Results Show 74 percent of Companies Worldwide Consider
Sustainability as Key Element of Service Provider Selection; Gap is
narrow between U.S. and International Counterparts
SAN ANTONIO, Apr 27, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) --More organizations worldwide are building sustainability into their
service provider selection and purchasing processes, according to the
results from the 2012 Rackspace Green Survey, conducted by Rackspace(R)
Hosting (NYSE:RAX), the service leader in cloud computing.
Rackspace randomly selected 2000 customers, of which 232 responded. This
year, customers from 24 countries responded to the survey including
participants from the U.K., New Zealand, Australia and Brazil. When
questioned on the importance of sustainability versus cost, a margin of
only 8 percentage points separates responses from customers in the
United States from those in the other 23 countries: 72 percent of U.S.
respondents and 80 percent of international respondents say that
"greener is better."
Rackspace's findings point to an increasingly established trend to
embrace and include sustainability practices within the purchasing
process. When it comes to influencing purchasing decisions, 72 percent
of the U.S. respondents said they believe sustainability is important in
selecting a service provider as well as influencing a purchasing
decision. In the rest of the world, 91 percent, build sustainability
into their purchasing decisions on either a periodic or standard basis.
Countries outside the United States seem to put a greater emphasis on
weighting sustainability as part of purchasing decisions.
"Looking at this year's results, we are seeing a clear correlation
between service provider selection including a sustainability factor and
the weight sustainability has in the purchasing decision," said Melissa
Gray, Rackspace director of sustainability. "We see sustainability
expanding from a 'nice to have' to a 'need to have,' as companies
understand that selecting solid partners as part of their supply chain
translates into lower risk, more efficiency and more reward."
Adds Gray, "Rackspace views sustainability in a very holistic manner:
that decisions should factor benefit to people, pocket and planet. We
were happy to see that many of our customers also view it this way, with
more than 53 percent of respondents echoing this holistic view."
To see the full results of Rackspace's latest Green Survey in PDF form,
please follow this link.
About Rackspace
Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the service leader in cloud computing,
and a founder of OpenStack(R), an open source cloud operating system. The
San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support(R) to its customers
and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed
Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg
BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured
on Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was
also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the "2011
Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting." For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 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 relating to
expected or predicted behaviors of consumers and the impact of
sustainability on service provider decisions; any statements of
expectation or belief directly relating to Rackspace business derived
from the survey results; and any statements of assumptions underlying
any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include a
substantial margin of error in the survey results, inconsistencies in
respondent's understanding and Rackspace's analysis of survey questions
and results, the possibility that expected benefits from any shift in
consumer behavior may not materialize as expected; the achievement of
expected operational results from any shift in consumer behavior; and
other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's quarterly report
on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on February 17, 2012. Except as
required by law, Rackspace 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.
SOURCE: Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace
Public Relations
Rachel Ferry, 210-312-3732
Rachel.ferry@rackspace.com