The service leader in Cloud computing is recognized for its culture of employee empowerment, and for rewarding ‘Rackers’ with stock options and shares of quarterly profits

SAN ANTONIO, January 19, 2012 — Rackspace® Hosting, (NYSE: RAX), the service leader in Cloud computing, today announced it has been ranked 74 on FORTUNE magazine’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” FORTUNE has named Rackspace as one of America’s top workplaces in four of the past five years. The full list and related stories will appear in the February 6 issue of FORTUNE, and today at http://www.fortune.com/bestcompanies.

“We are honored to once again be included among the great companies on the FORTUNE list, and are thrilled that our Fanatical Support and employee engagement got us here,” said Lanham Napier, CEO of Rackspace. “Our employees — we call them Rackers — make our company great.  I want to thank them for keeping the spirit of Fanatical Support alive through their commitment to our customers and to their fellow Rackers.  We are determined to preserve and improve our unique company culture, even as we grow.”

At Rackspace, Rackers make Cloud computing easy for businesses of all sizes by providing them with Fanatical Support®. Expert technicians are available to customers 24/7, by phone, email, or chat. In aseparate examination, FORTUNE ranked Rackspace 75 on the “Big Pay” List for industry-leading Linux Administrator pay, and for rewarding employees with stock options, a share of quarterly profits, and a 401(k) match of up to 6 percent of pay.

Rackspace’s culture of service and focus on employee engagement gives the company a unique business advantage.  It helps to attract customers, please them with Fanatical Support, and turn them into an army of promoters.  By the same token, engaged Rackers volunteer their best and recommend the company as a place to work. Approximately 50 percent of new hires at Rackspace come through referrals from current employees. Additionally, it is very difficult to get hired at Rackspace, which hires about 1 percent of its applicants. To help put that in perspective, Harvard University accepts approximately 7 percent of the students that apply for admission.

Underpinning Rackspace’s culture is a complex business process that the company has refined over the past decade. That process involves everything from the way Rackspace recruits and extensively interviews prospective Rackers, to the way it tests for and develops a Racker’s specific strengths, to the way it empowers Rackers to spend time and money on customer issues, to the way it measures employee and customer engagement down to the support-team level, to the way it celebrates and rewards success.

Rackspace continued to expand its global workforce in 2011.  Using first-quarter figures — the latest that had been made public when the FORTUNE survey was taken — Rackspace had expanded employment by 37 percent from the same quarter in 2010, to more than 3,000 employees.  Rackspace currently has more than hundreds of positions open in San Antonio, Austin, San Francisco, and a half-dozen other U.S. cities, as well as in Europe and Asia.  Those openings, in departments ranging from software development to tech support and sales, can be seen at http://www.rackertalent.com/

FORTUNE Survey Methodology
To pick the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Fortune partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America; 280 firms participated in this year’s survey. More than 246,000 employees at those companies responded to a survey created by the institute, a global research and consulting firm operating in 45 countries around the world. Two-thirds of a company’s score is based on the results of the institute’s Trust Index survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about management’s credibility, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other third is based on responses to the institute’s Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring practices, methods of internal communication, training, recognition programs, and diversity efforts. After evaluations are completed, if news about a company comes to light that may significantly damage employees’ faith in management, we may exclude it from the list.  Any company that is at least five years old and has more than 1,000 U.S. employees is eligible. For information on how to apply, visit www.greatplacetowork.com. 1

About Rackspace
Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack™, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has beenrecognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and has been featured on FORTUNE’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptionsprove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements thatcould be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements about historical results or third party data that may suggest trends for our business or industry; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of Rackspace for future operations or growth; any statements of expectation orbelief regarding future events, and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the items mentioned. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected growth or success may not materialize because of Rackspace’s failure to sustain a culture that inspires employees to provideFanatical Support, failure to execute on its operational plans, rapid technological changes that adversely affect the demand for Rackspace products and services, shifts in customer demand, customers’ and potential customers’ acceptance of Rackspace products and services, and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, filed with the SEC on November 9, 2011. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

1 Survey methodology information provided by FORTUNE at www.Fortune.com/bestcompanies.

Media Contact:
Natalie Silva
Natalie.Silva@rackspace.com
210-312-1673

“Rackspace provides 24x7x365 support with real people answering calls, and readily available subject matter specialists – there is a high level of human interaction involved in everything Rackspace does.  This is especially true when it comes to handling around 1 million monitoring events per month for 150,000+ customers, each expecting a personalized approach for the thousands of distinct alerts,” Rackspace Chief Information Officer Steve Mills, said. “In most situations, the obvious answer is to streamline these processes by developing workflows to automate repeatable tasks. However, this approach wouldn’t work for a company focused on providing exceptional, personalized service to more than 150,000 customers,” Mills added.

Through months of collaboration with customers and account teams, Rackspace IT gained deep insights into current and future needs of the Rackspace business and customers.  They determined that a highly dynamic automation approach – which could be modified by techs and non-techs alike – was required to support its customer service model, branded as Fanatical Support®.

