That’s right, for the third year now, Rackspace is now accepting applications for the 2009 FANATI® Award for Outstanding Customer Service. For three years now, Rackspace has awarded The FANATI to the one customer who best demonstrates ‘Fanatical Support’ when it comes to their customers.

Here at Rackspace, we’ve built a reputation based on service, known to our customers as Fanatical Support®; our anytime, anywhere, any way approach to customer service. And we know we’re not the only ones who put customer needs first. That’s why we created The FANATI in 2007 to recognize one of our customers for valuing customer service as much as we do.

The contest consists of two rounds of judging (judging by a panel of experts and a customer satisfaction survey). Customers first complete the application process located on the MyRackspace® customer portal. The past two years, the award has only been available to our Managed Hosting customers. But this year we are opening it to all US-based customers including Cloud and Email & Apps customers. Those customers will be able to access the application online here.

The other thing we are changing this year is the format of the application. No longer is it just a written application answering a bunch of questions. This year we want to make it personal and with a touch of creativity. That is why we are only accepting video applications! All our customers need to do is create a short (less than five minutes) video explaining what they do and how they exemplify outstanding customer service. It should be interesting none the less.

So if you’re a customer, and you think your customer service is pretty good…award winning even…then log on to the MyRackspace portal or click the link on your control panel, and let us hear from you.

For more information on The FANATI, click here, or leave us a comment below if you have any questions.

Today, Rackspace partner AvePoint, announced that they had enabled their award winning DocAve suite of products to be able to use Rackspace Cloud Files as a repository for SharePoint data.  This is exciting as it enables the use of a highly available, redundant storage location for SharePoint data outside of SQL server.  Once you download their software and setup a Cloud Files account – all you have to do is configure Cloud Files as a data repository in the DocAve Manager.  After that, data is seamlessly transferred to the Rackspace cloud but still managed and accessed from SharePoint.

Below you will find two videos that show a farm being restored from the Rackspace cloud and also files being stored in the Rackspace cloud but being access from within SharePoint.

Restore From Cloud

Extension Archiver

If you have any further question, feel free to contact me via email: jeff.deverter@rackspace.com

We are sure happy to welcome GitHub to Rackspace. I have gotten to know the founders of GitHub over the last year, and there is no question this is a team and concept that the world should not ignore. We are excited to support them as they continue to deliver great services to the developer community.

It goes without saying that in reaching out to them one of my intentions was to get them on our cloud.

I was surprised to hear a few months later that they were eager to move to us, but they didn’t want cloud, they wanted primarily dedicated servers. Here is true leader of the new era of computing, a team born in the cloud era, and they wanted dedicated gear? What gives?

Well, here is how they describe it in their blog:

“We’ve grown to a size where it no longer makes sense to have every server virtualized. The benefits of running bare metal are obvious and have been empirically proven. We need to have the option to run bare metal when it is appropriate to the task at hand. We also need to be able to configure boxes with custom setups.”

There are really two cloud debates going on right now. One, is simply about the era of buying computing over the web vs. building it in house. This is what we call the cloud movement and it is real and has serious implications. We truly believe 99% of companies in the world can move faster, save money, and perform their IT better by using a computing partner. The next debate is about the specific tool now being called “Cloud.” These are pooled services, powered by software allowing for real time provisioning and very granular pay for use. We think of these as cloud technologies. All this jargon and cross talk has caused much confusion.

We think the Github decision is a great example to use to try to share our views on it. So:

One, we do think most companies going forward will buy computing not run it themselves. No capex, no inventory, no lock in. Github is not interested in having a DC and all the headaches that go with it. In fact, they have never really even considered that option (what startup today would?). We are discussing this movement daily on our site nomoreservers.com.

Two, while this strategy could be called using “the cloud” there is no doubt in our mind that companies will choose from a variety of services based on the workload they are dealing with. They will not just use Cloud technologies like our Cloud Servers or Amazon’s EC2. They will use traditional technologies as well as even higher level services, like SaaS. Why?

Well, here is how we think about it:

If you see these tools as a continuum of prescribed technology deliver on demand, they set up a series of trades. The trades are pretty simple:

The Github team faced this exact trade. As they grew, they needed the ability to customize every aspect of the stack by using physical machines. This is not to say they don’t believe in the Cloud technologies. Later in their post they say:

“On-demand access to a cloud infrastructure will be important to us as we increase the number and variety of low-frequency but long-running jobs that we process.”

The “Cloud” is a part of the computing strategy for Github. As it should be for any company. There are workloads where it is a perfect fit. Other workloads will need other tools. So, as the cloud era picks up steam, the discussion about all or nothing decisions of using one tool or another should be ignored. The key for any IT department is to figure out where the tools match their needs based on the workload they are deploying. Follow the lead of Github.

Do you want to know what we’ve been up to lately? Then check out NoMoreServers.com. This new site is dedicated to the emergence of Computing-as-a-Service models (like hosting, cloud computing and SaaS) to power corporate computing. To support this mission, we’ve put one of our newest Rackers, former founder of Tier1 Research, Andy Schroepfer, in the captain’s seat to cover the trend as companies move from in-house computing to “cloud” providers.

