Consequently, datacenters died.

1980s

During the 1980s, the computer industry experienced the boom of the microcomputer era thanks to the birth of the IBM Personal Computer (PC). Computers were installed everywhere, and little thought was given to the specific environmental and operating requirements of the machines. Starting in 1985, IBM provided more than $30 million in products and support over the course of 5 years to a supercomputer facility established at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In 1988, IBM introduces the IBM Application System/400 (AS/400), and quickly becomes one of the world’s most popular business computing systems. As information technology operations started to grow in complexity, companies grew aware of the need to control IT resources.

1990s

Microcomputers (now called “servers”) started to find their places in the old computer rooms and were being called “data centers.” Companies were putting up server rooms inside their company walls with the availability of inexpensive networking equipment. The boom of data centers came during the dot-com bubble. Companies needed fast Internet connectivity and nonstop operation to deploy systems and establish a presence on the Internet. Many companies started building very large facilities to provide businesses with a range of solutions for systems deployment and operation. Rackspace Hosting opened their first datacenter to businesses in 1999.

2000s

As of 2007, the average datacenter consumes as much energy as 25,000 homes. There are 5.75 million new servers deployed every year. The number of government data centers has gone from 432 in 1999 to 1,100+ today. Data centers account for 1.5% of US energy consumption and demand is growing 10% per year. Facebook launched the OpenCompute Project, providing specifications to their Prineville, Oregon data center that uses 38% less energy to do the same work as their other facilities, while costing 24% less. As the growth of online data grows exponentially, there is opportunity (and a need) to run more efficient data centers. ________________________________________________________

Sources

www.arl.army.mil/www/pages/shared/…/50_years_of_army_computing.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware_%281960s%E2%80%93present%29
http://www.pimall.com/nais/pivintage/burroughscomputer.html
http://sabre-holdings.com/aboutUs/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware_%281960s%E2%80%93present%29
http://books.google.com/books?id=XrEwl7VWXXMC&pg=PA525&lpg=PA525&dq=data+centers+in+the+1970s&source=bl&ots=Jb3MZmYuIy&sig=9v5m7Vth1adO1oiti-eEj-7T3DI&hl=en&ei=9wNYTqS3GZS_gQeH47C4DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CHMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=data%20centers%20in%20the%201970s&f=false
www.sungard.com/~/media/financialsystems/…/mann_howwegothere.ashx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware_%281960s%E2%80%93present%29
www.it.northwestern.edu/bin/docs/dc_architecture.ppt
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/decade_1980.html
http://amynutt.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/history-of-the-data-centre-556616.html
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1985.html
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1988.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center#History
www.mckinsey.com/…/bto/…/Revolutionizing_Data_Center_Efficiency.pdf
http://www.rareconservation.org/blog/2011/05/16/notes-from-a-rare-planet-data-centers-globally-require-2-5x-the-energy-of-nyc-it-takes-a-lot-to-power-the-cloud/
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/03/01/feds-commence-huge-data-center-consolidation/
www.energystar.gov/ia/…/EPA_Datacenter_Report_Congress_Final1.pdf
http://opencompute.org/about/

Rackspace Archiving Releases Version 2

Tom Duscheid on August 30, 2011 | No Comments

Imagine you’re the mayor of a small town where population grows from zero to the size of a small city in under two years. We faced this challenging, yet exciting, reality with Rackspace Archiving. Our user base grew phenomenally in a short time forcing us to find innovative ways to keep up with growth effectively and efficiently.

Rackspace Archiving Enters the Cloud

Accommodating the rapid growth required a whole new way of thinking about software-as-a-service. While other archiving providers still run on limited servers, we rebuilt our search infrastructure and moved it onto the cloud. This allows our system to scale accordingly whether 5,000 or 100,000 users are searching their archive.

As a result, Rackspace Archiving Version 2 provides our customers a better overall experience with more stability and speed. This is absolutely groundbreaking. Wouldn’t it be nice if the highway system scaled that way to automatically create new lanes when traffic becomes congested?

What’s New in Version 2?

