OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2016.  Rackspace® (NYSE: RAX) has achieved Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) DevOps Competency within the AWS Partner Competency Program, which recognizes members of the AWS Partner Network who have completed a rigorous third-party audit demonstrating their expertise in DevOps practices, tools, and proven customer success. Customers can access this expertise and 24x7 operational support through Fanatical Support® for AWS architects and engineers, who collectively hold over 270 AWS Professional and Associate certifications across the globe.

Historically, the process of deploying and managing applications has been manually intensive and customized. Manual deployment and management of applications generally leads to outcomes such as fewer release cycles, longer lead times, and unpredictable quality, all of which impact time to market and stable operations. Applying those manual and custom practices in a cloud environment negates the inherent advantage of software defined infrastructure. DevOps is the use of practices, tools and automation that can improve the efficiency of how businesses run applications in the cloud.

Fanatical Support for AWS provides businesses access to certified AWS experts who can help implement and operate workloads on AWS using DevOps practices and tooling, both from AWS and leading 3rd parties. Rackspace DevOps expertise can help customers improve the speed, frequency, and quality of their software deployments and the accompanying operational processes. Customers using the Aviator™ service receive ongoing support for native AWS DevOps tools such as AWS OpsWorks, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline and AWS CodeCommit. As an additional service, Rackspace engineers can utilize a broad range of leading third-party DevOps tools, such as Chef™, SaltStack, and Ansible to help ensure that customers have choice around their preferred DevOps toolset.

"Rackspace has been active in DevOps practices since 2012, working to help customers increase speed and consistency in their operations. We are excited to be recognized by AWS and to apply our knowledge to customers working on the AWS platform," said

Chris Cochran, senior vice president and general manager of AWS at Rackspace. "Not all customers start with a high degree of expertise in this area, but Rackspace can help these businesses continually improve their efficiency with running apps in the cloud."

For more information about Rackspace's achievement of the AWS DevOps Competency, please visit http://blog.rackspace.com/rackspace-achieves-aws-devops-competency/.

For more information on Fanatical Support for AWS, please visit www.rackspace.com/aws.

About Rackspace
Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), the #1 managed cloud company, helps businesses tap the power of cloud computing without the challenge and expense of managing complex IT infrastructure and application platforms on their own. Rackspace engineers deliver specialized expertise on top of leading technologies developed by AWS, Microsoft, OpenStack, VMware and others, through a results-obsessed service known as Fanatical Support®. The company has more than 300,000 customers worldwide, including two-thirds of the FORTUNE 100. Rackspace was named a leader in the 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, and has been honored as one of Fortune's Best Companies to Work For in six of the past eight years. Learn more at www.rackspace.com.

Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with Fanatical Support for AWS; anticipated operational and financial benefits from Fanatical Support for AWS; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions including the possibility that expected benefits from Fanatical Support for AWS may not materialize because this product is not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the product cost effectively, differentiate the product from competitive products or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, quality or compatibility associated with the product, (iii) changes in technology which adversely effect the product's benefit, (iv) slowdowns in the general economy or technology industry that impact consumer spending habits, (v) internal strategy decisions that impact the product, and (vi) other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2016. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.