Spiceworks integrates Rackspace Cloud Email services

Rackspace Hosting, a leader in hosting and cloud computing, has joined forces with Spiceworks to allow small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to manage their Rackspace e-mail hosting services through the free Spiceworks social IT management application.

The integrated systems simplify the jobs of SME IT professionals by allowing them to monitor and administrate Rackspace cloud e-mail services within the Spiceworks IT management interface, rather than launching a separate portal.

The relationship with Spiceworks allows Rackspace to extend the functionality and reach of its hosted e-mail services, including Rackspace Email, Microsoft Exchange or a hybrid of both, through the use of Rackspace's APIs that are available to customers and partners interested in integrating with the Rackspace cloud e-mail platform. For Spiceworks, the integration is part of an ongoing effort to provide SME IT professionals free management capabilities for their on-premise, cloud-based and hybrid IT infrastructures.

“Managing IT today means more than just taking care of the computers and software within the four walls of your company,” said Scott Abel, co-founder and CEO of Spiceworks. “Already, over 25% of SMEs rely on one or more cloud-based service to keep their organisations running, and that number keeps growing. By working with Rackspace, we're simplifying the jobs of IT professionals by giving them the ability to manage both their on-premise technologies and cloud-based services through a single integrated IT management application.”

Spiceworks will support the management of Rackspace's cloud e-mail services with the following key features:

* Email Usage - shows the current status of a company's Rackspace cloud e-mail services, including the top five e-mail users in the organisation, the status of available licences against used licences, and the number of BlackBerry and Active Sync accounts.
* Account Management - provides users with a full list of the domains they manage with Rackspace, including the total number of mailboxes per domain. In addition, resellers can access information on the customer mailbox accounts they manage with Rackspace.
* Email Account Monitors - provides alerts when an individual mailbox nears its capacity limit. For example, when free space is below 5% or when it's less than 50MB.
* Community - Rackspace cloud e-mail users will have the opportunity to collaborate within the Spiceworks social IT management application and community of 950 000 IT professionals who currently use Spiceworks to manage over 31 million e-mail accounts.

“Both Rackspace and Spiceworks are committed to creating the best experience for our customers and making IT simple and affordable for businesses,” said Jim Curry, VP of Corporate Development at Rackspace. “Through our relationship with Spiceworks, we'll provide a new avenue for nearly 1 million Spiceworks customers to integrate and manage the Rackspace cloud e-mail platform within their IT.”

Rackspace offers a full suite of cloud-based applications, including e-mail, collaboration and storage solutions. Rackspace hosts more than 1.6 million paid e-mail accounts through its e-mail platform that includes Rackspace Email, hosted Microsoft Exchange and a hybrid offering of the two services, all backed by Rackspace's 24x7 Fanatical Support.