Not only did we rebuild much of our infrastructure with innovation, but we also added new features. We know that search is the key element of an archiving system. To make it easier for our users to find that one email out of possibly millions, we added new search features:

Advanced Boolean Queries – Combines Boolean logic (i.e. AND, OR, NOT)
Fuzzy Queries – Includes common misspellings and variations of search terms in results.
Proximity Queries – Searches for terms that exist within a certain number of words of one another in a message or document.
Advanced Date/Time Queries – Mixes date/time ranges with Boolean logic and/or wildcard capabilities to retrieve messages based on a variety of time-related criteria.

We also know that users want to quickly and confidently export their email data. Users can now export up to 15,000 messages or up to 3.5GB of data right from their archive. For users who need to export large volumes of data, we also offer a bulk export to hard drive option.

Many more new features, plus updated support materials, are available to further enhance your experience. Give Rackspace Archiving a try now. If you have questions or feedback, as the Product Manager for Rackspace Archiving, I want to hear from you! Send me an email at tom.duscheid@rackspace.com.

Understanding Hybrid Cloud Computing

Angela Bartels on August 9, 2011 | No Comments

The term “hybrid” can hold a different meaning from industry to industry. Generally speaking, it describes the combination of two things to make one. In the cloud computing industry, there are a series of technologies you can use to run your web environments, from cloud to dedicated. Users can have a hybrid environment at Rackspace by connecting Cloud Servers and dedicated servers via RackConnect™. Here is a fun illustration that highlights this technology in the simplest of terms. Click image below for larger version.

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 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/hosting_solutions/hybrid_hosting/">
 Hybrid Hosting
<img src="http://c179631.r31.cf0.rackcdn.com/Infographic_Hybrid.png"
alt="Hybrid Hosting" width="510" height="1988" /> </a>

5 Email Blunders You Can Avoid

Lizetta Staplefoote on June 8, 2011 | No Comments

Avoidable Blunder #1: You reply to an invite for an office event and add how much you don’t want to sit by your stinky coworker. One Problem: You just hit reply all and your stinky coworker now knows exactly how you feel.

Avoid it: Most email clients give you the ability to delete or move the options in your toolbar. Delete the “Reply All” button off the toolbar altogether or move it significantly away from the “Send” button so that you’re only likely to hit it when you really want to reply to all.

Avoidable Blunder #2: A customer service worker ends an apologetic message with, “Sorry for any incontinence (inconvenience) this may have caused you.” Or, you greet the new guy with a welcome message that reads, “Hell (Hello) Tom, Welcome to the team.”

Avoid it: If you forget to spell check, most email clients include an option to automatically spell check before sending or while you’re typing. However, spell check doesn’t catch everything so re-read emails aloud to catch inconsistencies or save your message as a draft, switch tasks, and come back with fresh eyes after a few hours.

Avoidable Blunder #3: During application season, a university sent out emails on behalf of a computer company with the subject line, “You’re Accepted.” The recipients assumed they’d gotten into college when it was really that they’d been “accepted” for a product special.

Avoid it: While you’re re-reading your email to make sure you haven’t apologized for incontinence, think about word choice. If you’re making a request, include all required information. If you’re delivering difficult news, be sensitive and impart empathy as appropriate. Also, make sure you use words that your recipient understands or define anything unfamiliar to avoid misconceptions.

Avoidable Blunder #4: An email chain starts out complaining about a new company policy and the person responsible for it and evolves into a discussion about an upcoming project. The email is then forwarded to another department to share the ideas on the new project – without realizing the entire chain, including the policy complaints, were forwarded too.

Avoid it: Before you forward a message read all the way through it and cut out unnecessary or inflammatory information. Most importantly, remember that anything written and sent in an email is is saved and can be pulled up in seconds to haunt you.

Avoidable Blunder #5: You finally perfected that huge report and the last step is getting approvals. You fire off an email to executives and managers that explains the report and requests approval, then proudly hit send. An hour later, you get a dozen emails asking for the attachment.

