An Army Is Forming To Battle Patent Trolls
Last week, our fight against patent trolls took a big step forward, as a “big tent” meeting hosted by the Coalition for Patent Fairness swelled into a standing-room only affair featuring a number of high profile agencies eager to join the battle.

We’re Investing In Cloudant For NoSQL DBaaS
At Rackspace, our goal is to provide developers the best tool for the job. This week, we fortified our partnership with Cloudant, a NoSQL DBaaS provider that further enables us to give developers choice in which database flavor they use on the Rackspace Cloud.

Rackspace Developer Support: Fanatical Support For Your Code
This week we launched Rackspace Developer Support, an extension of our Fanatical Support specifically for developers. Rackspace Developer Support marks the first time we will officially support your application code.

Drchrono Is A Must Have App
In this week’s installment of Must Have App, we looked at drchrono, an app that streamlines the patient-caregiver experience. From electronic health records to medical billing and patient profiles, drchrono provides heath professionals and patients an all-in-one solution.

Woz On Startups
We concluded our Rackspace On Startups video series with insights from Apple Co-Founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak, who talked about Apple’s humble beginnings and offered advice to startups.

New Functionality In Cloud Servers
This week, we highlighted new capabilities in Cloud Servers: the ability to provision additional IPv4 addresses on Cloud Servers in the next generation Rackspace Cloud, and the ability to attach and detach networks from a live Cloud Server.

Check Out Our Guide To Business Email
After 13 years of offering business-grade email hosting and helping millions of customers navigate business email choices, we’ve compiled the Business Email 101 Guide, an eight-step guide to address the most common variables involved in the business email choice.

CA World 2013 Shines Spotlight On Cloud Evolution
At CA World 2013 in Las Vegas last month, we had the opportunity to share industry insight from our cloud customers and highlight our approach to helping customers with their journeys to the cloud. Here are some key takeaways from the event.

Hybrid Cloud Is Taking Hold
The hybrid cloud offers the best of all worlds. It allows you to blend the best of the public cloud with private cloud and dedicated servers into one common architecture. And RightScale’s 2013 State of the Cloud Survey confirmed that customers crave hybrid clouds.

Why Google Glass Matters To Rackspace, Developers
Google Glass is a new kind of conversation starter. It will have huge impacts on Rackspace and its business in coming years. It will also change how developers work. This week, Robert Scoble examined why Google Glass matters to Rackspace and developers.

SF Rackers Saddle Up For Bike To Work Day
This week, dozens of Rackers in Rackspace’s San Francisco office celebrated Bike to Work Day. Cycling to work has become a key component of Racker SF culture.

Don’t Ruffle Your Feathers – Rackspace Has Your Back
Downtime can upset customers. Reliable apps need a reliable cloud, and the Rackspace Cloud powered by OpenStack was created from the ground up to help make sure you stay online. Don’t let downtime ruffle your feathers – we’ve got your back.

Open Cloud Helping UTSA Obtain Tier 1 Status
The open cloud, which the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) uses to power its scientific and academic research efforts, is a crucial component of the school’s plan to become recognized as a Tier 1 university.

Good.Co: A Must Have App
This week, we kicked off a new blog series: Must Have App. The first Must Have App is Good.Co, a professional networking app built to help you find joy and meaning in your career and to help employees discover their strengths and how they fit within their role or company culture.

DevOpsDays Austin Breaks Down Barriers
Several Rackers presented at DevOpsDays Austin last week, an event that has become the must-attend conference to bring development and operations together and break down barriers. This week, we looked at some of the highlights and takeaways from DevOpsDays Austin.

New Cloud Control Panel: A Behind The Scenes Look
Want to learn more about what the new Rackspace Cloud Control Panel means for you and your business? Check out the recording of this webinar for a behind the scenes look.

Senator Charles Schumer Shows Leadership On Patent Abuse
Senator Charles Schumer of New York is helping the tech community and Rackspace in the fight against patent trolls. Next week, he’ll introduce a congressional bill that would create a new vetting process for future patent cases to help snuff out bogus lawsuits.

