Everyone can agree that IT is going through a shakeup due to the recession, the cloud, and outsourcing. How can a CIO deal with these changes?

Rackspace CTO, John Engates, proposes three steps:

1) First, acknowledge the need for change.

Next, answer these two provocative questions posed by The Standish Group.

2) “Are you working on the right things?”, and

3) Are you doing them in the right way?

Managed hosting and the cloud are shifting IT jobs from routine maintenance to a strategic focus on delivering value to the business. Despite some dire predictions, executives realize that IT is a vital element of any successful business. The real question is not how to downsize IT, but how to improve IT strategy, performance, and ROI. Managed hosting and the cloud can help CIOs do more with less and contribute to the strategic success of the enterprise.

To read the full version, click here.

Or to download, click here.

On July 1st, www.WebHostingSearch.com named Rackspace “One of the Good Guys of Web Hosting.”  This site serves as a repository of hosting information for companies in the market for hosting providers.

“More than 100,000 businesses trust their websites with hosting from Rackspace. It probably goes without saying but this wouldn’t be so if it wasn’t for them being “good guys”,” said www.WebHostingSearch.com.  “People working for Rackspace have a true passion for delivering quality services (unlike some other providers that just want to make a quick buck or two). Support is friendly and we are sure that you’ll be pleased if partnering up with them.”

Check out this posting where Rackspace’s Dusty Simoni talks about what sets us apart.

As the world’s service leader in hosting, being recognized for our work is always nice to hear. Dusty talked about OpenStack, gave some examples of who our customers are and of course Fanatical Support®. And in true Fanatical spirit, when asked to pick one song to represent Rackspace, Dusty chose none other than ‘Lean on Me’ by Bill Withers.

If you could pick one song to represent Rackspace, what would it be?

This webinar will demonstrate why email marketing should be “the last place to cut budget,” and how iContact can help you reach your customer acquisition and retention goals. In this webinar, you will learn how email marketing:

•Is an easy and cost-effective marketing channel

•Doesn’t replace your other marketing channels, but compliments them

•Helps you engage with customers and connect with them–when done right

Webinar Details

Date: Thurs, June 16
Time: 11am CDT

Click here to register.

We want to keep our entire customer base as informed as possible about IPv6, so we will be posting Q&As and announcements both here and on the Rackspace IPv6 Deployment & Readiness Headquarters site. From the time we initially started talking about IPv6, to our last roadmap update, we’ve already heard from many of you directly, and your questions are very helpful, so please keep them coming.

Question: How long will Rackspace run IPv4, before transitioning completely to IPv6?

Answer: Offering IPv4 is essential for our customers to connect to IPv4 end-users. Given the worldwide depletion of IPv4, Rackspace is working to sustain our own IPv4 space so that we can continue to provide IPv4 addresses to customers who have technical justification.

In terms of the IPv6 transition, our deployment strategy is to offer dual stack (both IPv4 and IPv6) globally across our data centers starting in mid-June. With this, you’ll need to consider when you would like to be dual-stack, not just IPv6 only. For dual stack, we’re taking care of the data center network and implementing IPv6/dual-stack compliant products and services. However, being dual stack means you’ll probably have to make some changes to your configuration before the IPv6-only date. Though many OS, network and server products introduced in recent years have IPv6 support, many technology segments have lagged behind in terms of IPv6 development. If you haven’t upgraded your firewall, load balancer, operating system or database in several years, you may need to do so for IPv6 compatibility. If you are a Rackspace customer and have questions about your configuration, please contact your account team for more information.

While we are working hard to make sure that our customers have IPv6-compliant options throughout the IT stack, we also encourage everyone to examine your applications for IPv6 compliance. Most common issues with application readiness are related to hard-coded IPv4 addresses.

As an industry, many companies, including Rackspace, are working on and testing translation technologies to make sure that end users can access content regardless of whether they are IPv4 or IPv6. While these technologies come with caveats and have potential for improving, providing translation, like IPv6 to IPv4, will help smooth the transition and allow you to test for IPv6 compatibility and make whatever production changes you need to make, more at your own pace.

