Rackspace Managed Hosting Closes Strong 2003 with Nearly Fifty Percent Growth
17 February 2004
SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 2004--Rackspace Managed Hosting achieved strong company growth in 2003 with revenue increasing 48 percent and profits before taxes growing 134 percent over 2002. Leading the managed hosting industry's resurgence, Rackspace finished the year with a record fourth quarter, growing 13 percent sequentially and delivering an annualized revenue run rate of $70 million.
"Managed hosting has been a tough business for a lot of companies the past few years," said Lanham Napier, president of Rackspace Managed Hosting. "But we've managed to distinguish ourselves by concentrating on support of our customers' enterprise applications. We're specialists, not generalists like IBM and EDS, and our customers know the difference by the attention we provide to their businesses. That's why we're the fastest growing company in the managed hosting business."
"Successful managed web hosting providers will effectively listen to their customers needs and enhance service offerings to offer more business benefit to their constituencies," said Ted Chamberlin, networking analyst, Gartner Inc. "Providing basic pipe, power and ping is no longer a high-growth business model."
The privately-held company's growth is attributed to the success of Rackspace's enterprise hosting offering, including its Intensive Hosting division, which provides managed and application hosting services on the Microsoft platforms to major corporate IT customers. Rackspace now hosts applications for 10 percent of the Fortune 100 companies. Moreover, the number of 24-month customer contracts valued at more than $500,000 has nearly tripled. Additions to the Rackspace client roster in 2003 include major enterprise customers such as The Scotts Company, the National Football League and Motorola.
Rackspace still maintains the highest customer approval ratings in the industry. Ninety-seven percent of Rackspace customers would recommend the company to a colleague.
In 2003, Rackspace introduced a range of new features and programs including business continuity services, comprehensive security offerings, and optimized network performance guarantees such as the industry's only 100 percent network availability service level agreement. Additionally, Rackspace was named Hosting Solutions Service Provider of the Year by Microsoft.
About Rackspace Managed HostingRackspace Managed Hosting(tm) is the fastest growing managed hosting specialist offering the world's only Self-Healing Network(tm), delivering 100 percent network availability. Founded in 1998, Rackspace offers a wide range of managed services for enterprise hosting platforms. The company has received numerous industry awards for its brand of customer service, known as Fanatical Support(tm), and was named in the 2003 InfoWorld 100 for technology innovation. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com, or call 800-961-2888.