Rackspace At EMC World: Transforming Into The Cloud
We’re heading to EMC World next week in Las Vegas to talk about how Rackspace is helping IT leaders meet the changing needs of their internal business units. Be sure to join us for an engaging breakout session and swing by our booth (No. 527) to learn more about how Rackspace and EMC can help you transform your business into the cloud.

Rackspace Startup Program Global Startup Event Guide: May 2013
The Rackspace Startup Program is here to keep you up to date with valuable information on events and happenings inside the global startup community. Check out our list of global startup events complied by the contributors of StartupDigest.

Autoscale Survey – Tell Us What You Want
One of the ways we improve our services is by asking for your feedback. We will soon add an autoscaling service that allows you to automatically add or remove resources in response to server load. If you have an automated infrastructure, and need it to scale according to demand, we want to hear from you — cast your vote now by filling out the survey!

ObjectRocket MongoDB Now In Our Chicago Data Center
ObjectRocket, the industrial strength MongoDB database-as-a-service company that we acquired in February, is now available in our Chicago data center. You can read a detailed example of how to connect your Rackspace and ObjectRocket infrastructure over on our DevOps blog. If you aren’t already using ObjectRocket in your deployment, you can try it for free.

Rackspace On Startups: Sean Kane
Rackspace On Startups is a video series that explores insights from tech evangelists and founders – from Woz to Graham Weston. Here, Springboard co-founder Sean Kane shares his thoughts on the startup movement and how the Internet is helping entrepreneurs go global.

Here’s more good news: we have yet to show any signs of slowing down. Don’t worry if you missed out because we’re talking technology and going green in this week’s edition of the Rackspace Weekly Digest.

Cloud Monitoring Adds Server Monitoring, Graphs And More
Last fall Rackspace announced the unlimited availability of Cloud Monitoring, our highly available API-driven monitoring system that is changing how we deliver Fanatical Support. Since then, we’ve been quietly adding features and we’re continuing to unveil even more. Check out our blog post on how you can get server monitoring, graphs and more.

Rackspace Is Named A Leader In Gartner Magic Quadrant For Managed Hosting For North America
For the second consecutive year, Rackspace has been recognized as a market leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting. We had a great run in 2012: we launched a suite of new open cloud products on tight deadlines, and we migrated many customers to our new platform. This year, we’ll continue to shape the future of the open cloud by expanding our hybrid cloud portfolio.

Go From A Cloud Beginner To A Cloud Big Timer
Are you just getting started with the cloud, system administration or software development? We have a number of tools to help you go from a cloud beginner to a cloud expert. Here we explain how the Rackspace Knowledge Center, the Open Cloud Community and the Open Cloud Academy can help you become a cloud computing pro. And the accompanying video is pretty funny too.

Top Cloud Computing Myths Of 2013 [Infographic]
All of the information and misinformation around the real benefits of cloud computing is enough to make your head spin. To stop the spinning, we’ve created an infographic that will help debunk the top cloud myths still prevalent in 2013.

Rackspace On Startups: Lew Moorman
Rackspace On Startups is a video series that explores insights from tech evangelists and founders – from Woz to Graham Weston. Here, Rackspace President Lew Moorman shares his thoughts on startups and why they’re so important to Rackspace.

Let’s Build A Better Planet
To celebrate Earth Day, we launched responsibility.rackspace.com to show how we think about the three Ps: people, pocket and planet. We want to make sure that we’re building world-class practices across our business, so we publicly released our Global Energy Policy earlier this week.

The love we’re getting from Gartner is even sweeter because, while we had a great year and did pioneering work in 2012, it was tough on our Rackers. We launched a suite of new open cloud products on tight deadlines, and we migrated many customers to our new platform.

This recognition from Gartner affirms that all the hard work and disruption was worthwhile. I’m proud of the Rackers who earned this great achievement, and the customers who stuck with us. It shows that our Fanatical Support and our move to the open cloud are paying off.