The resulting system was made available to all Rackspace account teams and allowed control of the automation processes from end to end. The process structure matured into 20+ modules, which allow customers to define exactly what the process does. Capabilities were provided to allow account teams to develop and share new workflows, as well as leverage existing workflows for their own purposes.

“For 23 years, the InformationWeek 500 has chronicled and honored the most innovative users of business technology,” said InformationWeek Editor In Chief Rob Preston. “In this day and age, however, being innovative isn’t enough. Companies and their IT organizations need to innovate faster than ever before to stay a step or two ahead of their customers, partners, and competitors. This year’s ranking placed special emphasis on those high-octane business technology innovators.”

InformationWeek identifies and honors the nation’s most innovative users of information technology with its annual 500 listing and also tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies.  Top winners have included:  The Vanguard Group, CME Group, Conway, National Semiconductor, Kimberly-Clark, Hilton Hotels and Unum.  The InformationWeek 500 rankings are unique among corporate rankings as it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.

Additional details on the InformationWeek 500 can be found online at www.informationweek.com/iw500/.

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud platform. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com

About InformationWeek Business Technology Network (http://www.informationweek.com/)
The InformationWeek Business Technology Network provides IT executives with unique analysis and tools that parallel their work flow—from defining and framing objectives through to the evaluation and recommendation of solutions. Anchored by InformationWeek, the multimedia powerhouse that looks across the enterprise, the network scales across the most critical technology categories with online properties like DarkReading.com (security), NetworkComputing.com (networking and communications) and PlugintotheCloud.com (cloud computing). The network also provides focused content for key IT targets, such as CIOs, developers, and SMBs via InformationWeek Global CIO, Dr. Dobb’s and InformationWeek SMB, as well as vital vertical industries with InformationWeek Financial Services, Government, and Healthcare resources. Content is at the nucleus of our information distribution strategy—IT professionals turn to our experts and communities to stay informed, get advice and research technologies to make strategic business decisions.

List Recognizes Behind-the-scenes Influencers in the IT Channel

SAN ANTONIO, TX, June 21, 2011 – Rackspace Hosting, the service leader in cloud computing, today announced that Christopher Rajiah, its vice president of North America channel sales has been recognized by Everything Channel as a part of CRN’s 2011 “100 People You Don’t Know But Should” list.  This list recognizes individual professionals within a vendor organization who are responsible for driving the behind the scenes efforts in channel marketing, operations and sales.

The “100 People You Don’t Know But Should” are the Directors, Vice Presidents and Officers who lead their channel program without fanfare, exhibiting the strength, determination and creativity required to support solution providers on a daily basis.

“I am honored to be recognized by CRN as a person to know in the IT channel market. It is a privilege to represent Rackspace as a leader in the IT channel and continue to help grow our business through our partner community,” said Christopher Rajiah, vice president of North America channel sales at Rackspace. “The Rackspace Partner Program provides a vast portfolio of cloud compute platforms empowering our partners to capitalize on the business opportunities and extend the benefits of cloud computing to their customers.”

“I’m pleased to announce our first annual list of ’100 People You Don’t Know But Should’ by honoring the unsung leaders in the IT channel,” said Kelley Damore, Vice President, Editorial Director, Everything Channel.  This list recognizes the behind-the-scenes influencers within a vendor organization who are making a significant impact on the company’s channel program, and the channel as a whole, by working in any capacity necessary to drive profit and success. While solution providers may already be aware of a vendor’s Channel Chief, many are still unaware of the individuals behind the chiefs; the home office shot callers responsible for delivering a successful channel program. Many of these individuals lead the way without recognition, and yet they have made a significant impact in driving the success of their channel program. I’m pleased to bring attention to their contributions.”

The list has been published in print and is available online at CRN.com.

Robert Fuller has leveraged his more than 20 years of channel development experience to enhance Rackspace Hosting’s position as a leading partner of choice for cloud, managed and e-mail hosting. As the driving force behind reseller and referral channel partner sales, Fuller and his team are working together to redefine the overall strategy of Rackspace’s channel partner program. Since joining Rackspace, Fuller has successfully led the channel team to provide partners with a quality portfolio of offerings, educational tools, service and the support needed to serve as trusted business advisors to their customers on hosting and cloud computing initiatives.

This year’s Channel Chiefs were chosen based by Everything Channel editorial on criteria including policy and program innovations made during the past year, the amount of revenue their company generates through channel partners, their willingness to speak out publicly on behalf of the channel, and the number of years they have dedicated to channel activities.

“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized as a Channel Chief by CRN, not only for myself, but for the entire Rackspace Channel Partner team and Rackspace as a whole,” said Robert Fuller, vice president of worldwide channel sales, Rackspace Hosting. “We continue to develop and offer innovative channel programs and solutions that move our partners to the top of the class. We’re committed to growing our business through the channel, and welcome the opportunity to help serve our channel partners by understanding their business, their customers’ business and the positive impact Rackspace can have on them.”

