Posts Tagged by Rackspace Cloud
Data Storage is On Everyone’s Mind
| July 21, 2011 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology |
I published this infographic on the Rackspace blog yesterday. We received some really awesome statistics about data stored online from various whitepapers published. After reading through all the research, a few things came to mind:
1- If you’re looking for a field to jump into, data storage technology is the place to be
2- Companies aren’t necessarily responsible only for the data they generate, they’re partially liable for the data their employees, clients and partners generate as well
3- Today it’s exabytes, tomorrow it’s zettabytes
SwebApps Brings Tech & Talent To San Antonio
| January 25, 2010 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology, The Arts, Film, Music, Fashion, Why I like San Antonio |
One of the coolest things about working in my industry and doing what I do for the Rackspace Cloud is that I get to see all the innovative things people are doing on the Internet. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in America and since everyone needs a place to a host their website, I am fortunate enough to work with many of these passionate and talented people, including San Antonian, Magaly Chocano.
Back in August, I came across a TIME article titled “New Ways to Create iPhone Apps on the Cheap.” I had just purchased my iPhone so any iPhone app article interested me. The company was SwebApps. After reading through the article, I noticed that they were a San Antonio based startup. I was instantly proud that we had a tech start up right here in San Antonio. Then I thought, “I wonder where they are hosted?” Turns out they were a Rackspace Cloud customer. I invited Magaly, CEO and Founder of SwebApps, to the Rackspace Cloud office. What a treat! I had the opportunity to interview her and do a blog posting. Turns out, we knew many of the same people through various connections.
Just recently, she entered in our Super Bowl Contest and submitted an extremely cool video. Magaly is not only a successful businesswoman but a talented musician. The contest asked customers to submit a video on why they have the coolest business on the Rackspace Cloud and this is what we received from SwebApps:
Goodbye Weston Centre!
| December 4, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology, Why I like San Antonio |
There’s something about the Weston Centre in downtown San Antonio. Louis always waves to you as you enter the parking garage, Morris and H
ilton always greet you with your first name as you walk to the elevator and Bee from the café, Panache, always has a big smile on her face. It’s a warm and familiar place and doesn’t feel like your typical office building. In an upscale law office high rise, Rackers stand out like sore thumbs. In my 7 years of working for Rackspace / ServerBeach, my job has taken me back to the Weston Centre 3 times.
As a Racker, you learn to be a nomad. I started at Rackspace in the Broadway building for 3 months, moved to the Paragon building to work for ServerBeach for 6 months until we moved to join the rest of Rackspace at the Weston Centre. I remember literally rolling my desk chair with all my belongings down Pecan Street to the Weston Centre building. We worked at the Weston Centre until we outgrew the space. Rackspace moved headquarters while ServerBeach stayed at the Weston Centre. I left with Rackspace. After a year, I actually came back to the Weston Centre to work for ServerBeach again. ServerBeach finally outgrew the space and moved headquarters. After working for ServerBeach for 4 years, I returned to Rackspace but this time working for the Cloud Division. And guess where The Rackspace Cloud was living? That’s right, the Weston Centre.
Rackspace is moving headquarters to the refurbished Windsor Park Mall which we have renamed “The Castle.” The Rackspace Cloud’s last day at the Weston Centre is today. This time, I think my move away from the Weston Centre will be permanent. A Racker wrote this really kind email to The Rackspace Cloud staff with his thoughts on the move (I reposted to The Rackspace blog). I actually got teary eyed and that might be because I am an emotional person to begin with but nonetheless, it brought back memories. So what are my special memories from the Weston Centre?
1- This is the place where I met Jason, my husband. Sounds so cheesy but I do remember the first time meeting him.
2- I attended my first Rackspace holiday party at the Weston Centre. These were the days we’d always end up at Daven Port’s.
3- The days when you didn’t know what to eat and ended up at Lula’s
4- The fabulous Fiesta party the Weston Centre puts together for the River Parade
5- Panache bean and cheese tacos are the best!
6- Most recently, my long but fun walks to Starbucks with my marketing team
7- Morris & Hilton– The friendliest guys I have ever met. They are always laughing about something.
