Rackspace® is Europe's fastest growing and most successful hosting company. Since 2001 Rackspace has been hosting and supporting mission critical websites, internet applications, email servers, security and storage services for over 4,000 customers.

Rackspace is totally focused and experienced in managing hosting solutions' for customers, from simple web servers to complex online applications and email solutions. We help our customers forget about their online infrastructure through providing Fanatical Support® for their hosted applications.

Fanatical Support is their unbeatable level of customer service. Rackspace employees are available 24/7/365 to meet and exceed customer's expectations. Customers get fast responses to critical issues, unlimited technical phone support, access to our huge online knowledgebase, guaranteed 100% network uptime and many other business-critical support features. It might sound too good to be true, but it's not. It is what happens when you Experience Fanatical Support from Rackspace.

By outsourcing your hosting to Rackspace, you get the peace of mind that your hosting environment is being looked after by the experts, whilst alleviating the pressure on your own IT department. We take away those IT hassles, all those day to day IT tasks and projects you really don't want to focus on. The implementing, updating, troubleshooting, patching, monitoring, administering, backing up and storing, upgrading and every day support - all becomes our responsibility. Couple this with our Fanatical Support and you know that it'll be taken care of by the experts with a unique passion to get things right for customers.

Once you have Experienced Fanatical Support from Rackspace, you won't accept anything less!

Reasons to choose Rackspace for the hosting of your mission critical website:

• 100% network uptime guarantee
• 1 hour hardware fix
• 24/7/365 Technical Support
• Fanatical Support® - our no excuses, no exceptions, expert support
• Specialists in hosting solutions meaning we know all there is to know about hosting and quite often spot and correct problems for customers before they know about them
• Great experience in Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Linux operating systems (Microsoft Hosting partner of the year 2003, 2005 and 2007; and the first Red Hat Premier hosting partner in Europe)

Rackspace Fanatical Support®

Fanatical Support is the Rackspace unique customer service philosophy.

Rackspace is different to many other hosting providers in that we are a service orientated company. It is our goal to be the best service company your business has ever interacted with. Our customer service philosophy, Fanatical Support® has won much industry recognition, the latest of which is being voted the UK's best service company in the Unisys/Management Today Service Excellence Awards 2005.

The Rackspace core values reflect the importance of customer service in the Rackspace culture:

• Fanatical Support in all we do
• Results first, substance over flash
• Embrace change for excellence
• Passion in our work
• Keep our promises
• Treat Fellow Rackers like friends and family

For customers, Fanatical Support means that Rackspace employees are available 24/7/365 to meet and exceed our customer's expectations. Every customer gets fast responses to critical issues, unlimited technical phone support, access to our huge online knowledgebase, guaranteed 100% network and infrastructure uptime and many other business-critical support features.

To make this vision a reality, Rackspace concentrates on three key areas to ensure that the Fanatical Support tradition ensures - namely People, Systems and Processes.

Rackspace Fanatical Support Promise

Rackspace goes one step further in guaranteeing to deliver Fanatical Support by cementing it in our contracts according to five key criteria Responsiveness, Ownership, Resourcefulness, Expertise and Transparency. If we do not live up to our customer’s expectations then we will take remedial action to rectify that, and if a customer is still not happy then we’ll even let them leave before their commitment is up, but we’re sure it’ll never come to that.

Service Level Agreement

Zero-Downtime Network™

We guarantee that when not undergoing scheduled maintenance, the network infrastructure will be available 100% of the time in each month.

Network availability means all network infrastructure including routers, switches and cabling is working. The Network infrastructure is defined as the portion of the network extending from the outbound port on your cabinet switch to the outbound port on the border router. Services or software running on your servers are not counted as part of the network.
Downtime begins when an interruption is recorded in our monitoring system or a trouble ticket is opened saying that you can't transmit and receive data (whichever is earlier). We will open a trouble ticket within 15 minutes for emergency tickets.

In the event that Network infrastructure availability should fall below 100% in a given month due to our fault, and this failure directly and adversely affects your hosted environment, we will refund to you 5% of your monthly recurring charge per half hour of network infrastructure downtime (up to 100% of the monthly recurring charge) for the affected component(s).

Hardware

We guarantee all Hardware components will function properly and will rectify or replace any component with a fault at no cost to you. Hardware is defined as the server chassis, processor(s), memory, storage devices, motherboard, power supplies, and network interface cards. This includes faults in Hardware due to failures in power and HVAC infrastructure including UPS, PDU and cabling. This guarantee does not apply to the time required to rebuild a RAID array, reload the operating system, reload and configure applications, and/or restore from backup (if necessary).

