October 4, 2009 62 Comments

Why Rackspace Cloud is My Host

rackspace logo Just the other day, my website went down. The moment I noticed it, I tweeted to Rackspace, (affiliate link) my host. (Yes, I pinged Twitter before looking anywhere else). I said, “Dear @rackspace – my site is down. Please help.” Guess how long it took for them to respond?

Four minutes.

Maybe I was lucky. Maybe it’s because I’m “Chris Brogan” and blah-di-blah. But I don’t think so. I think Rackspace knew that Twitter is just as viable a place as any other to field customer complaints.

I am full on thrilled. They dropped me an email another 10 minutes later. In the email, they said, “We tried to call you, but got a recording saying the number wasn’t in service.” (I changed my number recently.)

Three different types of outreach in the first 10 minutes.

Oh, and the site came up pretty darned fast.

I’m fully sold on who I’d choose if I needed mission-critical support for a heavy traffic site. I’d use Rackspace cloud.

No, this isn’t a sponsored post. Rackspace does host me gratis, but I am FULLY supportive of them now that they just saved my bacon. 10 minutes? Seriously? This is who I’ll recommend to my clients.

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  • http://twitter.com/rjamestaylor Robert Taylor

    Chris,

    I was manning the Rackspace Twitter account that day (Rob La Gesse also looks after customers with me on occassion) and can confirm that you received the same treatment we give all customers contacting us — Fanatical Support is our goal. Of course, Twitter is not our “support queue” but we recognize that our customers reach out to contact us in ways they feel comfortable. And, ultimately, it was within the normal support infrastructure took over once we made contact on Twitter. But, we are available to our customers and not-yet-customers 24×7.

    So, sorry you're not really that special to us :) — that is, you are special to us, you're a customer. And for being one and continuing to trust us we thank you.

    Robert J Taylor
    Sr Sys Engineer
    Customer Advocate
    Rackspace Hosting
    robert.taylor@rackspace.com
    M: +1.210.548.5616
    http://twitter.com/rjamestaylor

  • http://twitter.com/kencamp Ken

    Chris, while it might not be a sponsored post, I do think the acknowledgment that they host you gratis is sponsorship. Thanks for continuing the openness by including that.

    I too think highly of Rackspace. If we could afford them I'd move in a heartbeat, but until we're profitable in a pretty big way, that's just not possible. They do demonstrate how a service provider can and should take care of customers every day.

  • http://www.jasonyormark.com Jason Yormark

    Great timing. Was looking for a professional grade hosting solution for my new business and it's always a crap shoot with most hosting companies never providing good support. I'll have to check these guys out. Thanks for the heads up!

  • http://twitter.com/Allisoncds Allisoncds

    Chris – Just started reading your blog a week ago; came to it today to obtain tips from the “email” post I saw earlier today only to find you've done another post on Rackspace here. Wow, Chris. You just don't stop!

    I guess if you're quick, short and adding value (which so far you are), I can handle the volume. But if you were long and deep (or rather verbose and profoundly introspective) as I tend to be when I write, then I couldn't handle two posts a day – maybe not even every day. Basically, you surprise and impress me. Keep up the good work and don't kill yourself doing it! :)

  • http://twitter.com/phototakeouter phototakeouter

    That's the sort of response I was expecting from Hostgator, because they also seemed to be so in tune on Twitter. Instead I ended up talking to a moderately unhelpful tech in their live chat, and an earnest response on Twitter came a day later.

    Think I'll be checking out Rackspace too, even though I'm not Chris Brogan or blah-di-blah haha

  • http://www.facebook.com/datagrant Gerry Grant

    Rackspace

    I have used ThePlanet for years with over one hundred web sites on the dedicated server I have. The Planet has the worst security, tech support etc of any hosting company I have ever used. I have been in the Internet business for 17 years and have used a lot of hosting companies. Over the the last few months I started getting Malware complaints. Because of this I upgraded my security support after The Planet told me they do not cover that unless I paid more. My server also started crashing and they did nothing about that. I migrated to a new server and the old one still crashes. I know this because I have asked The Planet support to cancel the old server, I have asked The Planet sales to cancel the old server. They refuse to do so and probably are still billing me. The upgraded support scanned for Malware, virus etc. Later when it was still on the server they told me they did not look for that kind and asked if I would like them to do so. This became the way The Panet support operated: If I did not ask for something specific in the right tech question or request they did not do it. Silly me I thought migrate the site to a new server meant do everything to put it on the new server and have it work. It took over one month and the old server is still crashing. They claim nothing is wrong with it so I will need to pay for the migration work. If they admit it has a problem then they could not charge me.

