Rackspace Hosts over 3 Million Daily Transactions with Vodafone M-PESA

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rackspace Hosting (NYSE:RAX), the world’s leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, today announced that it has been chosen by Vodafone to host and support the M-PESA platform.

“We’re excited to be working with Vodafone on this project and look forward to seeing how it develops across the world to support those people who currently do not have access to banks and in turn help them to become more economically active through the application of innovative technology.”

M-PESA is a platform designed to provide a fast, safe and easy way to transfer money from person to person and is a valuable service in emerging economies where there is little or no existing banking infrastructure outside the major cities. It is now available in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan and Fiji and boasts over 16 million customers.

Neil Dwyer, Vodafone’s Senior Operations Manager said: “Rackspace has a long history of being able to meet demand quickly and we are delighted to work with them in order to deliver this important and increasingly popular service. It is essential for us to work with a hosting company that can provide 24/7 support and comprehensive security. Rackspace has proven their ability to deliver and their rapid response times allow us to scale quickly and effectively to meet peaks in demand.”

Vodafone has recently announced plans to introduce M-PESA to other countries where the traditional banking infrastructure is low and mobile phone penetration is high.

Rackspace Managing Director David Kelly comments: “We’re excited to be working with Vodafone on this project and look forward to seeing how it develops across the world to support those people who currently do not have access to banks and in turn help them to become more economically active through the application of innovative technology.”

As part of the deal, Rackspace utilises satellite streaming technology to send and receive real time transaction data using clustered database servers. It also provides managed back-up and dedicated hosting of all application and web servers.

–ENDS –

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting is the world's leading specialist in hosting and cloud computing and has been ranked in Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past six years. Rackspace provides Fanatical Support ® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. For more information, visit www.rackspace.co.uk.

About Vodafone

Vodafone is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 347 million proportionate customers as at 30 June 2010. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and over 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com.

Forward Looking Statements

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 impact on our business operations related to a particular customer, 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 June 30, 2010, filed with the SEC on August 9, 2010. 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.