The verdict
Rackspace Technology is a veteran managed hosting provider known for its "Fanatical Support" brand. It has evolved from its own data centers into a multi-cloud managed services company, helping enterprises run and optimize workloads across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and its own infrastructure.
The full picture
Rackspace built its business on a phrase it trademarked: Fanatical Support. Founded in San Antonio in 1998, it became one of the largest managed hosting companies in the world by selling the labour around infrastructure rather than the infrastructure itself, and by answering the phone when other providers did not.
The company has since repositioned. Rather than competing with AWS and Azure on raw infrastructure, Rackspace Technology now sells managed services on top of them: it will run your AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or VMware environment, handle the architecture, security, cost optimisation and 24/7 operations, and remain accountable for it. It still offers its own dedicated servers, private cloud and a managed hosting business alongside.
That makes Rackspace a services company with hosting attached rather than a host in the conventional sense. Pricing starts high and is generally quoted rather than published. For an enterprise with a complex multi-cloud estate and no desire to staff a platform team, it is a legitimate answer. For a website, it is not.
What you get
- Fanatical 24/7/365 support
- Multi-cloud management (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Managed dedicated servers
- Enterprise-grade SLAs
- Security & compliance services
- Hybrid cloud expertise
Every hosting type it sells
| Product | From | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Managed public cloud | Custom | Rackspace operates your AWS, Azure or Google Cloud environment. |
| Dedicated servers | $50/mo | Single-tenant hardware with managed support. |
| Managed private cloud | Custom | VMware and OpenStack private cloud, fully operated. |
| Managed applications | Custom | Managed hosting for specific applications and databases. |
| Professional services | Custom | Architecture, migration and cost optimisation engagements. |
Plans & pricing
- Fully managed infrastructure
- 24/7 support
- Multi-cloud options
- Dedicated hardware
- Managed OS & patching
- 99.99% uptime SLA
- OpenStack/VMware private cloud
- Dedicated account team
- Custom compliance
What the price actually costs you
- Pricing is quoted per engagement rather than published.
- Managed service fees sit on top of the underlying cloud spend.
- Contracts are typically annual or multi-year with committed volumes.
- Compare against the cost of hiring an equivalent internal platform team.
Technical specification
| Model | Managed services layered over public clouds, private cloud and dedicated hardware |
|---|---|
| Support | Fanatical Support with named teams and formal response SLAs |
| Multi-cloud | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, VMware and OpenStack all supported |
| Certifications | One of the largest pools of certified cloud engineers among service providers |
| Compliance | PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP-supporting engagements |
| Operations | 24/7 monitoring, incident response and change management |
| Cost management | Cloud cost optimisation as a service line |
| Security | Managed detection and response offerings |
| Data centres | Global facilities plus operations in customer cloud accounts |
| Uptime SLA | Contractual, varies by engagement |
Performance in practice
Performance is whatever the underlying platform provides, engineered and operated by Rackspace. The value is not speed but operational competence: correct architecture, capacity planning, patching, monitoring and someone accountable at three in the morning. Judged as a host, it is unremarkable; judged as an operations partner, it is one of the largest and most experienced available.
Infrastructure & support
Support channels
- 24/7/365 Fanatical Support
- Phone support
- Dedicated account teams
Data centers
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Hong Kong
Security & compliance
- Managed security services including detection and response
- Compliance support for PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2 and government frameworks
- 24/7 security operations centre monitoring
- Patch management and vulnerability remediation as a managed service
- Formal change management and audit trails
- Named security contacts within the engagement team
Moving a site in
Migrations are professional-services engagements with assessment, planning, execution and post-migration optimisation. This is one of the company's main service lines and is done at enterprise scale.
The trade-off
In its favour
- Renowned "Fanatical Support" reputation
- Deep multi-cloud and hybrid expertise
- Strong enterprise SLAs
Worth knowing
- Premium pricing versus self-managed clouds
- Overkill for small websites
- Longer contracts common on larger plans
Who should look elsewhere
- Individual websites and small businesses
- Buyers wanting self-service signup and published pricing
- Teams with their own platform engineering capability
- Anyone optimising for the lowest monthly cost
The company behind it
| Ownership | Rackspace Technology, publicly traded (NASDAQ: RXT) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | San Antonio, Texas, United States |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Scale | Thousands of enterprise customers across multi-cloud estates |
| Notable | Coined and trademarked Fanatical Support |
How it got here
- 1998 Founded in San Antonio as a managed hosting company.
- 2010 Co-founds OpenStack with NASA, open-sourcing its cloud platform.
- 2016 Taken private by Apollo Global Management and pivots to multi-cloud services.
- 2020 Returns to public markets as Rackspace Technology.
- 2022 Focuses on managed services across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and VMware.
Common questions
Is Rackspace still a hosting company?
Yes, Rackspace has pivoted toward managed multi-cloud and professional services while still offering dedicated and managed hosting.
Does Rackspace support AWS and Azure?
Yes, Rackspace offers managed services layered on top of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud as well as its own infrastructure.
The bottom line
A managed services company rather than a host, and a credible one for an enterprise that wants someone accountable for a complex multi-cloud estate. Buy the operations, not the infrastructure. Entirely the wrong shape for a website.