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.

Rackspace held a System Administration breakfix contest at the 2009 Red Hat Summit in Chicago pitting the top Red Hat Certified professionals against each other for the chance to win prizes and win bragging rights. During the two day contest, forty-seven participants worked to solve the four identified “breaks” within the fifteen minutes allotted. The problems, listed below, were chosen as representative of issues Sys Admins in a hosting environment must be able to resolve on a daily basis. The contestants who resolved the most problems in the shortest times respectively won first, second and third place.

With encouragement from @devrandy, Randy Russell, the Director of Certification for Red Hat, there was quite a heated competition among the contestants for the top three spots. The winners respectively won one of three prizes: 1st Place, an Acer Aspire 5155; 2nd Place, $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate; 3rd Place, 8GB USB drive. Our winners were:

1st Place – Alex Davies (also a Red Hat 2009 RHCE of the Year!) – 4 correct solutions in 12 minutes

2nd Place – Hai Wu – 3 correct solutions in 15 minutes

3rd Place – Dave Johnson – 3 correct solutions in 15 minutes

Of the forty-seven contestants, only Alex successfully solved all four problems in the allotted time. Thirty-two correctly solved Problem One. Eleven solved Problem Two. Three solved Problem Three and four contestants solved Problem Four. Congratulations to our winners!

Rackspace Trainer Mike Roberts (@soopurman on Twitter) provides a multi-part screen cast of the four challenge questions and provides insight in troubleshooting and solving each. Below, Mike’s screen cast is broken into segments for each problem in the challenge. These are interspersed with the actual questions from the breakfix challenge for reference. Mike begins with a brief introduction to the breakfix:

Rackspace Breakfix Challenge Instructions

This exercise is meant to approximate the types of problems that Rackers solve for our customers with Fanatical Support every day.  As such, the idea is that you should attempt to detect and correct any possible misconfigurations, but not drastically alter the basic setup, nor replace the actual services being used.

We will give you up to 15 minutes to complete the following problems. When you are finished, ask a Racker to record your name, the problems you fixed, and your completion time.  On Friday we will award prizes for the fastest successful completion of all challenge problems.  Good Luck!

1. The IP address 192.168.0.253 is accessible by others on the network, but this machine cannot succesfully ‘ping’ it.  Figure out why and fix it.

2. This machine is supposed to offer both anonymous vsftpd and anonymous rsync services, but clients are complaining they cannot connect to either one.  For example, the command “rsync rsync://localhost” should display a share called “challenge” but it does not.  Figure out why and fix it.

3. The default page of the web site running on this machine is supposed to simply display the word “success” but it does not. Figure out why and fix it.

4. The password for the user named “rack” is correctly set to “rackspace” but this user still cannot login.  Figure out why and fix it.

Mike concludes the presentation of the solution to the breakfix challenge with a special invitation to System Administrators who may want to pursue this kind of activity on a regular basis:

For more information about Rackspace and available careers  please visit our Career portal: http://RackspaceCareers.com.

Last week we briefed some key partners and customers on our view of the emerging world of on- demand computing, including some plans around our offers. 

We want to share with you some highlights. 

We firmly believe the era of on-demand computing is upon us.  Over the next decade, we predict the de facto model of consuming computing will not be from an in-house server farm but over the web via on-demand computing providers.  Why?  Well, given the new tools and services associated with cloud hosting  and more mature models like dedicated hosting and SaaS (software as a service), the options to get all your computing over the web have become vastly more affordable and flexible than in-house alternatives.  We encourage you to examine the benefits of a “no servers” approach to your business, instead opting to get computing services as you need them. 

Over the coming months, you will see a lot from Rackspace to help make this transition super compelling.

We gave a sneak preview of a few focus areas: 
1. We are moving all our services under the Rackspace brand.  We will continue to have 3 distinct service areas:  Managed Hosting, Cloud Hosting and Email and Apps.  We have focused, dedicated teams working to build out the best of breed offerings in each of these areas, but we believe that most companies will want to use services across all 3 computing services.  Different workloads require different tools and we want to bring you the best for all your core computing needs.  While full integration does not exist across all 3 offers, we will be moving in that direction over time.  But, you can be assured you are dealing with Rackspace and our trademark Fanatical Support® standard will be a part of each offer.

2. The first area of integration surrounds what we call Hybrid Hosting.  Imagine having core systems in a managed environment with dedicated equipment and firewalls for security, but behind the firewall access to unlimited cloud resources on-demand for your web and application tiers.  Or private connections to the cloud to offload data for warehousing and computational work.   Well, it is coming.  Stay tuned.

3. We are also very focused on advancing our Cloud Servers product quickly.  We have had great traction on an offer that includes persistent storage, DNS services, auto resizes and other easy to use tools.  But, we are a missing a few things.  One is API’s: As you may know, we’ve recently released the API spec for public comment – after all, the people using the spec should define it. We’ve received great feedback on it already (thanks!). It will be released to the public in July and you can expect a lot of cool partner tools quickly. Two, what about Windows?  Half the market simply cannot use Cloud Servers.  Well, Windows for Cloud Servers is officially coming.  Our plans include offering fully supported Windows.  We want to offer high performance Windows that supports the latest OS and database builds and also meets Microsoft’s supportability standards.  Achieving this high bar comes with some complications which is causing our longer timelines.  But, the work is underway.