Avoid it: As soon as you open up an email that requires an attachment, attach it. You can also tap email programs, like Microsoft Outlook, to create rules to hold emails with certain words like “attachment” or “included” to give yourself a send delay long enough to remember to attach that file. Rackspace Email Webmail does the work for you. If you’ve used the word “attachment” in the body and nothing is attached, you’ll be prompted to confirm if want to send without an attachment.

With the ramifications of a business email blunder ranging from extreme embarrassment to job loss, taking a few extra moments to exercise due diligence is well worth the effort to help you remain blunder- free.

What’s Your Business Email Policy?

Lizetta Staplefoote on June 1, 2011 | No Comments

Email is an integral tool for business communication. As such, it’s imperative that you have a solid email policy to govern how email is used in your organization and to detail the consequences of violation. Implementing an email use policy helps protect your business’ electronic assets, shield you from legal liability, and create usage expectations for employees.

With millions of business email addresses and other personal data recently stolen from large retailers and financial institutions and the ensuing phishing and spam attacks expected to result from the breach, now is a great opportunity to educate employees on email safety and reinforce or establish an email policy.

Begin your email policy by reviewing the legal and compliance requirements of your specific industry. An email policy for a bank may look a lot different from an ad agency’s policy. Most policies will cover at least these basic topics:

Appropriate Use

All email is considered company property. The Appropriate Use section should specify how the company expects employees to use the email system. Give user-specific style guidelines, required disclaimers, and email signature templates. Include a firm statement prohibiting distribution of offensive or disruptive messages (racist or sexist content, jokes, chain letters, pornography, and spam). Use this area to detail restrictions on certain files types or file sizes and clarify that users are not to engage in non-business activities that inappropriately consume network resources.

Message Retention

Retained emails are routinely requested by regulatory bodies and in legal disputes. Your industry may dictate certain email retention regulations. Use this section to let users know how long emails are saved and to support compliance activities. If only certain employees can access the email archive, include the process and turnaround time for retrieving archived messages.

Email Monitoring

An employer has the right to monitor any messages sent over the company’s email system. While it’s not necessary in most states to inform employees of monitoring, a formal email policy should explain that their messages, even if personal in nature, can be monitored without notice. Having this policy in place also reminds users to consider carefully what they send over the business email system because there is no expectation of privacy.

Legal and appropriate internal stakeholders should review the email policy before implementation. A review process should be defined to revisit and update the policy at scheduled intervals. All email users should sign or otherwise acknowledge receipt and understanding of the policy. Employee training sessions can help users better understand and adhere to the guidelines. Going forward, the policy should be included in employee handbooks, new hire paperwork, and published in an easily accessible place, like the company intranet or public folders.

9 Reasons You Should Put Exchange in the Cloud  

Brooke Jackson on May 5, 2011 | No Comments

 The cloud is popular and buzz-worthy. It’s mentioned in practically every tech post you read. But, is the cloud the right fit for your Exchange needs? It may be a better fit than you think, and here are nine big reasons why:   

Do what you do best and use experts for the rest. Instead of honing your ability to manage an Exchange server with minimal disruptions, you can spend more time on creating differentiation and building a steady strategy.
 Don’t pay for more than you need. This is a big benefit for businesses wasting money on unused server or storage capacity or capacity that is only used during peak usage times. You’ll also save on licenses for Windows server, Exchange, AV/AS, backup, etc. There will still be costs associated with licensing the service from the provider. However, those costs are far less due to the volume discounts hosting providers are able to pass along to you. 
SP1 is released? Need to install a patch? No problem. By running hosted Exchange in the cloud, your business is always up-to-date and using the latest version of software. Admins can stay on their game without even trying.
 No more scratching your head. Hosted Exchange providers live and breathe this stuff everyday, and want to do your heavy lifting. Chances are they’ve heard your question before and can solve your problem quickly. 
Deploy Users in Minutes. One of the beauties of any hosted service, like Exchange, is having a standard service applied across many users. This means little or no customization is needed, reduced costs, and quicker ramp up. If you have advanced email and application integration needs, let a hosted Exchange expert help you explore your options. 
Business is not strictly at your desk anymore. Neither is hosted Exchange. You need real-time access on your desktop, browser, and any mobile device. Hosted Exchange is a familiar way to get that luxury with all of your data: email, calendar, contacts, and tasks – without standing up complex mobile infrastructure. 
Exchange with Outlook is an easy transition. Most professionals have used Outlook at some point in their careers and are comfortable with how it works. That means your employees get up to speed quickly with fewer disruptions and little or no training needed.
 Try before you buy. Not sure if you want to jump in? Just dip your toe in the Cloud water by using hosted Exchange free for a trial period. It’s a great way of seeing if it will meet all of your needs without financially committing yourself to the Cloud. 
Free to leave if you’re dissatisfied. Some providers (including Rackspace) will let you cancel your service at any time. That means that you’re never really “locked in”, so if the service ever fails to meet your needs, you can get out quickly without being penalized.