8- Rubbing shoulders with lawyers and feeling so under dressed.
9- Even though I never went to Bill Miller’s I feel like did go because every day at least 1 person picked up Bill Miller’s.
10- I can’t forget every weekend going out on the town and parking at the Weston Centre!
The Weston Centre is definitely a special place in San Antonio and will be missed!
Recap on TechCrunch50 2009
| September 21, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology |
I attended TechCrunch50 in San Francisco last week to represent The Rackspace Cloud. TechCrunch is a technology news website covering new technologies from start-ups and existing companies making an impact in the technology world. This is the third year they have put on an event where selected start up companies can come pitch their product idea to a panel of experts where the winner gets funding from a venture capital firm. This year, 50 companies were up and the prize was $50K – TechCrunch50.
My role there was to meet potential customers, after all, each of these start-ups need a place to host their website right? And the PR they receive from the event will increase their web traffic to amounts they might not have planned for. The other part of my role there was to meet existing customers and hopefully get a success story out of them. Although I didn’t have the opportunity to meet every customer, I did get to speak with LocalBacon, Ecycler, CrowdFlower and RedBeacon (winner of TechCrunch50). I also got a photo with guest panel expert, Chamillionaire himself.
In addition to the 50 presenters, TechCrunch has a Demopit where starts ups can have a table to do product demos. There were lots of interesting ideas out there. With the economy in the state that it is, it’s very inspiring and motivating to see these start-ups be bold and innovative.
Are these products going to change the way we do things? It’s hard to tell when a company is just starting off. Sarah Lacy of TechCrunch interviewed Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos and TechCrunch50 panel expert, and he had a comment for these start-ups, “Why aren’t you trying to change the world?,” and Lacy countered with, “To be fair, is selling shoes changing the world?” Good point. I’d say it doesn’t necessarily have to be an innovative product but the way it’s deployed has to be innovative. I think what makes Zappos a success is the technology they have in their warehouses to be able to select shoes and ship them quickly – which enables Zappos to deliver excellent service.
Although I didn’t capture every start up’s pitch, here’s a few where I like the concept and could potentially find useful in my personal life:
Udorse.com –You can tag your photos with the brands that are in the photos. If someone sees your photo and likes your shirt, they can click on the Udorse tag and it will take you to that brand’s website for purchase. They already have partnered with big brand names. I think this will be really cool for start up designers trying to get their names out there. You know how you read those Style magazines and in the sub title, the brand the celebrity is wearing is always quoted. Now you can see what real people are wearing via the web.
Ecycler.com – It’s almost like an eBay/Craigslist for recyclables. These guys want to help all those that don’t have curbside pick up but have a whole lot of recycables. It’s time consuming to try to find a place to take them. It’d be nice if they could be picked up right at your doorstep. If you’re like me, I actually do have curbside pickup but they don’t pick up everything. I can sign up on Ecycler and chances are, there is somebody that wants my recyclables.
Duffelup.com – Are you traveler? Do people ever ask you “Oh I am going to be traveling here, what did you do, where did you stay, where do you eat when you were there?” And then you have to go search your old emails and hopefully remember everything. Now, you can save all your travel itineraries on duffelup and share them with whomever you want. That’s convenience.
Kooaba.com – You can take a photo of an image (newspaper article, magazine article, an ad you saw somewhere) and upload to your Kooaba library for your reference. Why I like this idea? So I can take snapshots of only the magazine articles I want to read instead of stacking up on a big pile of magazines! Especially useful when I am traveling.
That’s a wrap.
Meet The Rackspace Cloud Marketing Team
| September 16, 2009 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology, Why I like San Antonio |
It’s been about 3 months into my new role at The Rackspace Cloud and as you can see it’s been over a month since my last post – the Cloud is definitely keeping me busy. My future posts will probably talk about what’s going on at the Cloud and it would help to start with what the heck am I doing for The Rackspace Cloud and who do I work so closely with.