4. Finally, we have big plans for our Apps and Email division.  We are currently supporting over 1.2 million business class email seats.  We continue to build out the best Exchange-IMAP hybrid email system that brings huge saving to our customers.  But, we are also moving on to the next core IT problem.  We want to help businesses solve their basic storage issues.  So in the coming months you will see a few new offers from us.  One, an advanced, but low cost mail archiving offer.  So whether you are sick of managing large PSTs or need a compliance tool, giving your employees unlimited archiving will soon be an affordable option.  Next, we plan to offer a variety of tools to help with basic collaboration and backup.  Every business needs a basic fileshare.  A centrally managed, infinitely scalable fileshare is on the way.  And, want to offer your employees an automated PC backup and web access tool?  Stick around. 

We are very excited about these and many other projects in the works.  We hope this collection of on-demand services will help you say no to your next server purchase.  We plan to remove the burdens of technology lock in, slow lead times, expensive build-outs, and unsupported technologies.  We are just getting started.  Keep the feedback coming!

We constantly ask our customers what else we can do to help them.  There is one theme that comes up more than any other: Help me grow my business!  While this strays from our core of offering on-demand computing services, today we are pleased to announce something that should help.  

Robert Scoble, Rocky Barbanica, Rob Lagesse and team today launched Building43.  Check it out here.
The goal behind this new community is very simple.  As the Internet grows, it gets more useful, but massively more complex.  How is a business supposed to make sense of all the new tools launching every day?  TechCrunch, GigaOm, Mashable, CNet and many others are all focused on making you aware of these tools, but who is helping you figure out how to actually USE them?  Who can help you, as a businessperson, integrate these tools and drive real results?  Well, that is what Building43 is all about.  The stories up today are just a taste of what is to come.  Mark Zuckerberg talking about how he thinks businesses should use Facebook.  Graham Weston and Tony Hsieh talking about how great service matters even more in the web era and how they use technology to enhance it.   If you find this useful, please join this great new community.

When we announced the hiring of Robert and Rocky this Spring, we were not sure where exactly we would end up.  But, we excited to offer some fanatical insights on using the web to grow your business.  Please engage in the community.  Share your ideas.  Tell the world what has worked for you.  Meet others with your same problems.  Together let’s grow the next generation of the web.

Over the past two years, Rackspace Hosting® has witnessed some exciting times. We went public at a time when no one thought any company could do it. We launched The Rackspace Cloud, and our Cloud Strategy. We also acquired three companies, including Mailtrust , Slicehost and Jungle Disk all focused on providing solutions complimentary to the Rackspace vision.

All amazing activities in a very short amount time, no matter how you look at it. Many of you may be asking why? Or wonder what Rackspace is up to and where the company is headed?

Well, I can’t answer all of those questions today, but I hope to provide you a glimpse into where we are headed. There are some changes you may have seen on Rackspace.com and additional changes regarding our product branding.

I am excited to announce as of today, all of our Managed, Cloud and Email hosted offerings will now live under the Rackspace brand. So moving forward Rackspace’s core brands will include Rackspace Managed Hosting, The Rackspace Cloud (Mosso) and Rackspace Email (formerly known as Mailtrust), all of which are of course backed by Fanatical Support.  

We have also integrated the navigation of our Web properties to make it easier for our customers to find the specific information relevant to their business needs. As you look over our web site, we hope you will find it easier to navigate and that information is presented in a more cohesive look and feel. We would love to hear your feedback.

While the brands are moving under one umbrella, we continue to believe in the power of small entrepreneurial teams focused on building world class offers, while also leveraging the resources and brain trust of the larger Rackspace community.  While total integration is not complete, we will be working to enhance that over time.

You will be hearing more from Rackspace in the coming weeks as we provide more details about our future. Keep an eye out for more on Rackspace.

Please feel free to provide us with your feedback and ask any questions you may have. We will take your feedback seriously and answer your questions promptly.

So, it’s come to our attention that there’s a sweepstakes scam out there involving a fraudulent check from Rackspace. We repeat – this is a scam. Ignore it. Don’t call the claims agent. Don’t try to cash the forged check. This is not a legitimate sweepstakes and Rackspace has no involvement in it, whatsoever.

This is how it unfolds. People are receiving a forged check supposedly from Rackspace and are told they have won a prize through a sweepstakes entry. All they have to do is contact a claims agent and pay taxes upfront on their winnings to claim their prize. Those that pay the taxes never see their prize because their prize never existed.

The fact that scammers are using the Rackspace name to take advantage of people is regrettable and upsetting. We just hope that no one has fallen prey to them.

If you’ve been affected by this scam please contact the Federal Trade Commission. You can reach them in a couple of ways:

- Visit their website: ftc.gov
- Call them toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261

If you received a notification through the mail, you can report the scam to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service by phone, toll-free, at 1-888-877-7644 or by email at www.uspsoig.gov.