Rackspace Email & Apps Blog

This past weekend we conducted our fifth – and most successful – Hackathon! During a Hackathon, our developers get together on a weekend to work on projects that will enhance our current services. The goal is to complete as many projects as possible during the all-day Hackathon. They meet in the morning, discuss plans for their particular project, then go to work. At the end of the day, they meet again to share their accomplishments.
We focused on some really cool projects this time – many of which have been suggested by our users. As a result of some incredible effort, you will see several great new features launched over the coming months. Here is a list of what you can expect:

• A desktop notification tool for your taskbar indicating you have new email messages
• Ability to purchase archival CDs or DVDs via the control panel
• Webmail Lite (for high latency, low speed connections)
• The ability to forward multiple messages
• The ability to use iCalendar feeds in programs like iCal, Google Calendar and Outlook 2007
• Translation of Webmail interface into Chinese
• Improvements within the Control Panel, giving administrators capability to specify which users have access to POP, IMAP and STMP

We also completed productivity enhancing projects for our developers and Customer Care team that will enable them to do even a better job supporting our customers!
It was a productive, fun, and successful day all around. We will keep you posted – via this blog – as we start launching these projects.

We are really excited to announce our latest feature…the ability to sync with Outlook. This has been one of the top requests by customers—and prospect—and we are pleased to add it to our growing list of business-class email features.
Starting now, you will be able to sync your personal calendar, contacts, and tasks between Outlook and webmail. In addition, you will be able to view and sync any shared calendars that you have enabled for your domain.
Our sync service is based on the open-source Funambol Outlook Plug-in, and is available to new customers, as well as to current customers. To get started, simply log-in to your control panel, click on “Collaboration

We uploaded Webmail Version 6.5 this week for our customers. Thanks to major changes in the backend design of certain features, customers will notice increased speed throughout webmail—especially when logging in and when launching the Compose window. Many customers have already contacted us to say they’ve noticed the improvement!
In addition to the performance gains, we have integrated the following design enhancements:

• We redesigned the Compose window, moving the buttons to a more intuitive position on the page, improving the auto-complete feature, and allowing users to compose their email while waiting for their attachments to upload.
• You can now adjust your date and time format to support European and 24-hour time structures.
• The Contacts feature now supports foreign languages, and you can add a photo image for each contact.
• Company Directories can now support aliases.

We will continue to enhance Webmail over the coming months. Keep checking our blog–and share your ideas with us via Idea Central.

Today we are making the biggest announcement in the history of our company. We are joining forces with Rackspace and we couldn’t be more excited! They have acquired us and we are now in the process of merging our two businesses. I believe this is going to be the most successful merger in the history of our industry and I am personally committed to making it just that. And if you’re a customer of ours or you are thinking about becoming one, you have nothing to worry about. There are only great things to come!
With that said, let me explain our thinking and answer some really important questions…
Who is Rackspace?
Rackspace Managed Hosting is a recognized leader in the global managed hosting market. They deliver enterprise-level managed services to businesses around the world. Serving more than 15,000 customers in eight data centers worldwide, Rackspace integrates the industry’s best technologies for each customer’s specific need and delivers it as a service via the company’s award-winning Fanatical Support™.
They serve as an extension of their customers’ IT departments, enabling them to focus on their core business. They got started in 1998 and since then Rackspace has grown more than 50 percent a year. There are currently 1,800 Rackers around the world serving customers.
Why are we doing this?

• We are committed to building the world’s most trusted provider of business email hosting. Rackspace very much believes in our mission and wants to help us make it a reality. They have done a phenomenal job of building one of the world’s greatest service companies and their experience and expertise will be invaluable as we grow our business.
• We are natural business partners. In fact, we’ve been partners for more than three years. Rackspace already hosts our entire email hosting infrastructure and has become the largest reseller of our email hosting services.
• Both companies see the world in the same way. Unlike other companies that sell technology-based solutions to businesses, we both believe that great service is what really matters. Since our inception, we’ve been committed to delivering great service to our customers and Rackspace only raises the bar. Experiencing Fanatical Support first-hand has proven to us that Rackspace is a different kind of company—one that is truly dedicated to its customers. We are eager to raise the bar as we bring Fanatical Support to our customers.
• Our cultures are very similar, which has made integration easy—and exciting! Both companies are filled with amazing, passionate people that love what they do. And you can’t deliver great service unless you have great people that love what they do!
• We believe in Rackspace. We share their vision for what email and IT hosting will look like in the future. We believe in their leadership team and their ability to execute. We love their people. We believe in Fanatical Support. And most importantly, we believe in our ability to achieve greatness—TOGETHER!

Here are some other questions we expect people to ask:

Should customers expect any changes?
Customers will only see positive changes. Rackspace is going to make a heavy investment in the mail business. This will allow us to more rapidly develop our products and services, strengthen our email system infrastructure, and bring Fanatical Support to our customers.
Since we are already hosting our entire email system infrastructure with Rackspace, our customers don’t have to worry about any type of negative impact on services as a result of this merger.
Are you still going to be a business email specialist?
Yes. In fact, we are going to maintain our own unique website and brand identity and our entire staff will continue to be 100% focused on business email hosting.
Is your leadership team going to change?
No, our entire leadership team is going to remain intact. I will run the entire mail division within Rackspace and I will report directly to Lanham, their chief executive officer.
Is Rackspace committed to serving the business market?
Yes, Rackspace is 100% committed to serving businesses, not consumers. This is another reason why we are such a good fit in the first place.
Are you going to remain in Blacksburg, Virginia?
Yes, we are going to stay in Blacksburg. However, we will now be able to leverage several locations for hiring—including Blacksburg, San Antonio, and the United Kingdom.
Do the Webmail founders view this as an exit strategy?
No way! Bill, Kevin, and I are as committed as ever. I don’t know where it comes from, but we’re so driven that it’s hard to even explain. And the level of respect that we have for the people at Rackspace only adds fuel to our fire.
Who should I contact with more questions?
Tricia, our director of customer communications is the best person to contact. Likewise, you can always email me. We’re both happy to answer any questions that you have.