Rackspace’s Partner Program has experienced significant growth since its launch in September 2009. Rackspace partners operate in a variety of industries, including IT consultants, advertising/marketing agencies, systems integrators, technology providers, distributors, VARs and MSPs.

“Being named a Channel Chief is one of the most prestigious honors in the IT industry. This year’s Channel Chiefs offer tremendous insight into the who’s who of the Channel,” said Kelley Damore, vice president, editorial director, Everything Channel. “Top channel executives consistently ensure that the Channel’s voice is heard when strategic decisions are being made and continually nurture mutually profitable relationships. We applaud this year’s Channel Chiefs for their successful partner programs and strategies.”

For additional information on the CRN Channel Chief list, visit www.crn.com. The Channel Chief list was published in the February 21, 2011 issue.

Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting is the world’s leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, and the founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud platform. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

About Everything Channel

Everything Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With over 30 years of experience and engagement, Everything Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. Everything Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about Everything Channel, visit us at http://www.everythingchannel.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/everythingchnl.

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM’s businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities – from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists – with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialists teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers ad sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information go to www.ubm.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements relating to third party data that may suggest trends for our business or industry; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of Rackspace for future operations or growth, including any plans related to the Rackspace channel program; any statements of expectation or belief regarding future events, and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the items mentioned. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected growth or success may not materialize because of Rackspace’s inability to continue to effectively incentivize and maintain interest in its channel partner program, rapid technological changes that can adversely affect the demand for Rackspace products and services, shifts in customer demand, customers’ and potential customers’ acceptance of Rackspace products and services, and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, filed with the SEC on November 9, 2010. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

###

Media Contacts:

Christina Weaver
Media Relations
Rackspace
210-312-4593
christina.weaver@rackspace.com

“We are honored to be included among the great companies on the FORTUNE list, and view it as affirmation of the culture that our Rackers have been building,” said Lanham Napier, CEO of Rackspace. “What has made us the leader in our industry is our exceptional customer service, which we call Fanatical Support. That level of service can’t be commanded. It can only be volunteered. So I want to thank every Racker for building a workplace where they can volunteer their best each day, for customers and for one another.”
At Rackspace, as featured on the full list, employees, called Rackers, help companies fix technology problems by providing Fanatical Support. In addition to the overall ranking, Rackspace was placed in the top fourteen for benefits, which includes paying 100 percent of healthcare premiums for Rackers, 32 on the small company list and 76 on the Big Pay List for industry leading system administrator pay.
Rackspace’s culture of service and focus on employee engagement gives the company a unique business advantage. It helps to attract customers, please them with Fanatical Support, and turn them into an army of promoters. By the same token, engaged Rackers recommend the company as a place to work. Approximately 50 percent of new hires at Rackspace come through referrals from current employees. Additionally, it is very difficult to get hired at Rackspace, which hires about 1 percent of its applicants. To help put that in perspective, Harvard University accepted approximately 7 percent of the students that applied for admission in 2009.
Underpinning Rackspace’s culture is a complex business process that has been refined over the past decade. That process involves everything from the way Rackspace recruits and extensively interviews prospective employees, to the way it tests for and develops employees’ strengths, to the way it measures employee and customer engagement, to the way it celebrates and rewards success.
Rackspace continued to expand its global workforce in 2010 to well over 3000 employees, and currently has more than 300 positions open globally in departments ranging from software development to tech support and sales, at http://www.rackertalent.com/

FORTUNE Survey Methodology
To pick the 100 Best Companies to Work For, FORTUNE partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America. Three hundred eleven companies participated in this year’s survey. Two-thirds of a company’s score is based on the results of the Institute’s Trust Index survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to the employee’s attitudes about management’s credibility, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company’s responses to the Institute’s Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring practices, internal communications, training, recognition programs and diversity efforts. Any company that is at least seven years old with more than 1,000 U.S. employees is eligible. The deadline for applying for next year’s list is June 15, 2011. For an online nomination form, go to www.greatplacetowork.com.1

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the world’s leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, and the founder of OpenStack™, an open source cloud platform. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. In 2010, Rackspace was recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and listed on the InformationWeek 500 as one of the nation’s most innovative users of business technology. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements about historical results or third party data that may suggest trends for our business or industry; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of Rackspace for future operations or growth; any statements of expectation or belief regarding future events, and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the items mentioned. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected growth or success may not materialize because of Rackspace’s failure to sustain a culture that inspires employees to provide Fanatical Support, failure to execute on its operational plans, rapid technological changes that adversely affect the demand for Rackspace products and services, shifts in customer demand, customers’ and potential customers’ acceptance of Rackspace products and services, and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, filed with the SEC on November 9, 2010. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
1 Survey methodology information provided by FORTUNE at www.Fortune.com/bestcompanies.