Why is Rackspace Cloud Sites discontinuing its offering of Urchin WebAnalytics™(Webstats)?

Google has announced that they will be discontinuing their Urchin WebAnalytics™product.  As of March 28^th 2012, Google has ended sales of Urchin licenses.  While the licenses that Rackspace Cloud Sites currently has in operation will continue to support the current users of Urchin Web Stats, we cannot buy new licenses for new requests. Therefore, Rackspace Cloud Sites will no longer offer new sign-ups for Urchin WebAnalytics as of April 5^th, 2012.

Google has also announced that they will discontinue support of the Urchin WebAnalytics™product. Since Rackspace will not receive support on this product, we will in turn not have access to resources which allow us to properly support this product feature. Thus, Urchin WebAnalytics will be phased out from the Rackspace Cloud Sites offering.

For your reference, here is the message from Google regarding their retirement of Urchin WebAnalytics™.

For how long will I continue to have access to my current data?

Customers who currently have Urchin WebAnalytics™enabled on their websites will be able to access the data until September 30, 2012. At that time, Urchin WebAnalytics™, including all generated reports, will be removed from the Rackspace Cloud Sites Control Panel.

What can I use as an alternative to Urchin WebAnalytics™?

One suggestion is to use Google’s FREE Urchin offspring, Google Analytics™ web analytics service, however, Rackspace does not necessarily endorse this product.  Customers are free to choose an alternative.  If you choose to use Google Analytics, we have a Knowledge Center article outlining how to setup Google Analytics™ web analytics service.

If you wish to use something other than Google Analytics, you can enable raw logs and use a 3^rd party analyzer to analyze the logs. We have a Knowledge Base article on how to enable raw logs for a particular domain. 

Does Rackspace have a recommendation for a 3^rd party raw log analyzer?

Analog, AWStats, Sawmill Analytics, Webalizer, and WebTrends are all options for log file analyzers, however, Rackspace does not necessarily endorse any of these products. Customers are free to choose their preferred raw log analyzer tool. Please note that some of the previously mentioned options are free and some are fee-based services.

Can I migrate my Urchin Software data over to Google Analytics™?

Data cannot be migrated or imported into Google Analytics™ web analytics, even if it is data from Urchin Software. In order to keep a record of historical data from Urchin Software, one suggestion is to export your historical data from a generated report into a format that you will always be able to easily access (text, .csv, or xml).

Is it possible for me to obtain raw data from my current Urchin enabled web site?

This is not an option provided by Urchin, therefore, Cloud Sites is not able to provide you raw logs. Furthermore, you can reference Google’s announcement about the retirement of Urchin WebAnalytics™.

Can I still get support for my current Urchin WebAnalytics data from Rackspace?

Absolutely! Rackspace will continue providing customers with Fanatical Support throughout this transition. If you find that your reports are not generating correctly or see a discrepancy, Rackspace can still attempt regenerate the reports from the data.

Since I am a current Rackspace Cloud customer, is there any way for me to enable Urchin WebAnalytics™on my new sites?

Unfortunately, since we are unable to purchase new licenses, Rackspace Cloud Sites will be unable to make exceptions for these requests. We recommend using one of the alternatives going forward for any new sites you might add to your portfolio.