    My supervisor who manges my full time staff suggested using Rackspace Cloud. I guess if Chris likes it I will move. I spoke with Rackspace and it sounds like they understand that support and security is important. I have lost a lot of business because of ThePlanet and Google Adsense is blocking me. Yikes! How do I get all of the Malware warnings, Adsense blocks etc. removed? I have received an email from Adsense that all is well now and I used Google Webmaster Tools to request the Malware warning be removed. My traffic has recovered some but it is still not right and my Adsense account shows that I am banned when I try an log in.

    My conclusion is The Planet is dangerous to your business. If you are using them move before you need help and certainly do not use them for hosting.

  • eldridge2m

    Have used Rackspace dedicated server for several years and always got incredible support and no down time challenges. That's after switching from hosting company time after time because of lack of support or couldn't handle band width. Rackspace Rocks!

    Now need to try using their cloud services – thanks for the post Chris.

  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    Interesting to note that while you were tweeting that your site was down I was leaving a comment to a post and I saw the tweet and was like oh crap, I have to redo this comment? But no, I sat back for a few and when I hit the “post” button the site was up and running. Kudos to Rackspace!

  • http://www.ylitalot.com/ Juha Ylitalo

    While four minutes as response time is great, real question should be why was your server down in the first place?

  • Jinter Dint

    It is safe to say normal customers would get treated differently.

  • http://www.pauljroberts.com/ Paul J Roberts

    Gratis hosting is a sponsorship, Chris. When one of my company's sponsored personnel calls for service, they get the same service, but the urgency and attention is stepped up. As is the case with any business that does gratis or sponsored services. So, in your case I'm sure it had some influence. Great transparency and openness by including that information, Chis.

    Also, for Rackspace's credit, the multi channel communication options and the fact that Twitter got the needed response is impressive nonetheless. I don't think I would have used Twitter to file a service report with my host.

    Thanks.

  • http://chacha.com/ chacha

    they are tooooooooooooo expensive

  • http://jimsmarketingblog.com/ Jim Connolly

    I'm glad Rackspace are looking after you.

    They took hours to respond to me, when I contacted them via their 'live chat' feature, when I was trying to spend money with them.

    One of their team did eventually get in touch, via email, after I mentioned it on Twitter. Interestingly, he assumed I wouldn't be able to afford their services, so suggested I went to one of their resellers! Not sure how he figured that out.

    I'm glad your experience has been a good one Chris. They certainly understand 'social media' and as you know, now employ Scoble – as well as hosing your amazing blog for free.

    Maybe I was just unlucky.

    I would rather believe that, than believe that I was simply not important enough for them to give a crap.

    Thanks as always Chris, for an awesome blog.

  • http://joecascio.net/ JoeC

    Chris,
    Two things.

    Rackspace acquired SliceHost, a developer's hosting site, which already had a reputation for insanely good service and which continues under RackSpace ownership.

    My podcast-buddy Sarah Vela (@orchid8) recently observed on Twitter that “RackSpace Cloud would be a good name for a bra.”

  • http://lee-graham.com/ Lee Graham

    The best part of Rackspace is definitely their Customer Support. I've used at least 6 web hosting services… everything from dedicated, to shared, to vps and no one has support like Rackspace! These guys go the extra mile for EVERY CUSTOMER or potential customer, but they also have amazing services at fabulous price.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Reasonable question, but it's technology. Technology fails.

  • http://twitter.com/izznit1 Joshua Hatfield

    Hello Gerry Grant,

    If and after you come to Rackspace we can have our AUP department work with you to get the Blacklists removed. We understand that it is very important for your emails to be received by your clients – This is your business!

    If you have any questions or need any assistance please do not hesitate to tweet me.

    twitter.com/izznit1

    Thank you,
    Joshua
    Rackspace Tech

  • http://twitter.com/tonybordonaro tony bordonaro

    thanks so much …sounds like the company anyone would want to be with …

  • http://promodsharma.com Promod Sharma

    Suppose your site was down and you didn't notice. How long would it have stayed out of commission? Minutes? Hours?

    If a service fails, why can't the provider identify the problem and fix it without intervention from the customer?