Question: Can I host my current site on both IPv4 and IPv6 in tandem in the cloud?

Answer: Cloud Servers will support dual stack later this month. Existing Cloud Server customers wanting dual stack capabilities on current slices will need a migration. As we have more details, we’ll post them on our blog and on the Rackspace IPv6 Deployment & Readiness Headquarters site. In the meantime, you could use a tunnel broker to do some initial IPv6 activities.

Question: Does Rackspace support full IPv6 site hosting?

Answer: There can be many different interpretations of what “full IPv6 hosting” means. The issue at hand is whether existing IPv4 end users and IPv6 end users can get to your web sites. If you run an IPv6-only site, you are cutting off all IPv4 traffic (a vast majority of all end users). To make sure all end users can get to your content or store front, you must be dual stack (both IPv4 and IPv6).

Others may use “full IPv6” to mean “native” IPv6 or IPv6 connectivity, in addition to IPv4 connectivity, without tunneling or translation. Answering in this context, Rackspace will offer the ability to have native dual stack connectivity to customers who request it and are running IPv6-compatible configurations.

For more information, news, and resources on the IPv6 transition, visit the Rackspace IPv6 Deployment & Readiness Headquarters. If you have specific questions, contact your support team or account rep. You can also send an email to ipv6@rackspace.com.

We’re at the Citrix Summit 2011 where we announced the launch of Rackspace Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD), which brings together our hosting services (dedicated, cloud and RackConnect™) with desktop virtualization solutions from Citrix and joint channel partners.

Check out this video where Citrix interviews Chris Zagorski, Rackspace Product Director of Enterprise Services, regarding Rackspace HVD.

Also, take a look at the Citrix blog where Scott Lindars discusses the benefits and opportunites with Rackspace HVD.

Take a test drive for 30 days. Click here to learn more.

Authored by Robert McAden, Email & Apps Senior Product Manager

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed most about my job is talking to customers and hearing how our hosted Rackspace Email and hosted Microsoft Exchange product offerings have relieved them of the headache of hosting their own email servers and having to worry about things like spam, blacklis ting, etc. That’s why I’m excited to be part of the team that is bringing a very special offer to our hosted dedicated and cloud server customers from SendGrid, a Rackspace Cloud tools partner, to relieve the headache of transactional email delivery.

Transactional email includes password reminders, sign-up verification, and online purchase receipts – email that is critical for businesses and their customers. However, on average 20% of legitimate emails never reach the intended inbox. SendGrid takes care of the infrastructure and deliverability while providing customers real-time analytics such as delivery, open, and click through rates. Integration with your applications is easy through SMTP API, Web API, or even simple SMTP relay. In other words, fewer email headaches for customers.

Here is what two SendGrid customers have to say:

“We’re extremely happy with SendGrid. It was simple to configure and has given us great insights into how users view and use Gowalla emails. We don’t have to worry about scaling during periods of increased email volume, and we can focus on making Gowalla awesome without pouring time and effort into email configuration. SendGrid just works, and it works extremely well.”

- Adam McManus, Gowalla Senior Operations Engineer

“SlideShare used to handle email inhouse, and we did it right (with feedback loops and bounce processing and all the rest of it). It’s *really* complicated: you don’t want to do it yourself if you don’t have to. After switching to SendGrid, our email open rates are way up, and our operations team has more time to focus on other issues.”

- Jonathan Boutelle, SlideShare CTO

Much like our hosted Rackspace Email and hosted Microsoft Exchange platforms replace in-house mail servers for routine business email needs, SendGrid replaces outbound email infrastructure for transactional and even marketing email needs. SendGrid is also taking advantage of Rackspace’s infrastructure to provide an incredibly scalable service capable of handling their growing customer base. To date, SendGrid has delivered over 10 billion emails on behalf of more than 24,000 customers.

