Rackspace Adds Cloud Services

Rackspace Hosting continues to expand its cloud hosting offerings for enterprise customers. Today the company unveiled new services to help customers monitor their performance and equip cloud assets to connect with existing dedicated servers in a "hybrid" cloud.

RackConnect, which lets customers integrate The Rackspace Cloud and dedicated hosting, reflects the company's view that many enterprise customers will combine cloud services with traditional dedicated and managed hosting offerings. An early adopter is Major League Gaming (MLG), which operates a professional video game league with millions of users.

"We have significant scaling requirements that are being addressed very successfully with Rackspace's Hybrid Hosting approach," said Brian Corrigan, CTO of Major League Gaming. "We wanted the best of both worlds - dedicated physical hardware for our performance-intensive applications as well as the on-demand scalability provided by The Rackspace Cloud to drive our high-traffic live events. This combination allows us to continually tailor our environment to deliver the best experience for our gamers."

The new Critical Sites service provides advanced monitoring and tools for customers focused on mission-critical performance. Critical Sites is backed by an advanced SLA with double payout on select SLA terms.

"Businesses of all sizes and budgets now have access to Enterprise-class infrastructure, backed by our industry-leading Fanatical Support," said John Engates, chief technology officer for Rackspace. "The recent additions to our portfolio, including RackConnect and Critical Sites, make logical business sense for those looking for best-in-class hosted solutions as alternatives to expensive and inefficient on-premise IT infrastructure."