LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM–(Marketwired – December 15, 2014) – Rackspace® ( NYSE : RAX ), the #1 managed cloud company, today announced that the iconic wine merchant Oddbins has begun using Rackspace Managed Cloud services to power its website as it stocks up ahead of the festive season and beyond.
Oddbins, the well-known brand of UK high-street wine shops, has upgraded its eCommerce infrastructure to a Rackspace dedicated solution, which is, according to Oddbins, five times faster than the one its previous vendor provided. The new solution offers a managed web application stack, enhanced security and the unmatched performance of a bare metal server to support the firm’s ambitious growth plans for 2015, by the end of which it aims to have doubled website sales.
The technology comes with access to Rackspace 24/7/365 expertise from a team of specialists, which has given the internal team peace of mind that the website will perform to a high standard so they can focus on business goals such as expanding from the 45 stores currently occupied to over 100 by the end of next year.
Oddbins decided to change its eCommerce strategy so that these targets could be achieved, which involved looking for a new hosting provider after facing a number of challenges when working with the previous vendor. One of these problems occurred when a bottle of wine from the Oddbins range was featured on television. As several hundred viewers visited the Oddbins website to buy the product, they were unable to add it to the online shopping cart due to a problem with the infrastructure and many sales were lost as a result.
Tony Duffy, E-Commerce Manager of Oddbins, says: “We had lost confidence in the website’s performance reaching the standards we expect, especially when dealing with spikes of traffic around the holiday period. This created two significant problems. One is that we lost revenue due to customers being unable to make purchases and the other is reputational damage caused by these negative experiences.”
The top three requirements that Oddbins looked for from a new hosting provider were: strong support, the capability to roll out a solution quickly and enhanced security. The support and fast provisioning were important so that the eCommerce team could start preparing for upcoming traffic spikes straight away knowing that implementation issues could be fixed without taking up much resource. Using a robust, secure solution was the other top priority because when working with the previous hosting provider, an attack on the website caused it to go down. Each of these requirements is closely identified with a Rackspace bare metal solution, so it represented an ideal solution for Oddbins.
Duffy adds: “Almost immediately, the enthusiasm and efficiency shown by the Rackspace team restored my confidence in the website being something we could be proud of while supporting our plans for growth. In the past, it was down to us to think of ideas on how to improve the site, but now we regularly receive useful insight from Rackspace, which is incredibly valuable to us. Above all, using the Rackspace solution and Fanatical Support® that comes with it means that we don’t have to worry about website infrastructure maintenance anymore and can instead concentrate on what we do best — selling our products.”
Jeff Cotten, MD Rackspace International, comments: “We are proud to support a renowned brand like Oddbins through the holiday season into next year which will be a crucial stage of its development. Our Managed Cloud Services are making retailers feel more at ease during busy sales periods, by offering access to a team of experts who can field enquiries and monitor the website to maintain ongoing high performance.
“Specialist shops have huge competition from the big supermarket chains, which only increases the need for a reliable infrastructure so they can focus on new revenue opportunities. Looking forward, we are in discussions about progressing to a Hybrid Cloud next year which will continue to improve the shopping experience for the growing number of website visitors.”
Rackspace Dedicated Server Solutions offers a dedicated server, firewall and access to a high level of expertise. This includes managed backup and monitoring running alongside an industry-leading Managed SLA, which has a 100% Network Uptime guarantee.
About Rackspace
Rackspace® ( NYSE : RAX ) is the #1 managed cloud company. Its technical expertise and Fanatical Support® allow companies to tap the power of the cloud without the pain of hiring experts in dozens of complex technologies. Rackspace is also the leader in hybrid cloud, giving each company the best fit for its unique needs — whether on single- or multi-tenant servers, or a combination of those platforms. Rackspace is the founder of OpenStack®, the open-source operating system for the cloud. Headquartered in San Antonio, Rackspace serves more than 300,000 business customers from data centres on four continents. It ranks #29 on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For and #26 in the Sunday Times Best Companies. For more information, visit http://www.rackspace.co.uk/
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 operational results related to any particular customer or customers of our customers associated with our hosting solutions; any other statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include issues relating to the performance of a customer’s configuration caused by forces outside of the control of Rackspace; changes in the economy, technological and competitive factors, regulatory factors, and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, filed with the SEC on November 10, 2014. 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.
Rackspace
Peter Beck
442087344016
Peter.Beck@rackspace.co.uk
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