Rackspace Adds to Self Service Product Portfolio With Enhanced Firewall Control Panel

SAN ANTONIO--Rackspace® Hosting, a leading hosting services provider, today announced the release of its enhanced Firewall Control Panel (FWCP), yet another addition to its portfolio of self-service capabilities. The FWCP provides customers running a Rackspace managed firewall the ability to easily and efficiently control their environment’s security measures and configuration.

The FWCP will be available to US and EMEA customers through the MyRackspace customer portal, allowing them to monitor and change their existing firewall rules and add or delete permit rules.

“Rackspace is known for the service it provides all customers through Fanatical Support®, and this is just another way for Rackspace to exemplify this. Our customers have been asking for a more hands-on approach to managing their configuration settings, and this easy to use control panel is another step toward helping our customers become more self-sufficient,” said John Engates, chief technology officer, Rackspace Hosting.” Account teams will still be accessible 24/7/365, but with the Firewall Control Panel, customers may not need to call in certain situations; it is up to them. They can just login to their firewall and make the adjustments they see necessary. The Firewall Control Panel gives our customers more control over their environment’s security through self-service, offering greater efficiency in managing their firewall configurations.”

"I have been with Rackspace for a little over a year now and I can say that one of the main reasons I moved my infrastructure to Rackspace was the comprehensive security they provide. As a marketing agency that designs and develops highly interactive, dynamic and data driven web applications to a specific niche, security is paramount to our website and clients," said Dennis St. John, Sr. Applications Architect, Planned Marketing Solutions International. "With Rackspace's Firewall Control Panel, I have 24/7 access to my firewall configuration. This control provides me the flexibility to configure the exact access our design and development team needs with pinpoint precision and in real time, with the knowledge that I still have a team of experts from Rackspace to back me up when I need them."

The FWCP adds to an already robust portfolio of self-service applications Rackspace customers can take advantage of through their customer portal. Existing services include DNS configuration, administration of Rackspace managed mail accounts, and purchase and renewal of SSL certificates. For customers using Rackspace’s Dedicated Virtual Server solution, there are a number of self-service features available such as turning on and off virtual machines, management of snapshots and the ability to view real-time CPU, disk and memory of their hosted machines.

For more information on Rackspace’s Firewall Control Panel, please visit http://www.rackspace.com/solutions/security/firewalls.php.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting delivers hosted IT systems and computing to businesses of all sizes. Customers choose Rackspace for its hosting specialization and expertise, backed by the company’s award-winning Fanatical Support®. Customers can receive benefits such as higher quality, lower cost and better performance from Rackspace’s vast knowledge of industry best-practices. Because Rackspace removes the burden of IT systems maintenance and management, customers can focus on key areas that differentiate their business. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.mailtrust.com) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine’s 100 Best companies to work for, ranking number 32 on the 2008 list. For more information on Rackspace Hosting please visit www.rackspace.com or call 800-961-2888.