Just beginning to evaluate your email needs? Time for an upgrade? If you’re running an older version of Exchange or starting to need regular patches, it’s time to consider a hosted Exchange solution to take server management off your plate.  

Learn more about Hosted Exchange with Rackspace for your business or chat with us now. We’re happy to help you think through your requirements and plan a flawless transition to Hosted Exchange.

A Greener Outlook

Lizetta Staplefoote on March 10, 2011 | 1 Comment

Most businesses don’t run without computers. From desktops to data centers, computing power is a requirement of business. The power, space, and equipment needed to run all that computing power can represent a significant drain on resources. Add to that rising energy costs along with growing computing demands and efficient IT management becomes critical. Two major areas represent both the majority of the drain and easy ways to reap savings.

Workstation Equipment
Computers and monitors are second only to the lights in the consumption of energy in modern offices consuming up to 60% of the energy bill. Since you can’t turn off the lights, you can take some measures to reduce the energy consumption of the computer equipment in your office.

Replace CRT monitors with LCD monitors and save about 90W of energy. When replacing equipment, look for trade-in programs or recycle the old parts.
Save even more energy by taking desktops off the desk and replacing them with laptops. A 17-in laptop uses about half as much power as a comparable desktop with a 17-inch LCD monitor.
When replacing equipment, look for ENERGY STAR-qualified hardware for maximum energy efficiency. According to Energy Star, if every computer in America was Energy Star-certified, we’d save over $1.5 billion a year and save emissions equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road.

Power Management
Data centers use 40 times as much energy as a traditional office building while only using about 15% of their compute capacity. The chillers, pumps, and fans for cooling alone account for 35% of an average computer’s power.

Look for hosting options where appropriate to reduce the equipment and power demands of computing. Running email can tie up multiple server resources, while using a hosted email service can reduce that number to zero. File storage is another area that usurps server resources with the potential to manage efficiently and securely off site with an online file storage service.
Implement automated or employee-driven systems to ensure all non-essential equipment is turned off when not in use.
Stop using screen savers. Photo or animated screen savers may save screen pixels, but they burn as much power as your system does in full operation.

These small changes can help you reduce your energy bill and slim down your environmental footprint. Use our Carbon Footprint Calculator to analyze your businesses’ environmental impact.

Mac Users: Upgrade to Outlook for Mac 2011

Lizetta Staplefoote on March 6, 2011 | No Comments

outlook for mac 2011 Outlook^® for Mac 2011 is now available to Hosted Exchange
customers at Rackspace!

This version replaces Entourage and gives Mac users a uniquely Apple experience with comparable functionality to the popular Outlook for Windows program.

