Rackspace to Host SPIN Magazine Website

HostReview.com
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; 09:00 AM

Rackspace Managed Hosting announced an agreement with SPIN magazine to host the magazine’s public-facing Web presence, Spin.com, which attracts over 250,000 unique visitors per month with exclusive content including breaking news, album reviews, photo exclusives, audio and video clips, free downloads and more.

SPIN’s Web site, developed on an open source platform, is a key revenue generator for the publication and requires a high-availability environment. Spin.com’s infrastructure was originally managed by SPIN’s IT team in a colocation facility.  This hosting arrangement consumed a great deal of the team’s time maintaining infrastructure uptime and scalability rather than ideally focusing on their core IT functions of Web design and development.

When SPIN decided to outsource its hosting needs, the company considered multiple options, but specifically sought a hosting provider with a specialty in enterprise Linux to deploy the solution quickly and guarantee uptime. SPIN soon settled on Rackspace’s Intensive Hosting for Enterprise Linux to take advantage of the company’s deep knowledge of open source in the enterprise. Rackspace retains more Red Hat Certified Engineers on staff than any other managed hosting company and has received numerous awards for its Linux expertise and service excellence including Linux Journal’s “Readers’ Choice Hosting Service Provider” for the past three years.

“Our enterprise-class Linux service platform is robust enough to meet the needs of SPIN’s high-traffic Web site and also flexible enough to address scaling needs as their Web opportunities grow,” said Glenn Reinus, senior vice president of worldwide sales, Rackspace Managed Hosting.  “Our team works hand-in-hand with SPIN’s IT department, not only on daily infrastructure issues, but also providing progressive planning and consulting for long-term technical requirements.”
 
Rackspace provides SPIN with a fully-managed hosting solution comprised of multiple Dell Power Edge servers running Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server, a MySQL database along with a managed firewall and backup. SPIN leverages Intensive’s advanced custom monitoring services to gain a 360-degree view of the health of its hosting environment and rely on Intensive’s consultants for both strategic long-term and tactical near-term technology planning.

www.spin.com www.rackspace.com