I am honored to be a part of The Rackspace Cloud and especially honored to be a part of the marketing team. I work with some really awesome individuals and together I think we make a kick-ass team.
Todd Morey, Co-founder of The Rackspace Cloud (formerly Mosso): Todd is a busy guy (meeting clients, presenting at conferences, etc) but he still gets his hands dirty working on the design and branding of The Rackspace Cloud. He is definitely a visionary and when you ask him a question, he puts a lot of thought into it before answering. I would say he is a perfectionist (and a UT fan!)
James Lewis, Web Designer: James is the quiet one on the team. He doesn’t have much to say but when he does say something, it’s important or pretty funny. James does web design consulting on the side (http://j12designs.com/) and has designed websites for many popular local business in San Antonio, including: Rosario’s, Acenar, Silo’s, Republic Tequila, University of the Incarnate Word – check out full list here.
Krisana Puccio, Sr. Marketing Manager: Krisana is the go to person for all things PR and has her hands in all things marketing. She recently returned back from a 3 month maternity leave. She wasn’t sure if she was going to get back into the swing of things right away. Day 1 back was one week prior to our API release. She got all the material from Product and Development and the next week, we had a Press Release out about our API – the biggest launch in Rackspace Cloud history. (And she is fluent in Spanish!)
Shanon Montelongo, Events Manager: Shanon does lots of things! All I know is that we probably get about 4 different people a day into our office and it’s always a question for Shanon. Her main focus is planning our events – conferences, trade shows, webinars – and she orders all our branded materials. She is also very cut and dry. She was creating a customer newsletter one time and I told her that I wasn’t sure if I liked the newsletter title and she said “Do you have a better idea?” and I said “No.” Just like that – only give your opinion if you have a suggestion! (And she likes Salad)
Nicholas Longo: No Title – I don’t know Nick’s title but really, does he need one? He is founder of Coffee Cup software and Blue Domino hosting company. He is an entrepreneur and technology enthusiast. Nick was looking for a new adventure and thought the Cloud movement would be exciting. Blue Dominio was a client of Rackspace back in the early days so he is not new to Rackspace. He wants to be here and help The Rackspace Cloud gain brand recognition. Only rule with Nick – Never show up with a Starbucks coffee in hand without a coffee in the other hand for him. (Oh and check out his latest side project: http://virl.com/ – pretty cool!)
Jinkuk Nahidi, Sr. Web Developer: Jinkuk is well, Jinkuk. He is responsible for all the code behind our website, blog and all other Rackspace Cloud affiliated sites. He has a task list probably longer than any of us but he knocks them out like a blazing bullet. One thing about Jinkuk, if he asks you a question over IM or Email, right when you are about to reply back, he will be at your desk already with a pen and paper in hand. That’s just Jinkuk. (also a UT fan!)
Angela Bartels (that’s me!), Social Media Manager: The title says it all: I tweet all day. Ok, really? Yes, I manage The Rackspace Cloud blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts and anything social networking related. I am here to build our community doing customer success stories, sharing useful information, and promoting The Rackspace Cloud in non-traditional marketing communication channels. I am also watching over the pulse of our customer base through our NPS surveys. I just returned from TechCrunch50 and I will tell you all about it in my next post.
This is an exciting time for The Rackspace Cloud as we are a part of something that is changing the way we do things on the Internet. You’ve probably heard the buzz about Cloud Computing and maybe you haven’t. Doesn’t matter, bottom line is that the way websites are being hosted on the Internet is changing. And we are thrilled to be leading this movement. As our GM, Emil Sayegh, says: “We are part of a cause.”
Right now, our focus is on educating the masses about what cloud computing is and how they can use it to host their online presence. To do this, we are writing more content and most importantly, doing real use cases.
Although I am in the tech industry, many that read my blog might not be technical. That’s ok. All you need to know really is that we host websites. If your site goes down often or you’re paying too much in hosting fees, you should consider The Rackspace Cloud. Check out a list of clients on the Cloud here.
Biggest Projects right now: Redesigning the Website, SEO optimization, SXSW Event Planning.
My next post will be a recap of TechCrunch50 I attended this past week.
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