    It would have been much more impressive if Rackspace contacted you with an automated response the instant your site failed (e.g., by Twitter, email, voicemail), restored service quickly and then informed you.

  • http://www.theplanet.com/ Kevin Hazard

    Hi Grant,

    Using your Twitter, I was able to track down your account in our system to investigate these issues. I don't see any current tickets referencing your reports of malware, so I contacted a supervisor in our abuse department to follow up, and she is unable to find any reference to malware reports on your domains (that I'm aware of), so please open a ticket so we can dig deeper. I'm also having trouble finding a cancellation ticket for the server you are referencing … whenever you requested to cancel, you should have been directed to Orbit where the process is completely automated.

    Additionally, I flagged your account for an Advanced Services supervisor to look into. The only recent open tickets have been monitoring alerts and reboot requests, so it doesn't look like there have been any active conversations about the problems. In an unmanaged environment, proactive administration isn't provided, but we're happy to work with you to investigate problems as they arise.

    I understand your frustration when it seems your servers are not as stable as they should be. If, when you open tickets, you feel like you aren't getting the response you need, please let me know: my email address is KHazard @ theplanet. I'll be happy to own your issues and take them wherever they need to go to get resolved.

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  • http://twitter.com/zdeptawa Zachary Deptawa

    Hi Chris,

    Thanks for the kind words about our service! I was the technician who attempted to call you and sent you the email. Most of us Rackers monitor Twitter actively to make sure everything is flowing smoothly and nothing slips through the cracks.

    Let me know if you ever need anything, I'm here to help! If anyone else needs to experience what Fanatical service feels like first hand, feel free to contact our Sales team (http://www.rackspacecloud.com). ;)

    Zachary Deptawa, RHCE
    Professional Services Consultant
    The Rackspace Cloud
    zdeptawa@rackspace.com
    Ph: +1.210.312.4716
    http://twitter.com/zdeptawa

  • http://www.charleslau.com Charles Lau

    Hi Chris,

    This post brings to my attention! Was I the one who notified you that one of your websites is down?

    No doubt about the customer service for rackspace when I was hunting for a hosting plan. They are very friendly… I will think of the Rackspace Cloud when I move on to another server! :)

  • http://twitter.com/bkocik Beau

    No it's not. I'm a “normal” customer and I get the exact same level of service.

  • http://twitter.com/bkocik Beau

    Rackspace Cloud servers start at $11/month.

  • PeopleHelper23

    I've had problems with hosting providers in the past too. There's nothing worse than a website that's down and you can't get support. I found a good comparison of web hosts available at http://theblogthathelps.com/hosting-providers-f… and it truly was a great comparison of web hosting providers. I used this site to compare all of the most reliable (and cheap) web hosting services available as of October 2009. It saved me a lot of time and I'm happy with my decision.

  • http://www.CheapSoma.ca/ Cheap Soma

    Lucky you. Why didn't I use Rackspace? Think they have someone monitoring tweets 24/7?

  • http://www.CheapSoma.ca/ Cheap Soma

    Do you think they have someone monitoring tweets? That's fast.. my host usually waits a day or two before my site gets up and running again.

  • gerardfcorbett

    Chris:

    While I understand they are hosting gratis, I would still not be so happy. I would think that Rackspace would have informed you that the site was down. Do they not have some system in place to alert them when a customer's site is down?

    Best regards,

    Gerry

  • PeopleHelper23

    I’d always recommend a reliable host, but rackspace is expensive. There are other providers that offer 99.999% uptime and cost under $4.00/month. See list here: http://theblogthathelps.com/hosting-providers-for-your-website/

  • http://twitter.com/adrielhampton Adriel Hampton

    But it did go down, right? :-P

  • http://www.websiteblaze.com/ Sean Supplee

    Dude Chris that is an awesome story! I wish my hosting company was that fast at getting back at me lol! Might have to do a little switch-a-roony here.

  • rob19

    Chris…Thanks for this information. I am fairly new to the blogging game and am planning on moving to Word Press shortly and will need a web hosting site and it sounds like Rackspace is for me. Hopefully it is not to expensive as I am just a personal blog and do not generate any revenue. Plus they are in MD like myself so that is cool also. Thanks for sharing.

  • http://www.willsloanonline.com/about/ Will Sloan

    We use Rackspace for our web and email hosting and I love it!!! When they say Fanatical Support, they mean it. This company is going to explode because their business model is totally centered around the customer. When I call them, they are cool, polite, and have never talked down to me. Love these guys!