So yeah, I’m very excited to be part of the announcement that Rackspace has teamed up with SendGrid to provide SendGrid’s Bronze Plan to Rackspace hosted server customers free of charge! This Bronze Plan includes:

• Delivery of 40,000 emails each month;
• Access to the SendGrid SMTP/Web API, analytic tools, and;
• SendGrid support

Click here to learn more.

If you’re like other IT managers, you’re probably ready to embrace the power of cloud computing but still need to evaluate which cloud architecture is right for your business. To help you get started, you’ll want to sign up for the upcoming webinar, The Optimal Cloud: Finding the Business Cloud Architecture That Works For You, next Wednesday, April 27th 10am PDT.

In this webinar, experts will be discussing the benefits and downsides of various cloud architectures and how you can apply this to your business. You will learn:

• How to balance the use of public clouds with infrastructure behind the enterprise firewall
• The benefits of local, on-premise cloud computing across a number of vectors such as security, uptime, and access and
performance
• The benefits of using public cloud resources in your business, such as scalability, performance and redundancy
• Understanding migration, integration and administration impacts of various cloud architectures
• How to optimize cloud architecture to meet the needs at both the functional and line of business level

Click here to register.

Wed, April 27th, 10AM PDT/1PM EDT.

__________________________

Did you miss the last webinar, Creating the Cloud Ready Enterprise? If so, click below to see the recording:

]]> http://www.rackspace.com/blog/the-optimal-cloud-part-3-of-the-gigaom-pro-rackspace-webinar-series/feed/ 0 http://www.rackspace.com/blog/solving-the-documentation-dilemma-with-sharepoint/ http://www.rackspace.com/blog/solving-the-documentation-dilemma-with-sharepoint/#comments Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:26:39 +0000 Angela Bartels http://www.rackspace.com/blog/?p=2220 Information workers in large enterprises waste 35% of their time searching for information – and fail to find what they need up to 40% of the time, according to the Knowledge Network. As a result, intellectual capital is underutilized, duplicate documents are created causing confusion, and productive time is wasted.

Large, decentralized IT organizations are often plagued with numerous silos of information, multiple software platforms from multiple vendors, and strict security and regulatory requirements that apply globally across many sites. This makes it difficult for end users to find the files and documents they need to be productive amidst a web of disjointed systems.

This represents one of the best use cases for SharePoint in large and growing organizations – the ability to centralize information and processes.  A task that may require a user to open up multiple applications, can be streamlined into SharePoint for a single point of access to required documentation and task completion.

Solved with SharePoint

Take a look at some ways you can use SharePoint to streamline file management and processes.

Example 1:
A project is started that includes many departments and stakeholders. Typically, project documents are held on a file drive, tasks are managed in a separate project management system, and communication is made via multiple emails. This leaves participants accessing multiple systems to work on the project.

With SharePoint, project documentation, task assignments, progress, and communications are centrally accessible.  SharePoint also provides other communication tools, like wikis, discussion boards, and dedicated space to record and store meeting notes, to organize project elements.

Example 2:
Confidential or internal documentation needs to be reviewed and edited by multiple parties can be cumbersome and risky. The process would normally involve emailing the document around, gathering and incorporating edits, and then sending them back around for final approvals. During the process, the document could be emailed to unauthorized parties and leak important business data or an overlooked message could cause delays.

Documents stored in SharePoint can be assigned permission levels so that only authorized users can access, edit, or distribute a file. The workflow features in SharePoint automate the process of gathering and merging edits and securing approvals into a single-application process drawing on familiar Microsoft Office programs, like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Example 3:
Files on network drives are often moved for archiving or organizational purposes. When this happens, users may not be able to locate needed files because the directory location or file name have changed.

Using the document ID option in SharePoint, you can assign a relative id to a document that remains the same regardless of the document’s location. SharePoint even uses rules similar to Outlook to allow documents to be stored in certain locations based on metadata. The latest version of SharePoint includes search improvements to help structure data and deliver specific, contextual results so users can find the content they need faster and more accurately.

These are just a few ways SharePoint can ease document and project management while increasing productivity.

