Reaping the Rackspace Rewards - A Business Testimony from a Cloud Perspective
June 28, 2014
Reaping the Rackspace Rewards - A Business Testimony from a Cloud Perspective
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Software Version
Rackspace Cloud Servers
Overall Satisfaction with Rackspace
Rackspace is, and has been, a cornerstone component of our business solutions and service offerings. Utilized both as an underpinning of our own internal operations, Rackspace Cloud Servers has also served as direct extension of our business to address a wide range of client-specific data center applications and storage requirements. Scalable, secure, redundant, compliant and cost-effective... all backed by the highest level of always-on support we have ever received within this highly competitive and ever-evolving market. Simply put, for much of what our consultancy does? Rackspace IS our business!
- Flexibility: Rackspace affords complex topologies, independent storage scalability and distributed workloads. Mix-and-match to meet our client's specific use-cases keeps us competitive.
- Consistency: having used multiple providers at various times for various reasons, one of the more striking differences in the cloud servers market in our findings is the consistency of service. While at times other players achieved some higher level benchmark testing, these were typically short-lived - Rackspace has provided us the most confidence in "getting what we are paying for/expecting to achieve"
- Service and Support: these days, it almost seems like this area has become cliche. As an extension of the above technical "Consistency", the levels of Support at Rackspace allow our business the confidence to do what we do best: solve technology problems, unabated and undaunted. While I have been exposed to industry competitors smirking at Rackspace's "Fanatical Support" moniker, it has been this industry-leading, platinum-standard level of support by Rackspace that has allowed our business to pursue service and solutions areas without blinking. This would not have been possible for us with other vendors; again, Rackspace has always delivered for us as if they were members of our own organization - they made it their business to be in our business!
- There is a little too much homogeneity of hardware in my opinion.
- Could use some advancements in auto-scaling, reserve/spot pricing, external storage, reserved IPs.
- Control Panel: while we have seen much improvement to the Rackspace c-panel, this should be seen as an area where the company continues to commit itself to further enhancements - the palatability of the end-user is often overlooked, but human nature will default towards ease-of-use and intuitiveness every time. Keep at this!
- Lead conversion: we are able to meet client needs immediately both from those presented to us without warning, as well as those we actually seek out
- Efficiency: regardless of our internal technical prowess, Rackspace allows us to solve technological problems for our clients, instead of fumbling around attempting to manage our own.
- Repeat Business: our clients return to us for continuing technology solutions challenging all businesses every day; the confidence in returning client business finds its foundation in the positioning Rackspace affords us in what we can, and cannot, offer.
- Amazon Web Services,Linode,Slicehost
It is not a habit of mine to really demarcate lines in the sand of one service provider versus another; each has worthy merits and while there is some benefit to the exercise and some examples that are illustrative and enlightening, use of one product/vendor over another most often is simply a matter of determining a solution that fits a particular use-case. Most often, however, Rackspace offers entirely too much, top to bottom, in addressing the majority of needs and requirements that looking elsewhere only confirms why we chose them as a foundational element to our business in the first place. Price (albeit this does fluctuate and does become flat in the market), Innovation, Performance, Security, Scalability, Support. Using other providers, I always feel like we are outsourcing our business services and solutions; with Rackspace, I always fee like we are keeping them behind our own firewall.