Websites & More Chooses Rackspace For Their Dedicated Servers
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| Why We Use Rackspace:
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| Rackspace Managed Hosting provides the world-class infrastructure necessary to maintain your
dedicated Web servers 24x7, and, while other providers are closing their data centers, are continuing to add to
ours! We currently have over 60,000 square feet of data center space. We operate our US data centers out of San
Antonio, Texas, and Herndon, Virginia, and our European data center is located in London, England. All four of
our data centers have been engineered to avoid any single point of failure in our connectivity, power, or HVAC.
And because our data centers are not open to the public, you can rest assured that only a handful of highly
trained, level-three technicians will be allowed within close physical proximity to your server. |
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Physical Security
The data centers are physically isolated from everyone but level three
technicians. Public access is strictly forbidden. Access to the data
center floors is restricted to those holding Rackspace military-grade
passcards. Furthermore, access to the data centers themselves is
restricted by Biometric hand scanners.
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Location
San Antonio is an ideal location for our primary data center because of the absence of natural disasters. San Antonio is on the most seismically stable soil in the US. In fact, San Antonio is one of only two places in the US that Lloyd's of London will underwrite for earthquake insurance. Additionally, the absence of hurricanes and tornadoes make the Rackspace
San Antonio data center the perfect location for your mission-critical
data.
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Conditioned Power
Power systems in Rackspace data centers are designed to run uninterrupted even in the unlikely event of a total power outage. All servers are fed with conditioned UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) power that will run if utility power fails. The UPS power subsystem is N+1 redundant with instantaneous failover in case the primary UPS fails. In the event of an extended power outage, an on-site diesel generator can run indefinitely. The generator is regularly tested to ensure that it will continue to function in the event of an emergency.
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A Precision Environment
Rackspace data centers are meticulously tidy. All air is circulated and filtered every 90 seconds to remove dust and contaminants. The data center's HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) system is N+1 redundant to ensure that - even in the event of an entire HVAC system failure - there is a duplicate system on standby to take over. An advanced fire-suppression system is in place to prevent any fire from spreading - in the unlikely event that one could start. All cables to servers and routing equipment are securely tied down, and cable racks suspended from the ceiling provide dual routes for all cables. In the event that all cables on a cable rack are cut or burned, packets of data will automatically be routed to a second set of cables on the other side of the data center.
The Rackspace network has been engineered from the ground up to accommodate the high-availability demands of the Internet's most popular websites. The data center and network have been optimized for outsourcing webservers. Please take a look at our Network Providers page to see the redundancy of the Rackspace network.
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Connectivity
Rackspace utilizes connections to multiple backbones to ensure that data reaches the end-user in the fastest, most efficient manner possible.
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BGP4 Routing
Rackspace runs the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP4) for best case routing. Rackspace is a member of the Cisco Powered Network Program and our entirely switched network employs Cisco GSR 12000 class routers running HSRP (N+1 hot failover) to ensure that data can be routed even in the event of a router failure. The BGP4 protocol is a standard that allows for the routing of packets of information sent out from the Rackspace network. Each packet of information is evaluated and sent over the best route possible. Because of our redundant network architecture, packets may be sent via alternative routes even if they are being delivered to the same end user. Should one of our providers fail, packets leaving our network are automatically redirected through another route via a different provider.
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Guaranteed Packet Delivery
Rackspace pays our providers to make sure that packets of information are delivered to the end user's eyeballs. This offers significant advantages over simply peering with the major backbones. Peering agreements rarely include Service Level Agreements (SLAs) so no one is accountable for lost packets at congested exchange points. Because Rackspace actually has SLAs with all our providers, we are able to guarantee that all packets will leave our network at full speed.
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Bandwidth Utilization
The Rackspace network currently has plenty of excess capacity, even during peak hours. This allows for us to accommodate even the largest spikes in traffic that are often associated with the most popular Web sites. We are always adding network connectivity and new routes in an effort to make sure content is delivered to your users as efficiently as possible. A low bandwidth utilization also allows for maximum uptime, even if one of our providers has an outage... just another reason to outsource your server to Rackspace.
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Network Providers
We work closely with leading telecommunications companies to build and maintain our world-class network. Peering partners are also included in this section. Click here to view our Network Providers.
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