press release

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Rackspace Adds Virtualisation to IT Hosting Portfolio in EMEA

Scalable, reliable and cost effective solution through dedicated virtual servers

London – September 11, 2008 – Rackspace® Hosting the world’s leader in hosting, today announces enterprise-class support of dedicated virtualised servers as part of its ongoing virtualisation initiative in EMEA. The virtualisation platform, built on VMware’s third-generation virtualisation software suite, maximises hardware investment with better utilisation of servers through virtual machines.

The virtualisation platform will enable businesses that experience high growth or fluctuations in capacity to quickly meet these demands, by making scaling easier through rapid Virtual Machine provisioning. The service also provides easy access to a stable and secure virtualised environment and is supported by Rackspace’s brand of customer service, Fanatical Support®.

Brian Thomson, MD Rackspace EMEA said: "We work closely with our customers on the type of products they need to help their business work more efficiently, and are excited to announce a virtualisation platform that will provide greater flexibility to meet performance and capacity needs. Customers who were looking to adopt virtualisation told us that security was a concern so we have developed our virtual servers to provide protection against unanticipated traffic spikes and security breaches. This enables customers to gain all the benefits of virtualisation while reducing the associated risks.”

The virtualisation platform will be based on dedicated physical hardware for each customer and include the option of hybrid virtual and physical hosted environments. It will support mission-critical production systems and provide benefits including server consolidation, data protection and on-demand provisioning.

Adrian Palmer-Geaves CEO of Knowledge Solutions, who are already using Rackspace’s virtualisation service said: “Rackspace’s virtualisation platform enables Knowledge Solutions to deliver a seamless, scalable and secure hosting solution to our customers, particularly when they experience fluctuating traffic volumes.  We have worked closely with Rackspace for a number of years and the virtual platform allows us to offer solutions that are closely aligned to our customers’ business needs, in a competitive and responsive fashion”

Rackspace’s US operation launched a virtualisation offering earlier this year and has a number of virtual machines under management globally, using the virtualisation infrastructure for internal IT operations as well as in its cloud hosting division, Mosso® and email hosting division, Mailtrust™. Virtualisation is a highly-complex technology, but Rackspace’s team of VMware Certified Engineers provides customers with the technical expertise needed to design and leverage a virtualised system.

Thomson added: "Virtualisation is still an evolving technology, and we believe this is just the beginning for Rackspace. Our RackLabs research and development department continues to work with partners such as VMware, Microsoft and XenSource to make generational leaps in the virtualisation hosting arena.  We expect future releases of Rackspace Virtualisation Hosting to include enhanced disaster recovery, storage and scaling capabilities." 

For more information on Rackspace’s virtualisation offering, please visit: http://www.rackspace.co.uk/virtualisation

About Rackspace Hosting
As the world’s leader and specialist in hosting, Rackspace Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry’s best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support®, furthering the company’s mission to be one of the world’s greatest service companies. Rackspace featured in the top 30 of both the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For list, 2008, and the Financial Times Great Place to Work Awards, 2008. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.co.uk), email hosting (www.mailtrust.com) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com).  For more information on Rackspace Hosting please visit www.rackspace.co.uk or call 0800 988 0100.

For further information, please contact:

Kate Mills / Mital Joshi
Rocket PR
Tel: 08453-707-024
Email: kate@rocketcomms.net / mital@rocketcomms.net

Forward Looking Statements

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services, particularly our virtualisation platform; anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected benefits of this may not materialize as expected, particularly from our virtualization platform; the achievement of expected results]; and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s amended registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-150469), filed with the SEC on August 5, 2008. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.