The Magic Quadrant, published April 9, 2013, places providers in four distinct categories based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute: Niche Players, Challengers, Visionaries and Leaders. We believe being included in the Leaders Quadrant affirms that we’re on the right track.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting for North America encompasses hosting on physical machines as well as managed cloud. It recognizes the importance of managed hosting, which, when coupled with public cloud computing, is a cornerstone of our open hybrid cloud — and the future of cloud computing.

This year, we’ll expand our hybrid cloud to offer each customer the ideal mix of public and private cloud services and dedicated hardware, on-premise or in our data centers. This approach gives each customer a cloud that fits its specific needs — an appealing alternative to cloud providers who believe that one size fits all.

While we’re all thrilled that Gartner has recognized us in its 2012 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting for North America, we won’t rest on our laurels. We’ll remain laser-focused on expanding Fanatical Support, our hybrid cloud portfolio and the power of the open cloud.

Disclaimer:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

If you’ve followed Rackspace for a while, you’re probably familiar with our focus on people. We believe we’ve built a world-class culture focused on living our Core Values. We take seriously the importance of giving back through our philanthropic efforts; strengthening our communities across the globe; and sharing our passion around education, technology and the arts.  But did you know that our Supply Chain is one of the highest rated in the industry? I’m not bragging…ok, yes I am. We recognize the importance of who we associate with; it is as important as what we buy - our Suppliers are an extension of our business and therefore our customers. We take pride in selecting the best.

As a publicly traded company, it’s no surprise that we have high ethical standards for Rackers in our Code of Conduct and we publicly report our financials. We think of it as pocket - yours, ours and your customers’ – that’s the basics. Where we stand apart from the others in how we empower people across the globe through our solid investments in cultivating an open cloud. All clouds are not created equal; and while computing can enable the great discoveries that can change the world, we also shoulder the responsibility to drive infrastructure efficiency while reducing our impact on the environment – all at the same time. Wow, if this were Hollywood, they’d say we were the triple threat – can act, sing AND dance.

A lot of what I’ve highlighted before is the part of what makes us the Rackspace you already know and love. So what’s different?

It’s Earth Day, so let’s talk planet: Today’s the first day we’ve publicly shared our Global Energy Policy. This is a bold move, and one not too many companies do. The policy reflects how we think about energy, one of our largest expenses and our largest source of emissions. I could talk for days about our workplaces and data centers - showcasing the features built into the places that our Rackers and our customers’ applications call home – like using 30 percent Renewable Energy worldwide.

It’s all about People, Pocket and Planet. To make sure we’re building world-class practices across our business, we have third parties come kick our tires and do deep dives. We were thrilled to be named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index last fall, ranking us in the top 20 percent of companies in the world. That’s big stuff and feedback that tells us that we’re on the journey to greatness.

Oh, and one more thing: Wednesday will mark our Seventh Annual Green Day here at The Castle, our San Antonio headquarters. If you happen to find yourself near Walzem Road and Interstate 35 in San Antonio, drop by and see what we’re up to. “Ain’t no party like a Rackspace party” unless we’re celebrating across the globe – London and Austin will celebrate in their own special ways. Be sure to check back Wednesday to read Cara Nichols’ Green Day blog and see if you can guess which location will have live goats, along with goat cheese and goat soap; who will bring their dogs to work; and who will be sharing the day with chickens.

We only have one Earth. Happy (43^rd) Earth Day. Here’s to a million more! Let’s build a better planet…together.

Melissa
@GreenRacker
Sustainability

OpenStack Summit Recap
OpenStack Summit Portland kicked off this week, and nearly 200 rackers made the journey to Oregon. There, they gave tech talks and discussed all things cloud with an estimated 2,400-plus attendees. Tickets to the summit sold out weeks in advance, so if you missed out, here’s a brief recap of the week:

• Day 1: The first day of the summit saw big news from some of OpenStack’s main players. Rackspace announced that we have plans to build and launch an interoperable Global Cloud Network for large service providers and telcos.
• Day 2: We kicked off the morning by showcasing how HubSpot is using an open hybrid cloud infrastructure to power its marketing software.
• Day 3: Where will OpenStack be in 2023? Tune into our video to hear about the future of the open source cloud operating system.
• Day 4: Open Compute, a computing infrastructure that we co-founded with Intel and Facebook, is gaining momentum. Check out our blog post on how this innovative project is helping to make computing more efficient.

