AUSTIN, Texas – April 26, 2010 – Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX) , the world’s leader in hosting and cloud computing, has joined forces with Spiceworks™ to allow small and medium businesses (SMBs) to manage their Rackspace email hosting services through the free Spiceworks social IT management application. The integrated systems simplify the jobs of SMB IT professionals by allowing them to monitor and administrate Rackspace cloud email services within the Spiceworks IT management interface, rather than launching a separate portal.
The relationship with Spiceworks allows Rackspace to extend the functionality and reach of its hosted email services, including Rackspace Email, Microsoft Exchange or a hybrid of both, through the use of Rackspace’s APIs that are available to customers and partners interested in integrating with the Rackspace cloud email platform. For Spiceworks, the integration is part of an ongoing effort to provide SMB IT professionals free management capabilities for their on-premise, cloud-based and hybrid IT infrastructures.
“Managing IT today means more than just taking care of the computers and software within the four walls of your company,” said Scott Abel, co-founder and CEO of Spiceworks. “Already, over 25 percent of SMBs rely on one or more cloud-based services to keep their organizations running, and that number keeps growing. By working with Rackspace, we’re simplifying the jobs of IT professionals by giving them the ability to manage both their on-premise technologies and cloud-based services through a single integrated IT management application.”
Spiceworks will support the management of Rackspace’s cloud email services with the following key features:
- Email Usage – shows the current status of a company’s Rackspace cloud email services, including the top 5 email users in the organization, the status of available licenses vs. used licenses, and the number of Blackberry and Active Sync accounts.
- Account Management – provides users with a full list of the domains they manage with Rackspace, including the total number of mailboxes per domain. In addition, resellers can access information on the customer mailbox accounts they manage with Rackspace.
- Email Account Monitors – provides alerts when an individual mailbox nears its capacity limit. For example, when free space is below 5 percent or when it’s less than 50MB.
- Community – Rackspace cloud email users will have the opportunity to collaborate within the Spiceworks social IT management application and community of 950,000 IT professionals who currently use Spiceworks to manage over 31 million email accounts.
“Both Rackspace and Spiceworks are committed to creating the best experience for our customers and making IT simple and affordable for businesses,” said Jim Curry, VP of Corporate Development at Rackspace. “Through our relationship with Spiceworks, we’ll provide a new avenue for nearly 1 million Spiceworks customers to integrate and manage the Rackspace cloud email platform within their IT.”
Rackspace offers a full suite of cloud-based applications including email, collaboration and storage solutions. Rackspace hosts more than 1.6 million paid email accounts through its email platform that includes Rackspace Email, hosted Microsoft Exchange and a hybrid offering of the two services all backed by Rackspace’s 24×7 Fanatical Support®.
About Spiceworks
Founded in 2006, Spiceworks™ develops the first free social business application that combines systems and network management and help desk software with an online community of IT professionals to help over 950,000 IT pros and 85,000 managed service providers (MSPs) simplify everything IT. Spiceworks makes it easy for businesses to manage their networks, collaborate to solve technology problems, and find the best practices, products and services they need day-to-day. Through its Voice of IT™ market research program, the company enables direct conversations with IT professionals, conducts surveys and provides insight on important technology usage, staffing and purchasing trends by small and medium businesses worldwide. Spiceworks is a privately held company headquartered in Austin, Texas with funding from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures. For more information, visit www.spiceworks.com.