Rackspace Survey Reveals that Majority of Surveyed Businesses Would ‘Love To Never Have To Buy Another Server Again’

Published on November 10th, 2009 | 0 comments

The results of a survey that was released today by Rackspace Hosting highlight the growing problem of businesses struggling to cope with the demands of managing their own servers.

Majority of Businesses May be Forced to Focus IT on Maintenance Rather than Innovation

SAN ANTONIO – Nov. 10, 2009 – The results of a survey that was released today by Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE:RAX), the world’s leader in hosting and cloud computing, highlight the growing problem of businesses struggling to cope with the demands of managing their own servers. More than half of the businesses surveyed responded that they would ‘love to never have to buy another server again.’

The research underscores Rackspace’s recent launch of No More Servers, a campaign and community dedicated to a new way of buying IT which includes managed hosting, cloud computing and email hosting. Rackspace is augmenting this initiative with Rackspace.com/NoMoreServers, a location for companies to learn the benefits of hosting services.

The study, conducted by LoudHouse on behalf of Rackspace, investigated the views of more than 441 IT managers at mid-size enterprises and revealed that approximately one third of their IT staff’s time is spent on server management, which could limit their ability to focus on strategic initiatives that could benefit the business. Fifty eight percent of respondents cited the ‘hassle of managing servers’ as a challenge for their organization, while 61 percent of IT managers said ‘time to drive innovation’ was a challenge.

“IT should be an enabler,” said Lanham Napier, president and chief executive officer of Rackspace Hosting. “The survey seems to reveal that a huge chunk of time and resources are spent keeping the lights on and preventing problems. Rackspace, with its world class Fanatical Support®, can free organizations from the hassle of server management and enable their IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives that will positively impact the business.”

Other interesting findings from the survey include:

• Selfish Servers Demand IT Director Time
IT teams reported spending 60 percent of their time troubleshooting and managing servers, while only 27 percent of time is spent on strategic and value-add activities. On-site servers also cause ‘server stress’ for IT managers, who cite ‘the need to be available 24×7’, ‘hardware issues and maintenance’, and ‘after-hours calls and issues’ as the top three server management issues.

• Poor Purchasing is Problematic
More than half (51 percent) of respondents have made mistakes in their server capacity planning. Fifteen percent have bought too many servers and 36 percent have failed to buy enough. This leaves businesses exposed to the risks of financial waste and the inability to cope with user demand by not getting server spending right the first time.

• Attitudes toward Cloud Computing
Thirty five percent of companies identify themselves as ‘proactive and slightly ahead of the curve’ when it comes to describing their approach to new technologies, while 28 percent remain ‘cautious and reactive.’ When it comes to hosting and cloud computing, barriers to adoption include assurances of reliability (29 percent), evidence of cost savings (28 percent) and assurances of security (27 percent).

About the Survey
Rackspace’s survey research was conducted in September 2009 through online surveys. It involved 441 US and UK-based IT decision-makers at companies with 100–500 employees. Detailed information, methodology and the full survey report can be found at: http://www.rackspace.com/downloads/surveys/NoMoreServersSurvey.pdf

About No More Servers
No More Servers is an initiative built around a shift in the world of computing. For nearly 60 years, companies that needed computing resources had to build data centers, buy servers, hire technical talent to manage all of it, and then continually reinvest to keep up with technology. Further, many businesses were often forced to deploy, scale, patch, maintain, backup and then monitor the hardware themselves 24x7x365.

Today, Rackspace delivers fully-managed computing-as-a-service instead. Computing service, whether managed hosting, cloud computing or email hosting, gives IT teams the freedom to instantaneously turn on the computing resources that are needed and turn off resources that are not needed. Businesses pay for only what they use, which allows them to avoid massive long-term capital investments that can quickly become outdated. The expertise of IT departments can then be harnessed to focus on strategic business innovation, rather than managing hardware. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com/NoMoreServers.

Leading these efforts the company has hired Debbie Serot, vice president of brand, and renowned hosting industry strategist Andrew Schroepfer, vice president of strategy. They are helping lead the effort in showing businesses how they’ll benefit in hosting services and not get left behind by do-it-yourself IT.

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting, the world’s leader in hosting and cloud computing, is ranked #43 on Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to work for in the United States. The company’s portfolio of hosted IT services includes Managed Hosting, Cloud Computing and Email and Apps, all of which are backed with Fanatical Support® 24x7x365. 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 relating to expected trends of business relating to IT services; any statements of expectation or belief directly relating to Rackspace business derived from the survey results; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include a substantial margin of error in the customer survey results, inconsistencies in respondent’s understanding and Rackspace Hosting’s analysis of survey questions and results, the possibility that expected benefits from any future IT services offered may not materialize as expected; the achievement of expected operational results from any IT services offered may not be attained; and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s quarterly report for the second quarter of 2009 on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 13, 2009. Except as required by law, Rackspace 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.

For more information, please contact:
Angel Schneider
Rackspace Hosting
210.410.3752
angel.schneider@rackspace.com

Brooke Hamilton
Rackspace Hosting
+442087342574
brookehamilton@rackspace.co.uk

Rackspace Survey Reveals that Majority of Surveyed Businesses Would ‘Love To Never Have To Buy Another Server Again’

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