OpenStack Summit Portland Keynote: Rackspace, HubSpot Take The Stage [Video]
OpenStack Summit Portland has been all about the users. In this keynote presentation, Rackspace Senior Vice President of Private Cloud and OpenStack Co-Founder Jim Curry outlines how OpenStack has evolved and how the numbers show that it’s making an impact with users.

Solving The OpenStack Talent Gap
There’s an overwhelming shortage of IT talent in cloud and within OpenStack. The good news is that OpenStack-focused positions pay an average of 13 percent more than their industry equivalents. And even better: we’re hiring! You’ll want to check out this blog post if you’re looking to get hired into an IT career, or if you’re a recruiter looking for ways to find the right candidates for technical positions.

Getting More Women Involved In OpenStack
Studies show that just 12 percent of the professionals in engineering are women. At OpenStack Summit Portland, Rackspace Videographer Jacob Forbis caught up with some of the women who are making OpenStack great and who are working to get more women involved.

UTSA Uses Open Hybrid Cloud For Research and Academic
Speaking of studies, Rackspace and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have designed an advanced OpenStack powered platform to fuel academic research, computational power and big data that will revolutionize how scientists and scholars leverage the cloud. Check out this video for a more in-depth look at how UTSA leverages the open cloud and Rackspace Private Cloud for scientific research.

Abolish The Patent, Vanquish The Troll
Rackspace is just one of many companies dealing with endless lawsuits over dubious patents. Last week, we decided to break the silence and shine a bright light on the most notorious patent troll in America by suing them in Federal Court. Today, we filed a separate challenge to a patent against a different troll. Check here to learn how we’re sticking up for ourselves, the open source community, app developers and every other company in the mobile application world.

Ramping Up Our OpenStack Investment, Involvement
Our commitment to OpenStack is stronger than ever. As we head into OpenStack Summit Portland, we wanted to update everyone on our progress. From merging Cells into the Grizzly release of Nova to engaging a couple of teams in the Heat project, we’re ramping up both our involvement and investment in OpenStack.

OpenStack Summit Portland: Up Your Game With Rackspace
OpenStack Summit Portland kicks off Monday at the Portland Convention Center, and more than 30 rackers will be there to give tech talks and demonstrations. Jim Curry, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Private Cloud at Rackspace, will also deliver a keynote presentation with special guest HubSpot on Tuesday morning. Rackspace has a lot going on at OpenStack Portland. We’ll be giving away free certification exams and free swag, and don’t forget to join us on Wednesday night for a toast to the open cloud at Rackspace and RightScale’s private party. Check out the full OpenStack lineup here.

How to Install Airbrake In Your Rails App
Rackspace recently acquired Exceptional Cloud Services, the team behind Airbrake, an error reporting and monitoring tool. This tool lets you get into the guts of your application’s errors to see what is going on. Here’s a screencast that walks you through a step-by-step guide on installing Airbrake to your Rails app

Develop Mobile Apps Quickly On The Rackspace Cloud
Earlier this week, we launched mobile-ready cloud stacks. We’re also beefing up our mobile partner ecosystem and adding some well-known names in the mobile app world. By working with our partners, you can create more agile mobile applications built for the cloud. Check out our blog post on how Rackspace is changing the game for mobile developers.

Maximize ROI In The Cloud
Return on Investment (ROI) in the cloud is now more complex than IT leadership traditionally experienced. Join Stacy Williams, Rackspace Director of IT Production Support, and Rafat Shaheen, Enterprise Strategist, for a webinar on the costs, risks and benefits associated with cloud adoption. They will also be discussing a framework for measuring its return. The webinar is scheduled for 11 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, April 17.

It is sad, but true, that Rackspace is just one of many companies dealing with endless suits over dubious patents. It’s a never-ending game of whack-a-troll. What is different, though, is that we have decided to break the silence and shine a bright light on these patent-powered parasites.

