Rackspace Launches Cloud Drive

Rackspace Hosting, Inc. announced a set of new product offerings that help businesses move their IT applications into the cloud. The new offerings from Rackspace include Rackspace Cloud Drive, Rackspace Server Backup, and the upcoming release of Hosted Microsoft SharePoint (expected to be released in December 2009).

These new products help customers to spend less time maintaining basic IT systems, such as file servers and data backup software, and instead focus on their core competencies that drive revenue and add business value. By putting these apps in the cloud, Rackspace is able to provide businesses with its award winning Fanatical Support® and a compelling value proposition.

“Most every business needs to send emails, share files, and backup data. But these systems are costly and complex to manage in-house,” said Pat Matthews, general manager, Rackspace Email & Apps. “The cloud presents a great opportunity for businesses to save money and work smarter. We believe that we are helping our customers gain competitive advantage by putting these apps in the cloud.”

Building on the momentum of its cloud-based email offerings, which include over 1.5 million paid-subscribers, Rackspace is now expanding into collaboration and backup applications that will help customers put more of their foundational IT software in the cloud. The new products mark a critical step toward more aggressively competing in the software-as-a-service market, enabling customers to achieve a server-less IT environment.

“This announcement is an important one for our business, as it highlights both the success of our existing email solutions and our expansion into additional business applications that can bring substantial cost savings to our customers and reduce complexity in their IT environments,” said Lew Moorman, president of cloud division, Rackspace Hosting. “More and more businesses are moving their critical applications to the cloud, and we can help them to achieve that goal.”

Rackspace Cloud Drive
Rackspace Cloud Drive is a cloud-based, online file storage application that allows individuals and teams to store, share, and backup files. With Rackspace Cloud Drive, customers can:

• Store and share files between employees.
• Access and manage data from inside and outside the office, without any additional hardware.
• Synchronize desktop folders with a cloud-based network drive across one or more computers.
• Backup data to the Rackspace Cloud and restore data in the event of a hardware failure.
• Protect data with AES-256 encryption using a key controlled by the customer.

Rackspace Server Backup
Rackspace Server Backup is a cloud-based, online server backup application designed to protect your file server data. With Rackspace Server Backup, customers can:

• Backup server data to Rackspace Cloud Files for peace of mind.
• Manage data remotely using any Mac, Windows, or Linux PC.
• Protect server data with AES-256 encryption using a key controlled by the customer.

Rackspace Cloud Drive and Rackspace Server Backup are powered by technology from Jungle Disk, LLC, a Rackspace subsidiary acquired in 2008.