SharePoint Options from Rackspace

Once you’ve determined where you can best implement SharePoint, you have options on how to deploy. Rackspace offers two choices based your business size, technical ability, and customization needs.

Dedicated SharePoint – Installs SharePoint on to a dedicated server. Because it’s on dedicated hardware, you have the ability to customize your deployment to your specific organizational needs. Enterprises with large data sets and heavy security requirements are ideal candidates for this option. Dedicated SharePoint is available for SharePoint Foundation, SharePoint 2007, and SharePoint 2010.

Get detailed information on Dedicated SharePoint on our website or explore more ways you can use Dedicated SharePoint in our Hosting Knowledge Center with how-to videos, articles, and on-demand webinars.

Hosted SharePoint – Delivers SharePoint service via a SaaS model. This lets you get up and running fast with a pre-configured, fully functional SharePoint system. As a shared, hosted service, the level of customization is limited. The hosted option is a great way for SMBs to get started with SharePoint and for organizations managing light-to-medium file repositories.

Learn more about Hosted SharePoint. Access our Support Site for on-demand Hosted SharePoint webinars and instructional articles.

In speaking with corporate customers, I’ve witnessed the load on corporate IT departments steadily grow. Is your team being asked to do more with less? Over the last five years, the pace and scope of business have increased, as well as the regulatory and compliance requirements placed on corporations. That leaves corporate IT teams responsible for doing more with shrinking budgets, less staff, reduced ability to invest in R&D, while being more diligent about existing requests for IT resources and new requests for IT projects.

The Corporate IT Dilemma

Corporate IT takes time. Corporate-level IT often involves huge capital investments that can take years to deliver ROI. And, most businesses don’t purchase the necessary resources for a projected IT project until all the elements are in place. Before the IT procurement process even begins, a project’s business case, development, staging, and testing phases must be signed off on and packaged. Once all of the requisite pieces are in place, then the IT team has to execute in the midst of all of the other projects in their pipeline. With so many emerging technologies requiring new expertise, often the IT team is not only smaller, but also less experienced. All of which puts even more pressure on the modern corporate IT team to do more with less.

How to Do More with Less

There is an easier way. Technologies, like virtualization for faster deployment and new cloud-based deployment options can be implemented to support business processes and alleviate the workload for strapped IT resources. By employing a tier one hosting provider, corporate enterprises can consume IT outside of their four walls with the same control, security, and reliability. Depending on the internal IT department’s abilities and resources, some hosting providers can provide the same or better availability, security, and data retention policies.

To speed the time to implement new technology projects and processes, corporate IT needs to move toward a services portfolio that encompasses all of the available options in the marketplace – internally and externally. More and more business managers and owners are going outside of corporate IT to meet their business needs. That means corporate IT must embrace a portfolio approach that incorporates hosting into the existing services portfolio.

Using a Services Portfolio

Here’s how you can incorporate a services portfolio into your IT process:

1. Create the Services Portfolio – This document should encompass physical hardware, applications, and service solutions and target service levels. Using the portfolio, we can take a dashboard or score card view of current and new projects. The scorecard generates three choices for discussion.
2. Survey Program/Business Managers – Share the choices with managers to give them an opportunity to help make the final selection. In the past, IT has been responsible for making that final choice. However, with the consumerization of IT, technology decisions should give the consumer, the business owner or manager, a voice in the final decision. By offering a limited choice of three versus 30 choices, stakeholders can evaluate and participate in the process without being overwhelmed by information. The results can help you assess if the selections in the services portfolio meet business needs.
3. Further Research – Once an option is selected, continue gathering information around the specific choice.
4. Build Specific Action Plan – Roll the final survey results up to the project source for implementation. This source may be your internal IT team or an external hosting vendor for SaaS, PaaS, IaaS depending on the results and feedback of the survey.  At this point, the source can then begin to put an action plan in place to meet the specified need.

By using a services portfolio to explore all available options, corporate IT can help speed the time to implement new technology and identify the best internal or external solutions for resource-heavy projects.