Recently, we were sued by a Patent Assertion Entity (PAE) called Rotatable Technologies. Rotatable owns a patent that it claims covers the screen rotation technology standard in just about every smartphone. You know, when you flip your device sideways and the screen shifts orientation from portrait mode to landscape mode? Like nearly all the apps in the Apple and Android app stores, Rackspace uses standard functionality provided by Apple’s libraries and Android open source software to provide this display feature in one of our mobile cloud applications.

Rotatable provides a textbook case of patent extortion. One court identified how to spot patent extortion: a patent troll will file a series of “nearly identical patent infringement complaints against a plethora of diverse defendants.” (Eon-Net, 653 F.3d 1314.) Trolls do this to cast as wide a net as possible. They purposefully include companies that aren’t prepared to engage in patent litigation.

Rotatable didn’t just sue us; they’ve sued a number of companies including Apple, Netflix, Electronic Arts, Target and Whole Foods Market.

Patent trolls then follow each filing with a settlement demand “at a price far lower than the cost to defend the litigation.” (Id. at 1326.) This allows trolls to use the high cost of litigation as a club against operating companies. Patent litigation typically costs defendants between $1 million and $5 million just to stay in the fight.

When Rackspace contacted Rotatable to ask for a routine extension of time to answer their complaint, Rotatable admitted their trollish motives. Unprompted, they told us they had been instructed by their client to offer a settlement of $75,000 to anyone who contacts them asking for an extension of time. And that the number was negotiable.

As patent settlements go, that is very cheap. We also believe it is completely unacceptable.

Rackspace has decided to stick up for ourselves, the open source community, app developers and every other company in the mobile applications world. Today we filed a challenge to Rotatable’s patent in the patent office (see the petition here). It’s called an IPR, or Inter Partes Review. It’s a new proceeding made available under the America Invents Act. It gives us a chance to show why the patent is invalid and should not have been issued in the first place. Once we file the IPR, the patent holder can file a response. From there, a board of patent reviewers has a year to decide whether the patent in question is valid.

When it comes to fighting this particular troll, we believe an IPR is our best option to have this patent abolished at its source – eliminate the root, destroy the weed. We are optimistic that the patent office will agree with our petition and invalidate the patent, stopping Rotatable from attacking businesses in hopes of pilfering their hard-earned money and hindering app developers and the open source community from bringing their best every day.

IPRs can be risky and costly. We know this IPR will cost us more than the $75,000 that Rotatable wanted to extort from us. But we are not just fighting for us; we are fighting for all the app developers who are also in the line of fire. As the noted software engineer and blogger Joel Spolsky wrote, “Life is a bit hard sometimes, and sometimes you have to step up and fight fights that you never signed up for.”

Rackspace Is Taking Action Against Patent Trolls
Last week, a patent assertion entity called Parallel Iron sued Rackspace and 11 other defendants in Delaware for allegedly infringing on a trio of patents. It’s the newest in a series of 23 similar lawsuits that Parallel Iron has filed since last June. Patent trolls are a serious threat to business and innovation, so we decided to fight back and sue the troll. Read our complaint here.

Get Free Rackspace Certification For OpenStack At OpenStack Summit
At OpenStack Summit in Portland this month, we’re offering free Rackspace Certified Technician for OpenStack exams – a $200 value. Come join us and get the skills and training you need to show the world that you’re on top of your OpenStack game.

More Storage For Cloud Databases; Chartio Weighs In
We’re happy to announce that we updated the storage capacity of Rackspace Cloud Databases, which helps you provision and manage high performance MySQL instances on the open cloud. Check out our guest post from Chartio founder Dave Fowler, who explains how Rackspace makes it easy for businesses to connect to data using the cloud.

Run Like Rackspace: Continuous Updates
Rackspace operates one of the largest and continuously updated clouds in the world. Since August 2012, we have pushed over 1,500 updates to our cloud software with no customer disruption. Private Cloud Strategist Adam Dawson explains how we’ve been able to achieve true business acceleration.

True Community: Open Cloud Community Member Visits Rackspace
Last week, DeltaEchoTango became the first member from the Rackspace Open Cloud Community to visit The Rack in person at our headquarters in San Antonio. It was a memorable experience for all of us.