We will begin fault resolution once we identify the problem component. Fault resolution is guaranteed to be complete within one (1) hour of problem identification by us. In the event of a hardware failure which causes an outage in your hosted configuration, failed hardware is guaranteed to be repaired or replaced within one (1) hour of problem identification by us.
In the event that we should fail to replace hardware within one hour of problem identification due to our fault, and such failure directly and adversely affects your hosted configuration, you are entitled to 5% of your monthly recurring charge per hour of additional down time beyond the first one hour after problem identification (up to 100% of your monthly recurring charge) for the affected component(s).

This SLA does not apply for any month to the extent that service credits arise as a result of your breach of the AUP or if you are in material default of payment.

Client Testimonials

Click here to find out more.

B2B communications specialists, Base One Group uses intensive dedicated hosting to save time and money and concentrate on the award-winning creative business for which they are well known:

"100% network uptime, 1 hour hardware replacement and a passion for hosting that borders on the fanatical. Little wonder that they brand their Support as 'Fanatical Support®" - Roland Jones, IT Director, VUE

"We chose Rackspace as our hosting partner because of their incredible culture of honesty, quality of service and shear ability to cope with a demanding site like ours..." - Tom Bennett, Head of Marketing, Confused.com

"Out of all the companies that submitted full tenders one clearly shone out above all the others - Rackspace!" - Lieutenant Colonel Frank Tipton, British Army

"Nothing has gone wrong with any of our sites - in fact Rackspace seems able to foresee any issues before they happen and contact us with a solution prior to a problem manifesting itself! The hosting runs like clockwork and having one thing less to worry about is a real benefit for me. I would not hesitate to recommend Rackspace to any company that is looking for very reliable managed hosting with flexible contracts and Fanatical Support®." - Andrew Holmes, Manager E commerce and Customer leads, Renault

Want to join them? Just start a live chat with one of our sales assistants on www.rackspace.co.uk
or ring us on 0800 988 0100

Rackspace Awards and Expertise

As the fastest growing hosting specialist in Europe, Rackspace is recognised time and again for excellence in service and innovation. These awards and recognition clearly demonstrate Rackspace's commitment to going beyond their customers' expectations when delivering customised hosting solutions.

The Sunday Times Best Small Companies to work for 2007

Rackspace were accredited with 2 stars by the best companies which recognises Rackspace as an outstanding place to work. Rackspace was one among just 106 companies in the UK achieving this accolade.

Microsoft Hosting Provider of the Year

Rackspace was named by Microsoft as the winner of the Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions Partner of the Year in the annual Microsoft Certified Partner Awards 2007 . The Partner of the Year Award in Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, Hosting Solutions, recognises the top Microsoft partner delivering market-leading, Microsoft-based solutions. Rackspace were also winners of the award in 2005 and 2003.

Red Hat Premier Hosting Partner

As staunch supporters of open source and the open source community, Rackspace has developed a partnership with Red Hat and we're the first Red Hat Premier Hosting Partner in Europe.

Microsoft Gold Certification

Rackspace received the Microsoft Gold Certification Partner accreditation for its expertise in Microsoft Hosting, making it one of only six Application Infrastructure Providers (AIPs) in the world with this top tier designation.

Why Hosting?

Hosting is the new way of managing your computing needs. It is the alternative to doing it yourself or completely outsourcing, both of which can be expensive options for a company. Hosting is an attractive alternative because it has lower costs and doesn't involve a high initial capital investment incurred by doing it yourself, whilst also giving greater control and flexibility than completely outsourcing operations.

Alternatives to Managing IT Systems and Computing

Do-it-Yourself:
Do-it-yourself is an approach to managing IT systems where a business retains complete ownership and responsibility for maintenance and support. Companies may choose to house their IT systems in their own facilities or may use a co-location vendor for data centre space and network access.

Outsourcing:
Businesses may also choose to outsource their IT systems and computing operations. Outsourcers typically provide an end-to-end, custom solution for their customers. The outsourcer also assumes responsibility for management of a customer's IT systems, computing operations, and employees.

Hosting:
Hosting providers offer services to support IT systems and computing ranging from simple to very complex. The equipment required (servers, routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, cabinets, software, wiring, etc.) to deliver their services is typically purchased and managed by the hosting providers. The Hosting provider is set up for and experienced in, the delivery of hosting solutions with expert support staff available to resolve issues as quickly as possible. Customers also benefit from the often large network capabilities of hosting providers, as well as the economies of scale of their infrastructure, with the costs spread across their client base e.g. back up and storage infrastructures, making it a more affordable option.

Rackspace® offers a full suite of hosting services, including dedicated hosting, managed hosting, and email hosting , as well as emerging services such as platform hosting and cloud hosting.

Click through to our hosting section to find out more.