“With Cloud Servers™ you get what you want when you need it. Make a new server for staging and four new servers for production. Delete one, create three more. You only pay for what you use”

We previously reviewed Rackspace Cloud Files last year, so we thought it was about time that we brought you our review of their Cloud Servers.

General Information

Rackspace Cloud Servers offer both Windows and Linux based systems, for this review we will be testing out a Linux server.

 Prices

The price structure is based on hold long the server is in existence for, based on an hourly period. So if you only wanted a server for a few hours you only pay for those few hours. This makes it ideal for testing or other short lived projects.

Below you will find the price structure that Rackspace have for their Cloud Servers, Linux servers are priced for just $10.95/month up to $700.80/month.

Although as you will noticed the above price structure does not include and bandwidth – this is an additional charge based on how much you use. It is priced at $0.18 per GB for bandwidth out whereas bandwidth in is free.

Our Usage

After a lot of consideration we decided to have a second cloud server running alongside our VPS.Net server. This would be the home to some of our newer websites and start-up websites. So although we will not be testing it was a great deal of data, we can test speed, uptime and ease of use perfectly.

Our Review

The sign up process is easy, we will not run through this with you as it’s just a lot of billing information etc.

The control panel is easy to use and provides all the features that would you need.

The cloud server creation is a really simple process, once you’ve clicked on ‘Add Server’ you get a list of Images to choose from. We believe that this list is growing all the time so we suggest checking which images they have ready when you sign up.

Once you select the image that you wish to create your cloud server from, you will be asked for a server name (we suggest using a valid hostname) and the size that you would like it.

You will then be sent to the cloud server control panel where after a short amount of time (will vary on how big the server is) it will build the server and you will receive an email with all the information required including password.

It’s as simple as that. You are then free to install what you want on the server (eg. Cpanel).

Onto our review…

The speed of the server seems very good, ping tests using HostTracker show that it actually performs slightly better than our VPS.net cloud server.  In general speed has been very good and we haven’t noticed any slow periods and things like Cpanel etc load quickly.

Support is one of the things that Rackspace is amazing at – for years Rackspace have been known for their excellent support and customer service, although we have not yet had to use the support as we have had no issues they provide live chat, a 24/7 telephone number and ticketed support – more than any company we have ever used. We tried out their Live Chat to see how quickly a question about the Cloud Servers was answered and they provided a detailed response in less than 30 seconds with first contact being made seconds after opening the live chat window. Excellent! For those that may not have enough knowledge to run a server themselves can pay for the ‘Managed Level’ of support where Rackspace will install what you ask etc etc, this is available at $100/month.

Overall we can strongly recommend Rackspace Cloud Servers, we have found them to be very good and we will continue to use them in the future. Thumbs up from us.

 More Information

Click here to go to Rackpace Cloud Servers

Screenshots

Around 70 per cent of Microsoft employees are working on cloud-related projects, and that figure will reach 90 per cent within a year, Mr Ballmer told an audience at the University of Washington. He said that he was “betting our company” on a move towards cloud-based software and services, and that there was “so much unrealised potential” in this sector.

“The cloud fuels Microsoft, and Microsoft fuels the crowd,” he said. “We’re all in.”

Cloud computing – the idea that software, files and services are not tied to an individual computer, but are in fact accessible everywhere, on any machine, via the internet – is a matter of increasing importance for technology companies.

Microsoft, which has traditionally earned most of its revenue from its operating systems and computer software, is keen to find ways of adapting this model for the internet age. The company has launched Windows Azure, a platform for developers to create cloud-based applications and services, and has also created online versions of popular programs, such as Word and PowerPoint.

Mr Ballmer said that although browsers lay at the heart of cloud services, the devices used to access these services really mattered. “The cloud wants smart devices,” he said, saying that the new Windows Phone 7 Series mobile operating system was designed with the cloud in mind, compared to previous versions of Windows Mobile, that were built for “voice and the legacy world”.

After his speech at the University of Washington, he sent an email to Microsoft staff reaffirming his commitment to the cloud initiative.

“Other companies have defined the cloud in a narrow, one-dimensional way,” he wrote. “Although these companies provide some interesting components, Microsoft is uniquely delivering on a wide range of cloud capabilities that bring increasingly more value to our customers.

“This view fuels our investments across the entire company, from datacenters to cloud platform technologies to cloud-based development tools and applications. Today, nearly every one of our products has, or is developing, features or services that support the cloud. As I said today, when it comes to the cloud, we are all in. We are all in across every product line we have and across every dimension of the cloud.

“Of course, there is more work to do. We have strong competitors. We need to be (and are) willing to change our business models to take advantage of the cloud. We must move at ‘cloud speed’, especially in our consumer offerings. And we need to be crystal clear about the value we provide to all our customers.

“We have an enormous opportunity in front of us. We have great products and services in the market today and a range of new ones on their way.

All of our products make the cloud better, and the cloud makes our products better.”