* The following article recently appeared in Newsweek Japan.
Tech enthusiasts, executives and investors are always looking for the next big, disruptive technology, and they appear to have found it in cloud computing. The movement of IT hardware and software out of offices and factories and onto the web promises to deliver huge cost savings, create new business models, and threaten incumbent technologies and the global corporations that deliver them.

As with any ballyhooed tech revolution, this one is generating lots of hype and smoke. But there’s real fire underneath this trend. Companies already are using the cloud to save money and become more efficient and creative. Wider adoption of cloud computing will lead to a new burst of productivity in the world economy, including in ways not yet widely appreciated. (read more…)

Today, Lanham Napier, Rackspace’s president and CEO, was featured on CNBC sharing some thoughts about technology and customer service:

Napier: The New Edge in Tech
By: Lanham Napier, CEO, Rackspace US

Things go wrong in computing. Anyone who uses a laptop knows that. It doesn’t matter whether the computer hardware and software you use are located in your home or office, or miles away in the data center of a hosting company that allows businesses to buy computing services cheaply by the hour, the way they buy electricity. Things go wrong either way. Why is it, then, that so many of the sellers of computer hardware and software and hosting blame their customers and hide from them whenever there’s a major service glitch?

To continue reading the entire article, please follow this link.

Rackspace has experienced a service interruption during tonight’s scheduled maintenance on UPS Cluster G. We were testing phase rotation on a Power Distribution Unit (PDU) when a short occurred and caused us to lose the PDUs behind this Cluster. The phase rotation allows us to verify synchronization of power between primary and secondary sources.

All power has been restored and devices are being brought back online. The PDUs were down for a total of about 5 minutes. We have aborted the maintenance for the remainder of the evening and will reschedule this for another date.

Service to Cloud sites has been restored and we are continuing to work with Cloud sites customers to bring them online. We will continue to update the Cloud Server and Slicehost status on their respective websites, which you can access through these links:  Cloud Status and Slicehost Status.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact a member of your support team.

Sincerely,

Rackspace

On Friday, October 30th, Rackspace hosted the first ever Community Halloween Festival! Along with face painting, a pumpkin patch, bobbing for apples, pumpkin painting, and a huge obstacle course, Rackspace also created a child-friendly Haunted House made up of Racker “actors” – children were able to see mummies, werewolves, vampires, and witches. The entire event was free with a canned donation benefiting the San Antonio Food Bank.

See below for pictures of the event:

For more pictures, check out our Flickr Photo stream here.

Making eCommerce more secure and trustworthy for customers is a common concern for businesses with an eRetail component. Ensuring that your site will be able to handle fluctuating traffic is a second concern. If those sound like common dilemmas experienced by your business, we want to talk with you during the Dallas Road Show on November 5, 2009 at the House of Blues!

Rackspace Solutions Engineer Gregg Stout and Rackspace partner VeriSign will talk about eCommerce and the ways that businesses can effectively support this area of revenue generation. The topic is “Defining Security and Reliability within your eCommerce Infrastructure.”

We will also discuss topics such as the typical environment needed for eCommerce, security considerations required for compliance, and scaling a solution to handle changing volumes of traffic.

All Dallas Road Show events are free, fun and informative. We hope to see you there!

“Defining Security and Reliability within your eCommerce Infrastructure”

A Rackspace Road Show Event

November 5, 2009

4:30pm – 6:30pm

House of Blues

2200 N. Lamar Street, Dallas, Texas

To register for this event* or to see other topics during the Dallas Road Show, click here or call toll free: 888-571-8963.

*Please register for the Rackspace eCommerce event by November 4, 2009.

NewTek, a manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3-D animation products, today drove inside the walls of Rackspace’s remodeled mall to unveil the production company’s miniature live TV high definition production vehicle.

Rackers were treated to an up-close, personal look at one of the world’s first, and smallest, live TV high definition (HD) production vehicles. NewTek provides producers and artists with cost-effective and groundbreaking technologies. The company is a leader in portable live production, video editing, 3D animation and special effects tools, including the TriCasterTM product line, 3PLAYTM and LightWave 3D®.  You might have seen their products at work in blockbuster movies “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man,” “300,” and “Hancock” and in TV shows such as “Lost,” “Battlestar Galactica,” and “Fringe.”

During the unveiling, Rackers witnessed the TriCaster and 3PLAY products which included the XD300 HD portable live production system and customized MINI Cooper®.  The vehicle is part of NewTek’s TriCastsTM America Tour, sponsored by Canon U.S.A., Inc. and TodoCastTM.

Check out the event video:

One Tricked Out MINI!

The miniature HD studio-on-wheels includes a multi-camera switcher, network-style virtual sets, full HD streaming, slow motion replay system, titling station, audio mixer, three camera ISO recorder, video editing, 3D motion graphics system and more. For the NewTek TriCasts America Tour, all HD cameras are provided by Canon and the satellite system for streaming distribution is provided by TodoCast.