    Scrolling down, I see Robert's comment and am blown away. These guys know how to be relevant and use the tools that their customers are using to be accessible. Robert was your first comment! The fact that they employ someone to roam Twitter and keep this kind of communication going is wicked awesome.

    I'm not gratis but I will recommend this company to anyone looking for a good host.

  • http://www.willsloanonline.com/about/ Will Sloan

    Yeah it does. I'm a System Administrator and the executives ask me these kind of questions. Why did it go down? Can't you keep that from happening? It's like a slam on my ability to do my job. My answer is always the one you gave Juha. Trusting technology is like trusting a weatherman. Always bring an umbrella. ;)

  • http://www.willsloanonline.com/about/ Will Sloan

    Nice, Joe!! LOL!! Your friend Sarah is awesome!

  • http://www.ylitalot.com/ Juha Ylitalo

    I've been sysadmin in 7×24 environments as well as building monitoring systems for those and for that reason, I would have been curious to know whether system ran out of memory, ran out of disk space (on logs for example), kernel panic, did some process start to use so much CPU that system had to be rebooted to get things under control, etc.
    While you might get away with “technology fails” response, management (or client in this case) is usually whole lot more impressed if you can at least give some kind of explanation on what the heck went wrong.

  • http://www.willsloanonline.com/about/ Will Sloan

    Hmm, I see what you mean. I don't work in a 7×24 environment so it works a little different in my world but we still make improvements like virtualization with HA and redundancy to keep the systems up and functional. In my case though these questions are asked with a different intention. They really don't care why because they have no idea how any of it works. It's more like a “we just want you to know that we know the server was down” kind of thing. Giving them an over-generalized but legitimate answer works for them. I usually tack on the end of my answer that we're making efforts to prevent it from happening again, which is really what they want to hear.

    You and I may be in two different boats but I can definitely see it from your perspective. Rackspace is a 7×24 company with clients so you raise a valid point. Most clients, like Chris apparently, just want it to work and they don't care what happened just as long as it's fixed quickly.

  • peoplehelper23

    Rackspace is good but be sure to compare other options. http://theblogthathelps.com/hosting-providers-f…

  • http://www.seotalk.gr/ George

    I have several issues with my host lately… I think i might give those guys a try. I've heard good things overall

    Thanks for the tip :)

  • livemercialsarah

    A 4-minute response time is AMAZING! I think it's great that Twitter is so versatile in it's uses for people everywhere and thank you for the interesting story.

    By the way, I just started reading your posts and so far I am loving them, they are great!

  • http://www.youngandemployed.com/ Frank

    Hey Chris,
    did you look into NaviSite SMB when you were shopping for Hosting? I'm torn between the two of them and would like your feedback.

  • http://josephrooks.com Joseph Rooks

    Rackspace is a great company if the people they acquire is any indication. They bought up a mail company here in Blacksburg a while back, called Mailtrust, and the people there are awesome.

  • Ryan

    Rack Space sucks. Softlayer FTW!

  • Moo Kahn

    Honestly – they should have pinged YOU if your site was down. If you're at RS I'm assuming you're usng a dedicated server or virtual dedicated… Any time we've dealt with RS we've used their advanced diagnostics or whatever they're calling it – ` Their NOC should be monitoring every site on your server with pings and etc. ever so many seconds, and the second one didn't respond – automatically alerted you.

  • moo kahn

    Uh… am I missing something? Why would you stay somewhere for ONE SECOND that's not taking care of you??? You “guess” you'll move now?? Don't guess.. MOVE..NOW…

  • Moo Kahn

    Bingo. Right on. I'd say if anything, Four minutes is no big deal at all if YOU had to find your site down and then contact them. The response should have been instantaneous in that case. Maybe the RS “Cloud” is different, but we used to have dedicated servers there and they'd contact us if there was an outage. They were pinging every IP and DNS every “x” seconds.

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  • http://www.zoombits.de/speicherkarten/sd-karte/182#filters sd karte 4gb

    Hi Everyone,

    My name is Daniel and I actually work with the Cloud division of Rackspace. Incoming bandwidth to Cloud Sites is indeed not charged to you. @byoung2 was spot on in that compute cycles would take effect since it would be the CPU processing time that your site used to process any incoming requests on the system.

    If you have any questions about the service then share it here.I will solve it as soon as possible.

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