What You Can Expect:

Calendar: Unlike the separate Mail and iCal applications native to Mac, Outlook’s Mac version displays your inbox and calendar in the same program. You can even open an invite in your inbox and have your calendar instantly displayed for at-a-glance viewing of your availability and the ability to respond without opening an additional application. 
Import: The .PST files that hold all of your personal data in Outlook in Windows can be directly transferred into the Mac version. That means all of your data populates into your new account in just a few clicks and with minimal downtime.  
Exchange Integration: Optimize Outlook for Mac 2011 with Exchange for syncing and collaboration. If you’d rather not deal with the expense and maintenance of Exchange, look into Hosted Exchange at Rackspace for easier management or Dedicated Exchange for more control without hardware and licensing investments.
Task Toolbar: Toolbars dynamically change to match the tab shown and offers only the options applicable to the selected tab. Mac users who prefer shortcuts can collapse the toolbar and use most of the same shortcuts that they’ve used with Entourage, plus a few new ones specific to Outlook for Mac 2011.
Security & Backup: Outlook for Mac 2011 uses Spotlight for search and Time Machine for backup. With Exchange, you can also send messages with restrictions to prevent forwarding or set and expiration date for access. 
Organization: Color coding lets you create categories, assign a color to the category, and make related entries from contacts, calendar, or inbox visually identifiable. No more wading through searches to find related emails, with Outlook for Mac 2011, you can reduce long email chains into a single conversation thread.  
Unified Inbox: Users can see all of their email in one view instead of switching tabs in Entourage to view each mailbox. Outlook for Mac 2011 lets you combine contacts from multiple sources into your Outlook address book.
Notifications: Like Outlook for Windows, you can set new email message notifications to display in the lower right corner of the screen. Even if you’re not working in Outlook, you can see the sender, subject, and first few lines of new messages as they arrive to determine if they need your immediate attention.

Current Rackspace Hosted Exchange customers can head to the Control Panel to download now. If you need help getting up and running, register now to join us Wednesday, March 9th for the “Introduction to Outlook 2011 for Mac” webinar or visit the Outlook for Mac 2011 section of our Support Site for FAQs and setup instructions.

Properly Identifying and Reporting Email Spam

Dave King on February 22, 2011 | No Comments

“Spam” is unsolicited email. Sending spam is illegal in the United States, but the open nature of the Internet makes it very difficult to eliminate its occurrence. Most spam is sent by botnets, networks of hacked machines that are controlled by criminal organizations in countries with looser regulations. It’s important to note that you should never click on links in spam emails that advertise services such as illegal pharmacies.

Rackspace Email employs several different spam detection and prevention systems to ensure that our customers aren’t bothered by unwanted email. Most attempted spam is blocked before it enters our email system, however, some unwanted email might still reach your mailbox.

If you receive spam with Rackspace Webmail, you can report it by right-clicking on the email within the webmail interface. By reporting the email, information is sent to our affiliate spam blockers, allowing us to better prevent spam in the future.

Not all unwanted emails are spam, though. You may have inadvertently signed up for or agreed to receive emails from a particular business. The following are three common questions associated with identifying incoming mail.

Is This Marketing Email a Piece of Spam?
Not necessarily! You may have signed up for the email list in the past; for example, when you used your email address to order a product or sign-up for a webinar. Rather than reporting these emails as spam, it is better to remove your email addresses from these lists.

All business email is required by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 to contain a method for opting out of future mailings. If you no longer wish to receive offers from a legitimate business, you should follow instructions in the email to remove yourself from the list. Typically, this is a quick and painless process.

I Have a Message Tagged [Spam] in My Inbox. Should I Report It?
If you receive a message with a subject line starting with “[Spam]“, that means Rackspace Email servers believe the message to be spam, but are not completely sure. If this message is actually spam, you can simply delete it. If it is not, then reporting it as ‘not spam’ (by right-clicking on the message in Rackspace Webmail) will help us to more accurately classify future incoming emails.

Important Email is Being Marked as Spam. What Can I Do?
If email from a particular contact is being blocked, you can add the sender to your safelist using the Rackspace Email Control Panel or Rackspace Webmail. Safelists should be as specific as possible because they allow incoming email to bypass Rackspace Email’s spam checks. Rather than safelisting an entire domain, it is best to safelist an individual user or IP address.

Current email server not accurately handling spam? Sign up for Rackspace Email to get premium spam protection. If you’re a current Rackspace Email customer, learn more about how to mange your spam settings in the Spam Filtering section of our Support Site now.