The cross-country tour will hit major U.S. cities from October 27 through November 17, 2009. The Mini HD unit will be in front of The Alamo on Thursday, October 22 from 10 to noon. To attend one of the events and see the live demo, sign up at www.StreamOrDie.com/attend.php.

For more information about the tour/demos, click on the following links:

• Link to tour info: StreamorDie
• Link to NewTek site and product demos: http://www.newtek.com/
• Follow NewTek on Twitter: @NewTekInc
• On Facebook: NewTek’s Fan Site
• Photos of NewTek’s visit to Rackspace:  Flickr

Today, Rackspace partner AvePoint, announced that they had enabled their award winning DocAve suite of products to be able to use Rackspace Cloud Files as a repository for SharePoint data.  This is exciting as it enables the use of a highly available, redundant storage location for SharePoint data outside of SQL server.  Once you download their software and setup a Cloud Files account – all you have to do is configure Cloud Files as a data repository in the DocAve Manager.  After that, data is seamlessly transferred to the Rackspace cloud but still managed and accessed from SharePoint.

Below you will find two videos that show a farm being restored from the Rackspace cloud and also files being stored in the Rackspace cloud but being access from within SharePoint.

Restore From Cloud

Extension Archiver

If you have any further question, feel free to contact me via email: jeff.deverter@rackspace.com

UPDATE: The Extra Life marathon was a huge success. Extra Life is still pulling in the donations, but so far they have surpassed their total from last year and have eclipsed the $140,000 mark. And The Rackspace Gaming Team had a great time doing their part. Here is the info to the money they raised so far.

Gaming for 24 straight hours can be pretty tough. Rack Gives Back helped out by donating food and snacks to keep the players energized. Still, the last few hours were pretty tough and not everyone made it, but that’s okay. The live stream was a great addition to the Rackspace Team and had up to 70 viewers online. Even a local high school student found the stream, chatted with the team and actually hopped in the public server played some CounterStrike:Source with the team.

The Rackspace Team played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Quakelive.com, Left 4 Dead, Counter Strike:Source, Prototype, Starcraft, Age of Empires, Madden, Assassin’s Creed, World of Warcraft and finished out the live stream with a wicked game of Solitaire.

So thanks to everyone who donated or contributed to this good cause!

This weekend, 15 Rackers will participate in Extra Life, a 24-hour gaming marathon to fund pediatric cancer research and treatment. Extra Life partners with the Texas Children’s Hospital and all donations are given to the Texas Children’s Cancer Center.

Extra Life was founded by Houston-native Jeromy ‘Doc’ Adams and last year (just the first year) they raised more than $120,000 from every continent except Antarctica.

So Rackers formed the ‘Rackspace Gaming Team’ this year to do their part. Their team goal is to raise $2,842. Donations start at $1 an hour. Starting at 8 a.m. CST Saturday, Oct. 17 and ending 24 hours later, these Rackers will be up all day and night playing various games on X-Box, Playstation and the PC to include Madden, Call of Duty and Age of Empires. Best of all, Rackers have set up a site to stream their marathon live so anyone can tune in and check on their progress.

So if you’d like to help by donating, just go here and make sure to check out the Rackspace Gaming Team stream this weekend.

**Update – Blake Mycoskie blogged about his visit to Rackspace – Check it out here

Today Rackspace had a fantastic visit from philanthropist and entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie. As the founder of Toms Shoes Blake shared the idea, mission, and successes his startup company has experienced with Rackers and a few community members.

About Toms Shoes:
In 2006, Blake was in Argentina and was introduced to the health and social problems presented to children in underdeveloped countries caused by lack of shoes. In many countries, debilitating diseases and school attendance can be corrected by providing children with shoes. Toms Shoes was founded in 2006 on the premise that with every pair of shoes purchased, Toms will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. “One for One” is the principal behind Blake’s work. In three years, Toms has given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children all over the world. Toms plans to give over 300,000 pairs in 2009 alone.

Blake spoke to Rackers about the importance of creating a business with the idea that you are working towards something bigger than yourself. He also enjoyed taking a tour of the Rackspace facilities and meeting several Rackers. Along with a great story, Blake provided Rackspace with a special insight.

Blake’s secret sauce? Giving people the chance to feel good about what they’re doing and success will follow.

See below for pictures of Blake’s visit:

For more pictures, check out our Flickr account here.

At Rackspace, Fanatical Support extends from a Racker going above and beyond for a customer. It also applies to Rackers and how we act toward each other. How we, as a family of Rackers, take care of each other and how our leaders listen to what we want out of our work place.

On Sunday, October 11, the San Antonio Express News named Rackspace to its Top Work Places Program. This is exciting news for us! It’s an affirmation that our philosophy is still working and we are making strides. According to Top Workplaces, this survey measures factors that deal with direction of the company, the ability of the organization to execute, opportunities for career growth, caliber of managers, workplace conditions, and benefits.

Rackspace came in 7 on the large list and was ranked third overall for having excellent managers who praise good work, care and listen to Rackers.